Canadians Googled the Census, Bieber in 2011

Bureaucrats and tweens, rejoice!

If the searches a country's citizens make on Google are any indication of the national character, then Canadians are dull and in love with Justin Bieber and hockey. (Which, to be fair, is actually... pretty accurate.) This week, Google released its annual year-end Zeitgeist list of the top searches in each country. As for the top Google News searches in Canada, the top five went to Japan (what with the earthquake and everything), then the Vancouver Canucks (what with the playoffs and riot and everything), then Libya (what with the war against the insane dictator thing), then Justin Bieber, and finally, the Blue Jays, which were a bit of a surprise. Also in the top 10 was Bieber beau Selena Gomez, who garnered slightly more searches than Jack Layton, who was searched more often than Stephen Harper. The top 10 fastest rising searches demonstrated Canada's more prosaic tendencies, as the 2011 census topped the list, the Canada Post strike hit No. 3, and the royal wedding nabbed the ninth spot. Rebecca Black is also in there somewhere.