According to data released in Wednesday's National Household Survey, more Canadians than ever are from somewhere other than Canada.

The report, released by Statistics Canada and based on 2011 data, showed that fully 20.6 per cent of Canada's population, or 6.8 million people, are foreign-born residents. The report states that 2.1 million immigrants have arrived in Canada over the past decade.

That gives Canada the highest foreign-born population among all G8 nations. The majority of Canadian immigrants in 2010 were from the Philippines, India and China.

As a result, Canada has an increasingly more diverse population, particularly in urban centres like Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. According to the study, Ontario received 43 per cent of the immigrants over the past five years. British Columbia received 16 per cent.

So here's our question: Do you believe Canada's growing diversity makes us stronger or weaker as a nation?

Share your thoughts in the comments area below.

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Aiden and Conner McCandless.Brothers Aiden and Conner McCandless, both in grade 7, will be at tonight's Leafs game, thanks to their generous classmates.

The grade 8 class at St. John Vianney School in East Windsor raised the funds to send the young hockey fans, who both have a genetic disorder, to the game. They raised more than $2,000 — enough to buy third-row tickets for boys and their dad and two Leafs jerseys — and presented the tickets to the brothers at an assembly yesterday.

The brothers jumped for joy in response to the "awesome" surprise gift.

"A little overwhelmed, impressed and full of emotions because this is such a big deal," Aiden and Conner's dad, Chris, told AM800 of the students' generosity, adding that his sons are huge Leafs fans.

"They are the biggest. To talk to them, almost any conversation will be interjected with some reference to the leafs and they are probably the biggest fans I know."

"They always bring us up when we're down. They do choir, all the sports teams; they're just amazing guys,"

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On Monday, 31-year-old double amputee Spencer West began a 300-kilometre journey from Edmonton to Calgary — on his hands — to draw attention to the distances some people around the world must walk to get clean water.

West plans to arrive in Calgary on May 16.

"Thirty kilometres a day is going to be rough. Your arms aren’t necessarily meant to be walked on so that’s why I’m doing a bit on my hands and a bit in a wheelchair, to try to keep my shoulders in shape. I certainly can’t afford to lose these at this point," West told the Edmonton Journal.

The We Walk 4 Water campaign, part of Free the Children's Water Initiative, hopes to raise enough money to provide 100,000 people around the world with permanent sources of clean water.

Follow West's journey here.

Last summer, West and his two best friends, David Johnson and Alex Meers, climbed Mount Kilimanjaro — and raised more than half a million dollars for Free the Children's clean water projects.

"Summiting Mount Kilimanjaro last summer with my

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Better late than never.

After a 30-year engagement, Jack Wright, 88, and Shirlene King, 57, have finally made it official.

The long-time sweethearts wed on Tuesday before family, friends and doctors — in the hallway of the oncology radiation department at the West Los Angeles veterans hospital.

Wright, one of only 11 living American survivors of World War II's Battle of Guadalcanal, is currently receiving chemotherapy for head and neck cancer at the hospital.

"I have to undergo several treatments. She's been by my side every step of the way," the former Marine said of his new wife.

The couple is the first to wed at the hospital.

After the war, Wright, known as "Captain Jack" to locals, became a popular figure in the seaside community of Marina del Rey. He lived on his boat, often serenading his neighbours with his accordion.

The couple first met in 1983.

"We were at a hot tub party and I was the only one wearing a bathing suit," King told NBC Los Angeles. "He swam over to me and said, 'Can I

Read More »from 30 years in the making, WWII vet finally weds his long-time love

Scientists studying a tiny bat from Central and South America have found that the strange way it uses its tongue to lap up nectar may help us to design new medical technologies.

This new study looked at the Pallas's long-tongued bat and the way that they use their long tongue to get nectar from deep inside flowers. Since they are known for having the fastest metabolism of any known mammal, close to the speed of a hummingbird's, they need to visit numerous flowers during the night to feed. They can't hover outside the flower they feed from for very long, so they have evolved to have a special tongue to help with this. This tongue, which is about twice as long as their head, has special hairs at the tip that normally lie flat against the tongue. Just before it reaches the nectar, blood engorges the tip of the tongue, causing these hairs to become erect, turning the tip of the tongue into something like a mop.

[ Related: Billions of sex-starved cicadas will soon invade East Coast ]

"They

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Ontario NDP leader Andrea HorwathWho is the most powerful politician in all of Ontario?

Is it Premier Kathleen Wynne? Finance Minister Charles Sousa? Toronto Mayor Rob Ford?

Nope. In a minority legislature, it's clearly NDP Leader Andrea Horwath, whose caucus consists of only 18 (or 17 per cent) out of the 107 members at Queen's Park.

Despite the third party's current lot, the NDP leader seems to be calling all the shots. In an attempt to keep their government alive, the Liberals delivered on all of Horwath's seven budget demands last week.

[ Related: Ontario Liberals release NDP-friendly budget, but will Andrea Horwath take the bait? ]

Now, the NDP has another.

On Wednesday morning, Premier Andrea Horwath ... err ... NDP Leader Andrea Horwath demanded that the Liberals create a financial accountability office — an office similar to the parliamentary budget officer in Ottawa.

"This independent commissioner would be a spending and revenue watchdog of the government and it's agencies. We need to ensure that there are no more

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The annular eclipse of May 20, 2012 formed this striking 'ring of fire'The Sun and the Moon will combine forces on Thursday night/Friday morning for a annular solar eclipse, creating a dazzling 'ring of fire' in the sky.

Saying 'Thursday night' when referring to a solar eclipse may seem strange, but this particular eclipse — an 'annular solar eclipse' — will start on Friday morning, just as the Sun is rising in western Australia, and it will spend the next four hours or so tracking across Australia and the equatorial Pacific Ocean. For those of us living on the other side of the planet, in North or South America, this will be happening on Thursday, between 6:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. EDT. So, it will be afternoon or evening, depending on where you live, and the Moon will be in the wrong position for us to see anything.

[ Related: Breathtaking video captures amazing views of Earth from space ]

Don't despair if you were looking forward to seeing this event, though. As usual, the team with the Slooh Space Camera will be covering the event, and broadcasting it

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Results of the 2011 National Household Survey outline in some detail the "ethoncultural mosaic" that Canada has become.One out of every five people in Canada was born in another country, most notably Asia and the Middle East, according to details from a national survey released on Wednesday.

Results of the 2011 National Household Survey released by Statistics Canada outline in some detail the "ethoncultural mosaic" that Canada has become.

"Canada is a nation with an ethnocultural mosaic as indicated by its immigrant population, the ethnocultural backgrounds of its people, the visible minority population, linguistic characteristics and religious diversity,"the report states.

[ Photos: Highlights from National Household Survey ]

The results released on Wednesday outline a country with a shifting immigration base. Canada is home to some 6.7 million foreign-born residents, a number that represents more than 20 per cent of the country's population.

This gives Canada the highest proportion of foreign-born population of the G8 countries. Germany follows with 13 percent and the United States with 12.9 per cent.

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