Canada is the sixth largest market for recorded music in the world, so it is not surprising that our musicians are seen and heard all over the globe. Then there are Canadian movies, which win at Cannes and take home Oscars, and our books, translated into a multitude of languages and sharing Canadian thoughts and settings with readers everywhere.

• Albums recorded by British Columbia-born Nelly Furtado have gone gold in at least 10 countries, including India, Singapore and Venezuela, and have gone platinum in Mexico, Portugal and Switzerland.

• Alanis Morissette fans meet online the fourth Saturday of every month to discuss her music. This e-connection can happen in more than 650 cities worldwide on the same day.

• Canadian film and TV exports are worth almost $2.5 billion annually, and about 60 percent of Hollywood's special-effects software is developed in Canada.

• Canada's Alliance Atlantis is the world's twelfth largest film and TV distribution company, delivering entertainment to more than 200 countries. On the home front, Toronto ranks third in film and TV production in North America, and foreign-location production in Canada is worth about $1.9 billion annually.

• Margaret Atwood is Canada's most-translated author, with works published in more than 20 languages. The Blind Assassin can be read in Bengali and Farsi, among many others. The flip side comes from Rohinton Mistry, whose tales from India are written in Canada.

• In 1991, Vancouver writer Douglas Coupland coined the term "Generation X," in the title of his first novel, Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture. It was an overnight success and translations are available in 24 languages.

• Calgary-born Todd McFarlane wrote a Spider-Man edition for Marvel Comics in 1990 which sold more than 2.5 million copies. He then released Spawn to a waiting world. The first issue became the best-selling independent comic of all time.

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