Canadians more spiritual

What’s in a name? In Canada, They don’t go for weird names like Joji, Tingting, Bongbong, Boying, Girlie, Peachy, Boyet, Chochit, Lolit etc, etc. According to a Canadian data bank, Ethan and Emma are currently the most popular names chosen by B.C. parents for newborns. Ethan has been a popular name for the past three years while Emma for the second year in a row. Other popular top boys’ names are Jacob, Matthew, Ryan, Joshua, Nathan and Benjamin. Meanwhile, when it is not Emma for girls, it is Emily, Hannah, Olivia, Madison, Sarah, Jessica and Ella.

Alberta is the envy of the other Canadian Provinces. That’s because Alberta became Canada’s only debt-free province. It also had the distinction of having the second-largest budget surplus in the province’s history.

Ontario is also about to make legal history. The province is set to introduce new legislation that will make birth and adoption records easily and automatically accessible to birth parents and adult adoptees who want to discover their past. The law when implemented will make the province’s adoption disclosure regime one of the most open in the world. It will allow adoptees over the age of 18 the automatic right to obtain copies of their original birth and adoption records including their original name and in many cases the identities of their birth parents.

But to protect those who want no reminders of the past, the proposed law will also give both birth parents and adult adoptees the right to place a "no-contact" notice in their files.

Canadians are generally known to be more spiritual than religious. The death of Pope John Paul II made me aware that 44 percent of all Canadians are Catholic. The reason for this is that the early settlers are from heavily Catholic countries such as Ireland, Poland and France.

Here’s the percentage of population that is Catholic: B.C.-18 percent, Alberta-28 percent, Sask-32 percent, Manitoba-29 percent, Ontario-35 percent, Quebec-83 percent, N.B.-54 percent, Nova Scotia-37 percent, Prince Edward Island-47 percent, Newfoundland-37 percent.

After the Roman Catholic, the other leading denominations are Protestants, other Christian, Muslim, Christian Orthodox. British Columbia is only 18 percent Catholic because it received most of its immigrants from less-Catholic places like the United States and England but that has changed in the past few years as more Catholics from Asia immigrate to the province. B.C. is no longer a frontier province but it continues to have a highly transient culture. Two-thirds of the residents of B.C. were born in either another province or another country.

A new Statistics Canada survey indicated change in the TV viewing habits of Canadians. Though the average hours a week of television viewing did not change much (about 22 hours per person), what changed was which ago groups were spending the most time in front of TV. Young adults, teens and children are watching less TV while the grandparents are more attuned to TV entertainment. The survey showed that Canadians aged 60 or more watched at least 33 hours of TV a week, compared with fewer than 15 hours for those under 18 years. Young men (18 to 24) and young women in the same age group cut their viewing hours by two hours.

The Internet was named the primary reason for the decline in TV viewing among the younger set. And that women more than 60 years of age are keener on TV than their male counterparts. Overall, Quebecers and Nova Scotians topped viewers in the rest of Canada at almost 24 hours a week. Albertans are said to have the lowest viewing time.

MacDonald’s Canada is encouraging healthy decisions by increasing menu choice like the recently introduced "healthier deli-style" sandwiches and providing nutritional education and promoting physical activity. It will also introduce a new salad with fruits and walnuts later this month. MacDonald’s Canada was forced to make menu innovations as Canadians get more health conscious with disciplined personal lifestyle goals. MacDonald’s has 1,300 restaurants in Canada, employs 77,000 nationally and earned C$2.5 billion revenue last year.

Also in the marketplace is the new "adidas 1", the world’s first computerized smart shoe which was invented and co-developed by a Vancouver sportsman. The said running shoes is being sold for C$350, a high price to pay for the microprocessor in the heel.