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TEN YEARS LATER… CANADIANS ARE STILL DOING IT IN THE SNOWWhen Sex in the Snow first appeared 10 years ago, it broke new ground by boldly sketching the changing psychological landscape of Canada. It showed that values can be even more important than demographic traits when it comes to how people behave as citizens, consumers, employees, parents, friends, and spiritual beings. Rather than being defined by their religion, age, gender, and ethnic background, Canadians were embracing postmodern values that cut across those categories. Using data from his extensive, innovative polls, Adams argued that the changing postures of Canadians had been shaped by three major quests: for personal autonomy, for pleasure, and for spiritual fulfillment.A decade later, Adams finds that, remarkably, Canadians still pursue those same values in ever-greater numbers. Our attitudes about gender and family, once informed by rigid religious codes, are ever more heavily driven by values of autonomy and fulfillment—the belief that people should be able to choose the family arrangements that work best for them in both practical and emotional terms. Flexibility and openness to diversity have also persisted in ethno-cultural matters, as 1.5 million immigrants arrived in Canada since 1997. Canadians continue to endorse the coexistence of people of diverse backgrounds and cultural fusion that seeks to savour and explore—not eliminate—differences across races and heritages. Ten years later, Sex in the Snow remains a unique portrait of what it means to be Canadian.
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When pollster Michael Adams was growing up, Canada was "a place where leaders led and followers followed, where there was a place for everyone and everyone knew their place."Canadians were categorized by who their parents were, their religion, their age, gender, and family status, and by their race or ethnic background. But now, as we head into the 21st century, Canada is in the midst of a revolution. Institutions like the university, the church, the professions, and the nation-state have less relevance. Technology, feminism, mass media, and globalization come together to startling effect, with contemporary society unfolding largely independent of demographics. As Canadians eschew the societally imposed stereotypes of the past, psychographic trends eclipse the established categories of demography. Sex in the Snow sketches, in broad, bold strokes, the new psychological landscape of our country.By identifying eighty motivators propelling individuals, Adams and his colleagues at Environics have divided the population into twelve "values tribes"that create a surprising and refreshing view of Canadians. Looking at where Quebec falls on the psychographic map, what differentiates us from Americans, the influence of the Internet and what's happening in the gender wars, Adams offers his view of Canada's evolution from an industrial nation-state to a postindustrial, postmodern community. He shows how the new postures of Canadians have been shaped by three major quests: for personal autonomy, for pleasure, and for spiritual fulfillment. It is this juxtapositionthe new experiential hedonism combined with the stoic drive for survival that characterized Canadian values in the pastthat inspired the book's title. In this daring new analysis, Michael Adams reveals Canadians as they are and as they will be. Fresh, stimulating and controversial,Sex in the Snow gives us a new lexicon, an intriguing portrait of a nation's values, and a challenging response to the questionWhat Is a Canadian?
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