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This article focuses on the number of Canadians who are fans of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (Nascar). Mucker Chambers from Saint John, N.B., made the 12-hour pilgrimage to the Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pa. With the start of the race less than 12 hours away, there didn't seem much point in sleeping. Up went their Canadian flag. It would be "awesome" if NASCAR came to Canada, Chambers says. "I mean these guys take our hockey players, right? Why not bring the racing to us?" A lot of Canadian NASCAR fans have the same thing on their minds, wondering when the continent's premier stock-car racers will head north. Because right now NASCAR, firing on all cylinders, wants to grow the Canadian market. Landing a Nextel Cup event, NASCAR's premier series, is a long shot. But the Busch Series, the No. 2 circuit in the U.S., is looking a lot more promising. NASCAR oversees three national series: Nextel, Busch and another called Craftsman, for trucks. In March, Busch staged a race in Mexico City, the first NASCAR-sanctioned contest outside the United States that counted toward its driver championship. "I don't know why the hell we don't race in Canada," says Rusty Wallace, the veteran Nextel driver for the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge. "We're already at Michigan International Speedway." So, in Canada by when? "Oh boy," sighs Robbie Weiss, NASCAR's Los Angeles–based managing director of international operations. "Hard to say. You'd like to think by 2007." NASCAR's Nextel Cup calendar is packed, though, and Canada's window of opportunity, because of the weather, is tight: only June, July and August. In Canada, NASCAR is the No. 1 televised motorsport. This year's Daytona 500, the Super Bowl of stock-car racing, drew an average of 506,000 viewers per minute on The Sports Network, more than double the 240,000 who watched when TSN last televised the contest two years ago.

Highlights several Canadian people and things worth celebrating in light of Canada Day. Popularity enjoyed by junior hockey after the National Hockey League ended its 2004-05 season; Recommendation to visit the Canadian War Museum as part of celebrating Canada Day; Decrease in the value of the Canadian dollar known as the "Loonie"; Estimated number of whooping cranes world wide, noting some of the endangered species were hatched at the Calgary Zoo using artificial insemination; Canadian actresses that can be seen on prime time television in America; Statistics indicating the success of Tim Hortons' coffee shops; Level of foreign aid from Canada to the region affected by 2004's Indian Ocean tsunami; Details of the breakthrough's at Canada's National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg related to the treatment of Ebola and Marburg viruses; Appreciation of the book "Three Day Road," by Joseph Boyden; Assessment of the bipartisanship in the Canadian government; Appreciation for behavioral neuroscientist Brenda Milner.

This article describes the pressures faced by family physicians in Canada. After your spouse and perhaps a close friend or two, your next most intimate relationship could easily be with your family doctor. A survey by "Maclean's" in partnership with "The Medical Post" reveals a vast chasm between doctors' attitudes toward themselves and their jobs, and their patients' understanding of them. By telephone, we quizzed 1,000 patients nationally on what they thought of family doctors and the care they're getting. Four out of five family docs feel their status has diminished over the past decade. While money clearly is at the root of a lot of doctor dissatisfaction, patients have a decidedly different take on that issue. And four out of five say their ability to see patients in a timely fashion has worsened over the past decade.

Presents the results of a national survey of health problems in Canada. Rates of mental illness; Rise in asthma, high blood pressure, diabetes and arthritis; Epidemic levels of obesity; Incidence of pain and discomfort; Alcohol consumption; Number of Canadians who rated their health as excellent or very good; Increase in life expectancy; Possibility that life expectancies may begin to decline after decades of improving health care; Money that Canadian are willing to spend for their health; Air quality; Life expectancies for rich people.

This is an article that focuses on the baby boomer generation and how they may deal with old age, which could leave them in nursing homes and assisted living facilities.Despite a Richard Simmons-like zeal for physical perfection, baby boomers are going to--horror of horrors--die. But what may be worse for them is that, before they do, crumbling bodies or failing minds will betray a significant number, landing them in institutionalized long-term care. Despite its considerable impact on consumerism, politics, pop culture--just about everything, really--the boom doesn't seem to handle death all that well. Patricia Raymaker, who stepped down as the chairperson of Health Canada's National Advisory Council on Aging (NACA) in August, wonders whether baby boomers will rally to the cause of seeing to their own humane demise.

This article presents observations of a group of Canadian army reservists on a weekend training exercise. There's nothing quite like the deafening rat-tat-tat bursts of machine-gun fire to focus your attention. Kris Karpinski had ordered his men--and three women--to hold their fire until he started the ambush with a burst from his own rifle. Today there are more reservists serving Canada overseas than at any time since the Korean War: 276 in Bosnia, 119 in Afghanistan, and a handful in missions in places like Sierra Leone and Congo. The training exercise began on a Friday evening, with about 30 infantry members assembled at the Moss Park Armoury in downtown Toronto, home to the 48th Highlanders. Raymond Morrell, 28, seated on the floor in the armoury's parade hall, looked up from a ration serving, or individual meal packet in army bafflegab, and tried to explain what he was doing. The practice mission required the platoon to attack an observation post, then move on to the bridge The platoon spotted an enemy truck, but seemed to be intent on creeping off into the woods away from the vehicle. I decided, inexplicably, it would be all right to wander over and fraternize with the enemy. The next thing I knew I was under attack.

This article focuses on the study of astronomy in Canada. Canadians are masters of the universe. Sure, the U.S. leads the world in spending on space research, laying out roughly US $7 per American each year, while Britain, France and Germany budget between US $4 and US $5 for every citizen. Canada spends just US$1 per capita, less even than Australia. Yet by one important measure -- the confidence of their peers -- Canadian astronomers produce some of the best astrophysical science on the planet. Thomson Scientific, a Philadelphia-based information clearing house, reported Canadian scientists published 4,836 research papers on space in the past decade. Those studies in turn were referenced 76,921 times in other scientific papers, for an average citation rate of 15.91. If one were to list Canada's 150 most cited scientists from the many different fields of study, about 15 would be astronomers, say Jaymie Matthews, associate professor of astronomy at the University of British Columbia. William Harris, a frequently cited astronomer at McMaster University in Hamilton, likens the Canadian success to a talented student making a movie with next to no money. The young director is forced to be innovative. Lack of funding has forced scientists to pick their projects wisely, observes Ray Carlberg, an astrophysics professor at the University of Toronto. Last year's most quoted paper -- cited 1,058 times -- mapped the radiological afterglow of the big bang, in the process helping confirm theories of how the universe came to be. What Canada lacked until only recently was the ability to make observations from space. That changed with MOST, a suitcase-sized, $10-million rocket-borne telescope that was blasted into space in 2003. Backed by the Canadian Space Agency, MOST has already outlived its life expectancy and has another two, maybe three years to go, says Matthews, the project's mission scientist.

The article reports on surprising popularity of ice hockey in the sunny U.S. state of California. The game Canada exported to the south is undeniably popular. There are 34 million inhabitants in California, including as many as one million Canadians. This Canuck contingent is a significant source of hockey fans, rec-league warriors, and parents who want to sign up kids to play a game that brings back memories of home. Their deep-rooted enthusiasm for hockey rubs off on Americans in a state better known for tan lines than blue lines, and where in so many ways, really, hockey has no business being. And yet, the game thrives. California's three National Hockey League teams are doing relatively well at the box office. The game's current success in the state likely would not have been possible without Brantford, Ont.'s No. 99. "You talk to absolutely anybody, and everyone will tell you the exact same thing," says Cassar emphatically. "Hockey? No one even knew what it was till Wayne Gretzky came to town." [Actor Kiefer] Sutherland and [Television producer Jon] Cassar are great ambassadors for the game. Sutherland does promotional TV spots for the NHL. Cassar is so enthusiastic he keeps a stick and tennis ball in his office (Sutherland borrowed Cassar's stick when the TV crew that shot a recent NHL promo showed up without one).

Long waiting times, it seems, have become a defining element of the Canadian heath-care system. And nowhere is it worse than in orthopaedic surgery. According to a report released by the Vancouver-based Fraser Institute last month, there was a backlog of 130,000 Canadians stacked up for hip or knee replacements and other orthopaedic procedures last year, up 21 per cent from 2000. Patients wait an average of eight months for their operation, adds Dr. Robert Hollinshead, president of the Canadian Orthopaedic Association. Cutting wait times would make a profound difference to the many Canadian patients and their families who struggle with protracted pain. But Ottawa and the provinces find themselves in a bind because of forced reductions in medical school enrolment, cost cuts that removed hospital beds, and a shortage of surgeons in small urban centres. Hollinshead wants benchmarks set to define maximum wait times. The notion has well-placed proponents, including Michael Decter, chairman of the Canadian Institute for Health Information and a leading candidate to head the new national health council.

Reports on laser eye surgery in Canada that is being used to correct nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism. Estimated number of Canadians that have undergone the procedure; Serious complications that could occur; Description of the two main types of laser eye surgery.

This article discusses how white seals are still being killed in Canada, despite the fact that their images are used in fundraising campaigns to stop such violence. In the fight for animal rights, the image is iconic: a sealer on a bobbing ice floe swings his club at the skull of a snowy-white pup, the blow sickeningly punctuated by a crimson splatter. The howls of protest that image evoked killed the commercial market for seal pelts in the early 1980s. In 1987, Canada acquiesced to European pressure and made the slaughter of the doe-eyed whitecoats illegal. Despite that ban, anti-sealing groups like the Humane Society of the United States, the International Fund for Animal Welfare and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society continue to exploit the image of the photogenic whitecoat in fundraising campaigns. Canadians still do kill baby seals. Harp seals shed their fluffy white fur about two weeks after birth -- and with it goes their protection from sealers. Opponents argue that the hunt, which began in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and continues off the coast of Newfoundland, remains barbaric no matter which photo is used.

Presents an interview with Father John Walsh, a Roman Catholic priest at St. John Brébeuf, the church that Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin attends. His definition of marriage; How this definition applies to same-sex couples; Way that legalizing same-sex marriage changes things for the Catholic Church; Thoughts on the issue of gay marriage in Canada.

This is an interview with geneticist David Suzuki. David Suzuki was there to explain to Canadians the grand ambitions of the early space program and our Anik satellites. He helped us understand the first test-tube baby and advancing technology. Nuclear energy, genetic engineering, global warming--Suzuki walked us through it all. Marking 25 years as host of the CBC's The Nature of Things this season, the 68-year-old geneticist is Canada's best-known science journalist and advocate for the environment. By then I was a hippie, had long hair, a headband, granny glasses, and I wore these flamboyant shirts and bell-bottoms.

This is an article that profiles Garth Taylor, an eye doctor in Canada.Taylor employs such humour, mixed with compassion and expertise, in his practice in Cornwall, Ont., where he lives and is chief of ophthalmology at the city's general hospital. Ordinarily, respect as a university professor and standing as a hospital department head are accomplishment enough, but Taylor has distinguished himself as well with Orbis International, an aid agency dedicated to saving sight among the poor. Once, in mid-'80s South Africa, a white man balked at having Taylor operate on his son because of Taylor's skin colour. Taylor, who is married with two grown children, was born in the Year of the Monkey.

This is an article that discusses the development of a plan to treat stroke victims in Ontario, Canada. Ontario plans to have nine regional centres providing dedicated stroke care unlike anything else in Canada. When that happens, Hamilton paramedic Steve Dewar's job will be even more crucial than it already is. If he can get there within two hours of a stroke's onset, doctors will have just enough time for a powerful clot-busting drug, something not every hospital has the expertise to administer and monitor. The province is also planning prevention clinics to ensure high-risk patients such as diabetics, smokers and the elderly are seen promptly by a specialist and receive all the right artery-checking tests. Plus it wants to group stroke patients together in specific hospitals to improve the quality of care.