For English Canadian Web surfers, there’s no place like home. Particularly when it comes to shopping, banking and staying on top of the news.

That’s the conclusion of the latest report from digital media measurement firm Media Metrix Canada.

For the first time, the report has broken down its audience ratings by category, providing figures on Canadian Web usage in 27 vertical-interest categories, including retail, business/finance, news/information, and careers.

The report found that while Amazon.com might be the most popular retail site among Canadian Web surfers, homegrown sites ColumbiaHouseCanada.com, Chapters.ca and Sears.ca placed a respectable second, third and fifth in their class.

Similarly, RoyalBank.com, CanadaTrust.com, TDBank.ca, CIBC.com and Scotiabank.ca took the top five spots in the business/finance category, reaching a total of 36.4% of all unique visitors.

Brent Bernie, president of Media Metrix Canada, says the new category breakdowns were added to allow sites to see where they stand against their direct competitors.

The report also evaluated for the first time the "stickiness" of various kinds of sites, ranking them by the average number of minutes visitors spent there. Auction sites led the pack at 19.9 minutes per person per day.

Bernie says additional features will be introduced in subsequent reports, including a French-language sample to be released in June and a workplace sample to be released in July.

Media Metrix, which opened shop last fall, has been criticized by a number of major Canadian Web site operators, including Canoe.ca, for not taking into account French-language and workplace usage.

The Media Metrix report, based on data collected in March, derived its information from a panel of just under 5,000 home Internet users.

Strategy is on the ground in Cannes, bringing you the latest news, wins and conference highlights all week long. Catch all the coverage here.

Friday’s batch of Silver and Bronze winners included the oldest category at the Cannes festival, Film, as well as Sustainable Development Goals, Dan Wieden Titanium, Glass: The Lion for Change and Grand Prix for Good. Canadians were recognized with four Lions today: two Silver and a Bronze in Film, as well as a Bronze in Sustainable Development Goals.

FCB Toronto was given yet another nod for its work, “The Count,” for SickKids, bringing the medal count for that campaign to four, including a Gold for Health & Wellness. Another Canadian agency recognized on the final day of the festival was Klick Health Toronto, which earned a Silver in Film for its work “Love Captured” for Human Trafficking Awareness and a Bronze for “18 Months” for Second Nurture. And over in Sustainable Development Goals, the Bronze went to Publicis Canada and its “Wildfire Watchtowers” work for Rogers.

Another massive win for Canada included not one, but two Young Lions (pictured above) taking home medals in the annual competition. In Design, the Gold Young Lion was awarded to Rethink’s senior motion designer Jesse Shaw and ACD Zoë Boudreau. The second, a Bronze in Media, went to Cossette Media’s business intelligence analyst Samuel David-Durocher and product development supervisor Tristan Bonnot-Parent.

Film (2 Silver, 1 Bronze)

1 SILVER: “The  Count” by FCB Toronto for SickKids Foundation

“The Count,” a striking campaign from FCB Toronto for SickKids Foundation, has earned 1 Gold, 2 Bronze and now 1 Silver for Film at Cannes. If you watch it, it’s easy to see why. The collaboration between brand and agency honoured the hospital’s “VS” platform, while steering it in a new direction from its initial development by previous AOR Cossette. The creative celebrates childhood cancer patients who have to fight for every birthday, while honouring the hospital’s own milestone – 150 years and counting.

1 Silver: “Love Captured” by Klick Health Toronto for The Exodus Road

Klick Health Toronto added to its medal tally with a Silver in Film for it’s work “Love Captured” for The Exodus Road. The creative features a romantic getaway that isn’t what it seems in an experiential short film for the global anti-trafficking organization. The experience takes viewers through a tragic and twisting experience of exploitation.

1 BRONZE: “18 Months” by Klick Health Toronto for Second Nurture

Klick Health Toronto also won a Bronze in the Film category for its work, “18 Months,” done for the charity organization Second Nurture. The animated film is based on a real-life story in which a same-sex couple adopts a baby found in a subway station, and the 18-month journey into a story of hope.

Sustainable Development Goals (1 Bronze)

1 BRONZE: “Wildfire Watchtowers” by Publicis Canada for Rogers

Publicis Canada landed on the winners board for its work, “Wildfire Watchtowers,” for Rogers. The Canadian-developed wildfire-detection tech – which has been billed as “a fire alarm in the forest” – uses AI-powered sensors installed on 5G towers to monitor vast remote areas in real time. By scanning, identifying and reporting early signs of wildfires (up to 16 minutes faster than other systems), the technology helped prevent 54 fires in 2024 alone.

Catch the Gold winners later today when they’re revealed at the gala in Cannes.