canadians posts

The recent news about Target moving into Canada was greeted with cheers from those who love the high-style, low-cost retailer. It's another U.S. store coming into the country, offering more choice for Canadian consumers.

While U.S. brick and mortar stores are slowly entering Canada (J.Crew is said to be investigating the market), Canadians are still shopping online - both at Canadian and foreign retailers. They're shopping at stores that don't have a brick and mortar presence and of course, to get the best deals.

When it comes to the Internet, Canadians are wired.

According to a Vancouver Sun article, Canadians Spend almost twice as much time online as the global average.

A study released today by comScore says Canadians continue to take top spot in online engagement, spending more time online than other Internet users around the world.

Social media sites saw a 13 per cent hike in 2010 over 2009, with Facebook leading with a seven per cent increase although the number of minutes the average user spent on Facebook every month dropped in the fourth quarter of 2010 by four per cent, compared to Q4 2009.

Canadians have begun to react to fears about record debt levels with household debt rising at its lowest rate in 15 years in November. But while growth has slowed significantly, it is yet to reverse the rising trend, meaning the record-breaking run of mounting debt continues.

The good news is that Canadians are starting to take better care of their finances. Benjamin Tal, deputy chief economist at CIBC, said household credit, once adjusted for inflation, rose by only 0.27 per cent in November. Meanwhile, data for the third quarter of last year showed that household credit rose at its slowest pace since 2001. The number of unpaid credit card bills has also stabilized at below one per cent.

Despite the improvement, Mr. Tal says there are still some concerning developments in Canada's debt situation.

CTV has released its list of the most popular television broadcasts for 2010, revealing the TV watching habits of Canadians.

So what is it we like to watch? Turns out it is sports, more sports, and a bit of celebrity. But what's missing from the list is just as telling. What don't Canadians like to watch?

Unfortunately, the answer is Canadian TV shows.

With the exception of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics which dominated the year -- even if it was just a one-off historical blip -- only four Canadian broadcasts in a list of 70 programs made it into CTV's list of most watched TV shows and events. No homegrown sitcoms made the list.

The two best performing Canadian broadcasts were both sports related. The Grey Cup garnered a respectable turnout of 5,027,200, making it the fourth most watched broadcast of the entire year (excluding the Olympics). Meanwhile, the IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship twice made it into the list of most watched sporting events for 2010 -- once for the gold medal game vs. the U.S., and also for the playoff against Switzerland. Even so, it came in behind the Superbowl showdown between New Orleans and Indianapolis with an audience of 6,297,400.