Canada Speaks
Presented by Sympatico / MSN

Toronto, ON -Toronto, ON - When given a choice, 15% of Canadians said they would rather have a root-canal at the dentist or be punched in the nose than head to the mall this holiday season, according to the latest Canada Speaks survey presented by Sympatico / MSN. In addition, 17% said they would rather spend a weekend with their in-laws and 12% would prefer to complete their income tax return or shave their head. The poll was conducted for Sympatico / MSN by Ipsos Reid.

With this in mind, 38% of on-line Canadians say they are planning on doing some of their holiday gift-buying on-line this year ( 32% say they will do "at least some of it" on-line, 4% say a "good portion of it", and 1% say "nearly all of it"); usually because on-line shopping offers "less hassle" (57%); "online deals" (54%), "no waiting in lines" (51%); and makes it "easier to comparison shop" (46%).

Many Canadians admit to having shopped on-line in their "pyjamas" (33%), "at work" (12%), and "in the nude" (9%). Others also admit to doing practical things when shopping on-line, such as comparing prices (57%), or researching gifts (44%).

The survey also reports that one-third of on-line Canadians (33%) admit that they have re-gifted a holiday gift in the past (meaning that they have received a gift from someone then passed it on to another person as a gift). And, interestingly, women (38% vs. 28% among men) and those with the highest income levels (37%) are the most common re-gifting culprits.

But the popularity of re-gifting should not necessarily be interpreted as indicative of gift-giving indifference, but rather it is probably often a reflection of the fact that four in ten Canadians (38%) would describe themselves as a "last minute scrambler" when it comes to their holiday shopping and thus many don't have the time to plan all of their gift-buying.

With Canada Speaks, Sympatico / MSN is listening to its readers' opinions in order to continue providing them with the information they care most about. Canada's most popular online destination with more than 19 million visitors per month, Sympatico.MSN.ca is the one online destination that provides the tools and information Canadian's need to connect with friends, family, and what's happening - in their community and around the world.

These are the findings of an Ipsos-Reid poll conducted from November 10th to 13th, 2006 via a regionally representative online Canadian sample of 1240 adult Canadians. For this sample, results can be considered accurate 95% of the time with a 2.8% margin of error, of what it would have been had this entire population been surveyed.