HINT: being near an ocean moderates temperatures -- think inland

Nuuk is (depending on the source) -1.4C,
Ulan Bator = -2.4C, both from climate-charts.com

( I did post before looking it up)

Ocean does moderate, but in the case of Nuuk it keeps it from going up much in summer.

Let's see what's in between.

Possibly my source didn't include Nuuk because it considered Greenland a Danish territory rather than an independent nation. It's been a while, and I didn't recheck. So, at least partial credit, donp. But keep trying, folks!

One google hit listed as "Coldest capital cities" in which it looks like the author browsed cities in http://www.worldclimate.com/ to find his bottom 5 list.

Nuuk isn't on that site at all, maybe because it's small (pop ~15,000) as independent country ( or capital) status doesn't figure in to cities being listed there.

At this point Greenland is about as politically independent of Denmark as Canada is from Britain.

hmm, oslo, helsinki or stockholm?

No, no, and no, Alli! And, donp, I agree with your political assessment, from what little I know -- but the list I consulted, years ago, didn't mention Nuuk, for whatever reason.

The city where I live is relatively tropical at 7C, but we are considered the banana belt of the state

If we are consulting lists, then I change my answer to Astana.

theresa

Theresa, you get credit too although you, too, got a different answer from the one I had in mind -- the list I saw says that Astana is probably #2 but the records aren't good enough to tell for sure!

Let's declare victory and withdraw. FYI,#3, or #2 on the list I recalled, is Moscow. If you look just at January average temperature, then Moscow gets edged out by Ottawa.

Last question in this category: The easternmost Canadian city of 50,000 people or more north of the 49th parallel (the border between Canada and the US in the west) is....? (Tough one, counts double!)

most of the maritimes are below the 49th, so quebec?