Thursday, December 19, 2002
Concerning Canadians' curiosity - THE COMMENTARY
By Joseph Planta
VANCOUVER – Before the main Commentary this morning, some thoughts on the passing of The Right Honourable Ramon John Hnatyshyn, P.C., C.C., C.M.M., C.D., Q.C. Ray Hnatyshyn was Canada's 24th Governor General and served this nation with dedication, distinction and good humour. Appointed to the vice-regal office in 1990, Hnatyshyn had been a cabinet minister in the short-lived Joe Clark government in 1979, as well as in Brian Mulroney's government when they took office in 1984. He was defeated in the 1988 election. Then prime minister Mulroney appointed him Governor General, once Mme. Sauve's term was up. He brought candour and access to the stately gates of Rideau Hall. He championed the arts and was a credit to his office.
I looked through my files yesterday for the letter I got from his office at the law firm, Gowling Lafleur Henderson in Ottawa, where he practised law after leaving public life in 1995. He had sent along a copy of his biography, signed. It was very kind of him to do that at the time, and now with his passing, it's comforting to know that a man of his devotion to Canada, served in so high an office. Mr. Hnatyshyn was 68.
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At this time of the year, looking back at the previous calender year warrants some looking into. The feature writers at newspapers like to put together year-in-review packages, culling tid bits and stories from the year that was. This kind of looking back is not restricted to those filling up valued newspaper space. No, public relations departments at certain firms are putting out their own year-in-review lists in the hope of gaining some undue publicity. Ditto the flacks over at Sympatico.ca, who in my mailbox yesterday morning deposited the following news release. Titled: "Sympatico.ca: Top 10 Searches for 2002 Reflect Canadians' Curiosity." Marked on the wires ‘Attention News/Entertainment/Technology Editors', it's really one of those beneficial fluff pieces to run on a slow news day.
It is an interesting list. Sympatico.ca is trying its best in being the top search engine for Canadians. I, myself, don't use that website preferring to use Google, or for news, Canada.com. Sympatico is part of the media conglomerate owned by Bell Canada. (Who yesterday, by happenstance, announced the cutting of some 2,000 jobs in an attempt to restructure.) The synergy of convergence is alive and well at BCE, as Sympatico is a web portal that links TSN.ca, CTV.ca, and the other media outlets owned or controlled by CTV. (The slashing, yesterday, is the beginning of a massive re-jig at BCE. It seems all this convergence wasn't a good idea as the bottom line there is haemorrhaging fast.) Interestingly enough, Canada.com is the CanWest Global company's attempt to link up all of their Asper owned media outlets: the National Post, the Sun and Province here, and of course, Global Television.
The list is interesting. It's clearly a Canadian list of searches that got Canadians logged on to Sympatico.ca this past year. Some five million Canadians per month, so they say. The search that wound up in the number ten spot was: Hepatitis A. It's placement on the list makes it obvious that most of the five million visits the site gets, are from the Central Canada area. In August of this year, grocery shoppers in the Greater Toronto area needed to get Hep A shots lest they'd be infected by the disease. "Concerned consumers went on-line in search of vaccination clinics and symptoms," reads the press release, thus it ranked on the Sympatico list. Clearly, the Internet is good in that it regard. Information, heretofore restricted in libraries and the sort, now available at the click of a mouse. However, when scares like this Hep A thing come up, it's enough to stir up mass hysteria. I can only suppose that's what has happened, considering it made the list.
The odd thing about this cull is that it doesn't say how many hits these things got. All it does is rank them, thus at number nine is the whole American Idol/Kelly Clarkson mess, which got more searches than Hepatitis A deal. Number eight was September 11th, as people were on the site looking up info on those terrorist attacks of over a year ago.
Interestingly enough, Best Buy ranked number seven. Again, it symbolises the fact Sympatico.ca is a portal largely surfed in Central Canada. The American electronics boutique finally opened stores in Greater Toronto. Guess what, folks were looking it up on the ‘Net.
The Norwalk Virus garnered a lot of hits, as it came in sixth. Like the Hep A mess, here's an example of the best and worst of everything Internet. Number five was the hockey tandem of Don Cherry and Ron Maclean. When Maclean was let go and subsequently re-upped at the CBC, people were interested in the high stakes negotiations at Canada's landmark sports broadcast.
Hey, at least the Pope beat out Don Cherry. The Pope's visit to Toronto for World Youth Day earned more hits than the mess at the CBC, coming in fourth. However, the Pope couldn't beat World Cup soccer. The third most searched item in 2002, was the 2002 World Cup. Second were the Olympic Games at Salt Lake. I guess the skating controversy added to the intrigue on the Internet.
The number one most searched item on the Internet in Canada in 2002? The Lotto Super 7. Yup, in that week in May, when the jackpot was a whopping $37-million loonies, Canadians went on the Internet en masse to get the winning numbers. You'll recall that the numbers didn't get released until well into late evening, past the 11 p.m. news in Ontario. So, Canadians went to Sympatico.ca in search of the winning digits. What an interesting country, eh?
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An archive of Joseph Planta's previous columns can be found by clicking HERE .