What’s the secret?

Canadians are known for their charitable deeds, fund-raising activities and firm belief in fairness and tolerance. Canadians are also generally known to be happier and satisfied with life when compared to consumer-oriented Americans. What’s the secret?

It could be what current researchers label as "helper’s high." As good Samaritans, Canadians lead a slower-paced lifestyle, healthier and longer lives. A new science that explores the influence of positive behavior on health proposed an explanation — "Good deeds are good medicine," even suggesting that the "high" can give the immune system a boost, speedy recovery from surgery and reduce insomnia.

Here are some fascinating statistical portrait of Canadians and living in Canada:

• 15 percent of men and 30 percent of women would forgo a wedding reception and use the money as a down payment on a house.

• 16 percent of divorced Canadians consider the financial impact of their split more difficult than the emotional one. But 10 percent says it was better to have loved and lost then never to have loved at all.

• 18 percent of brides keep their birth names after marriage while 15 percent hyphenate and 67 percent take their husband’s name.

• 20 percent of Canadians say they bathe at bedtime to relieve stress.

• 34 percent of Canadians expect to live longer than their parents.

• 35 percent of Canadians report using a CD burner to record music in the previous six months.

• 41 percent of Canadians expend the energy equivalent of walking for an hour daily during their leisure time.

• 61 percent of Canadians say they would give up sex for a week for the chance to win a new car.

• 64 percent of Canadians believe in God, but only 23 percent go to church regularly.

• 74 percent of Canadians say Ottawa was right not to join the US-led coalition in Iraq.

• 80 percent of Canadians believe that women are better at seduction, perhaps because just 15 percent consider money seductive.

Vancouver Art Gallery’s biggest and most profitable success is Bruce Mau’s "Massive Change: The Future of Global Design" exhibition. Mau is president and creative director of Bruce Mau Design. Born in Ontario, Mau gained international recognition for innovative multidisciplinary work. One high-profile project was the re-branding of the Canadian clothing manufacturer Roots.

Massive Change is an exhibition that should be seen by everyone and hopefully it will eventually travel to Asia. The concepts of the exhibit take on large issues and the difficult ethic and economic decisions of the world today. It is a celebration of the human capacity to change the world, and a call to recognize both the power and possibility of design on a global scale.

The exhibition was a major departure for the gallery because it was a show about design rather than art. It was not about a particular artist or individual and it was the biggest exhibition mounted by the 73-year old gallery. Plus, the objects of the exhibition were designed and created by scientists, engineers and designers.

Some of the highlights included:

A Twike, an electric and human-powered vehicle, the Mirra chair (an ergonomic chair that is environmentally friendly because of its cradle-to-cradle life cycle), an image of the ozone hole (and hundreds of things invisible to the naked eye), introducing new commercial photography, a wheelchair that climbs stairs, and various examples of human ingenuity that protect our environment. Overall, it will engage visitors/viewers of all ages in analysis, synthesis and critical thinking on how to further save our environment.

You can catch the traveling exhibit in March at the Art Gallery of Ontario and then to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago in 2006.

British Columbia was cited as the national leader in the crusade against tobacco usage. Only 16 percent of adults in B.C. smoked cigarettes regularly, compared to a national average of 21 percent. Quebec is the highest where 25 percent of the population smokes daily. Thankfully, residents of B.C. were least likely to be exposed to second-hand smoke, compared to a high 34.4 percent in Quebec.