Amount that an Ontario Superior Court judge ordered a company to pay an employee after she drank too much at the open bar during the company Christmas party and was subsequently injured while driving home: $300 000
Number of Canadians charged with impaired driving in 1999: 72 834
Number of Canadians charged with impaired driving in 2000: 69 192
Decrease in skiing during the 2000 winter season in Canada: 4%
Increase in snowboarding during the same period: 21%
Injury rate for skiing and snowboarding: 3 to 4 injuries per 1000 exposures
Proportion of skiing injuries that involve fractures: 15%
Proportion of snowboarding injuries that involve fractures: 38%
Proportion of Canadians aged 18 and older who were considered insufficiently active for optimal health benefits in 1999: 64%
In 1981: 79%
Proportion of Canadian children and youth not active enough for optimal growth and development in 2000: 54%
Proportion of Canadians who believe youth crime is on the rise: 71%
Decrease in the number of youths charged with a Criminal Code offence in 1999: 7%
Temperature at which the rubber compound in all-season tires may cause them to lose their grip as the tires harden in the cold: -10 C
Proportion of Canadians who say that they are watching “somewhat” or “much” less TV than 5 years ago: 53%
Total online spending by Canadians in 1999: $1.65 billion
Total online spending by Canadians in 2000: $4.3 billion
Proportion of online purchasers whose most recent purchase was from a Canadian site: 62%
Size of the largest snowflake ever recorded: 10 cm
Speed of a falling flake of snow: 3.5 to 6 km per hour
Speed at which avalanches travel: 330 km per hour
Amount of ice dumped into the Arctic Ocean each year when glaciers reach the ocean coast: 1 trillion tonnes
Depth of ice with which the Earth would be covered if all the ice in Greenland were spread evenly across it: 5.18 m
Estimated number of ads that North Americans see every day: 3000
Population of Canada Geese in 1965: 1.5 million
In 2001: more than 5 million
Estimated number of Canadian snowbirds who spend at least 30 days of the winter season in the US: 458 000
Number of Canadian telephone listings for people with the surname Claus: 174
With the surname Santa: 68
With the name S. Claus: 3
Number of books with the word “winter” in the title listed on Amazon.com: 5316
Number of items with the word “winter” in the description listed on eBay, Nov. 2, 2001: 62 778
Proportion of Canadians who are embarrassed by the lack of knowledge that Canadians have about their history: 76%
Proportion of Canadians who think Canadian history is boring: 25%
Proportion of Canadian Internet users who say they couldn't live without their email: 52%
Proportion of Canadian Internet users who say they dread going on vacation or taking days off because of the amount of email they will have to respond to when they return: 42%
Number of pages in Volume 1, Issue 1, CMAJ, January 1911: 100
In Volume 164, Issue 1, Jan. 9, 2001: 160
In CMAJ's largest issue in first 90 years, Volume 146, Issue 6, Mar. 15, 1992: 340
These data were compiled by Shelley Martin, physician survey analyst with the CMA's Research Directorate.