1. Canadian federal-provincial relations are conducted jointly between each province's Ministry of Intergovernmental Affairs and its Federal counterpart to administrate several issues including intergovernmental funding, protocols and media coordination.

2. Current trends in Canadian ethnic diversity and cross-culturalism have made us aware of the distinction between enculturation, the tranmission of values and social norms from one generation to the next, and acculturation, the adoption of practices or beliefs from other cultures.

3. Many companies now engage in the practice of "data mining" wherein researchers sift through an enormous volume of data about our shopping habits, brand preferences and purchasing frequency in order to develop more accurate profiles of potential customers and target markets.

4. Truancy, involvement rates, grafitti, violence and drop-out rates are some of the many issues that Canadian schools are reviewing in an attempt to improve education systems nation-wide.

5. In our Canadian political system, our elected representatives are governed by strict conflict-of-interest guidelines that restrict them from involvement in matters outside their jurisdiction, from direct financial involvement in many business dealings and from accepting gifts beyond a certain monetary value.

6. Many Canadian companies and institutions adopt policies that reflect affirmative action in an effort to promote fairness and equity for everyone despite arguments that such policies merely reflect a different form of discrimination.

7. Journalistic integrity is sometimes perceived as arrogance on the part of journalists who withhold information in an attempt to maintain trust among their sources while trying to balance the public's right to know what it considers pertinent facts.

8. The Canadian dollar must be carefully regulated so that its value as our national currency is not eroded by the impact of inflation as a result of a fixed exchange rate with currencies in other countries.

9. In dealing with possible climate change, policymakers, stakeholders, and the public have to confront competing economic interests, significant political change, and such difficult issues as intergenerational equity, international competition, national sovereignty, and the role (and competence) of international institutions.

10. It can clearly be seen that the most important aspects of effective implementation of benchmarking projects are adequate planning, training, and open interdepartmental communication, and these factors are ranked among all the critical success factors for benchmarking projects.