This is just a sampling of the wild, weird, and wonderful Canadian sites that are out there. For those of you in a hurry to see a list of the sites, click here. Or, try Daily Picks, a selection from our daily additions that stand out as noteworthy. As always, we welcome your comments and suggestions.

This week, we would like to take this opportunity to talk about being popular. Now, a lot of people out there will try to tell you that being honest or kind to other people is more important than being popular. To them, we can only offer this rebuttal: Nuh-uh! Being popular is very important because people will like you and want to do things for you. For instance, people may try to recruit you to head a major political party, just like some folks in Montreal are now trying to Draft Joe Clark to become the new federal Conservative leader. For those of you who don't remember those innocent times, Joe Clark was one of the heavyweights in the Conservative party -- he was even Prime Minister for nine months in 1979 -- before he retired from politics. Now, a small group of concerned citizens want him back to lead the Tories to victory. Check out their progress here, or add your thoughts to those already collected.

You say you don't remember Joe? Shame on you. His is only one of the more interesting stories in Canadian politics. And if you don't believe us, take a look at some Historic Moments in Canadian Politics. A photojournalist by the name of William Stratas has put together an attractive retrospective of his career, complete with text and photos of some of the more memorable moments in recent history. You can also listen to Stratas describe in his own words the stories-behind-the-stories of each photographic moment.

Okay, so not all of us can aspire to greatness through the art of politics. That doesn't mean we can't be popular. We don't know about you, but it's been our experience that having a job is a surefire way to be popular. After all, people with jobs have more money, better access to office supplies and a lot more reasons to be friendly on Fridays. And that is why we recommend The Canadian Career Page for anyone trying to be more popular. All in one convenient place, you can take a look at the latest job listings, check out the jobs pages for a number of corporations, branch off into other job-hunting sites and learn a few tricks of the job-hunting trade, like how to send an ASCII resumé.

But alas, money isn't everything, and the best job in the world won't win you points at the next MENSA mixer. Which brings up another good tip for people who want to become popular: Become wise and well read, so that you may entertain the masses with your vast intellect. The next time you're out at the nightclub, for example, introduce yourself to that really attractive person you've had your eye on by saying, "Hi there, my love for you is as deep as the Great Slave Lake, Canada's deepest lake with a depth of 614 metres." And you can thank the people behind Canada's Aquatic Environments for giving you that bit of information, and a whole lot more on Canada's waterways and the wildlife within. Or, if you're not in the mood to get all wet, try the National Parks section, which takes a breathtaking look at all of Canada's national parks. If this kind of knowledge doesn't make you more popular, we don't know what will.

And have you ever noticed how the people in soap operas never worry about being popular? True, they get buried in avalanches, abducted by evil twins and betray their families on a regular basis, but it never seems to affect their popularity. This reminds us of another important tip: To be popular, it doesn't matter what you do, as long as you look good doing it. And we have little doubt that the people behind Die-Nasty: Web of Deceit look good doing what they do best -- improvisational soap opera. Every Monday night, the players assemble at the New Varscona Theatre in Edmonton to bring us a new episode of Die-Nasty, and the trick is they make it up as they go along. One is tempted to say that this makes for better plots than most scripted soap operas, but that wouldn't be a popular thing to say.

But if you really want to be popular -- and we mean REALLY popular -- then you have to hang around people more popular than you. How can you tell who's popular? Well, for starters, people who sell a zillion record albums, sing Oscar-winning songs and are loved the world over by millions of fans are, let's face it, more popular than you. Unfortunately, people who fit that description are hard to come by, so we recommend hanging out with the fans of Celine Dion, eh? A fan of Ms. Dion has created a shrine to the Canadian chanteuse who's captured the hearts of millions with her angelic voice, her hauntingly beautiful eyes, her soft lips, her... um, where were we? Oh, right, the site. It comes with a whole bunch of pictures and facts about Celine, plus a lot of recordings of her songs that you can listen to.

Basically, what we're saying is you can be rich, you can be smart, you can become a great leader, or you can join a lot of other people who love someone as much as you do. There are so many ways to become popular, so just take your pick(s). Just, y'know, don't forget us when you do get really popular. For some strange reason, our Friday nights are wiiiiiide open...

Summary: The Canadian Picks

• Draft Joe Clark! - the best man to lead the federal Tories, or so this site says.
• Historic Moments in Canadian Politics - the stories behind the stories of recent history.
• Canadian Career Page - get a job!
• Canada's Aquatic Environments - "an interactive educational Web site to promote awareness of Canada's aquatic resources."
• Die-Nasty: Web of Deceit - Edmonton's completely live, all-improvised soap opera.
• Celine Dion, eh? - does your heart go on for Canada's most famous chantuese?