Mom wanted to know what number of Canadians have passports. She asked me. How would I know? I'm the only one of the family that doesn't still live in Canada. "But you can look on the Internet"? Well, OK, I can try.

1. Type "canadian passport" into Google toolbar.
   
2. Click on first link that comes up for Canada's passport office. Select English.
   
3. Hmm, maybe the link to "In Brief" will tell me. At least there won't be much there to wade through.
   
4. Scroll to bottom. Oh -- there it is.

Well, my mom's faith was well-founded, I guess, because that took 2 minutes, longer than to type this post. Oh, the number of Canadians with passports? 8 million.