So everyone always thinks of Canadians as those too nice, docile folks to the North, but what they don’t know is that under the facade of sweetness lies the cold heart of a cheater. According to a Sun Media-Leger Marketing sex poll, though, almost 30% of Canadians admit to illicit trysts and cheating on their partner.

While Atlantic Canada boasted the most faithful partners, with only 16% admitting to cheating, that number doubles in the Prairie provinces, where 35% say they’ve been unfaithful. Gender differences are marginal among the 1,524 poll respondents, with 30% of men cheating, compared to 25% of women.

“Cheaters follow the same patterns,” Gruschynski, a private investigator said, and signs of infidelity are predictable. But sometimes the victims of betrayal can also fall into dangerous patterns, he added, and call back to bust subsequent unfaithful partners.

The bust-a-cheat business has been brisk in Edmonton, growing proportionally to the population boom. Summer is particularly busy, he said, when long summer days and more exposed skin heat up dormant libidos. Though it’s said it takes two to tango, most couples counsellors agreed that cheaters who do the horizontal mambo are ultimately accountable for their actions.

“The victim of betrayal should never be blamed,” said Montreal psychotherapist Jason Phelps. But infidelity is often the result of growing distance in the relationship, he said. When Sun Media dangled a carrot in front of respondents in the form of secret sex, three-quarters of Canadians said they would never cheat even if no one could ever find out. But a gender breakdown reveals that double the percentage of men — 26% — would cheat if given the chance. Meanwhile, the refrain “look but don’t touch” may apply to casual glances of admiration on the street, but intimacy at any level — including online — is considered a betrayal among the majority of Canadians.

Is kissing cheating? While 67% of Canadians consider kissing cheating, online intimacy is close behind at 63%, followed by “loving someone else but no sex” at 56%. “Many partners will feel betrayed by online chatting,” Phelps said. “They’re sharing their inner-most thoughts, feelings and fantasies with someone outside the relationship; the partner will feel betrayed.”

But while online intimacy is seen as emotional betrayal among 72% of women, only 54% of men consider cybersex and online chats cheating. “When one’s doing it secretively, it doesn’t involve the other person and it becomes an ongoing thing, it’s going to cause problems,” Phelps said. Having been the victim of a cheating wife I can tell you something you don’t always see in the above statistics and that is the broken homes and kids that have to grow up without an intact family. It seems wedding vows don’t mean much these days….