But as far as mainstream popular (Top 40) musicians and actors, often if they are not American or British they are Canadian. After us it seems to be Australian and probably Swedish or German.
This is just from what I've noticed.
Personally, I dont think we give our country enough credit.
Well, first, I don't think popularity has anything to do with how impressive the talent/work actually is. In my opinion, we're lacking things that are actually timelessly brilliant compared to other countries, many of which, in terms of quality, are actually a lot more competitive with the US (at least critically) than we might notice from within our bubble. Countries all over Europe, Asia, and Africa (maybe even South America, though I'm not familiar) have traditionally had various thriving sub-cultures and movements that tons of great stuff regularly comes from. Canada tends to just have blips on the radar to go with a pretty lukewarm indie music scene (and that's probably one of our strongest mediums). Seems like the only area they have a reputation of standing out in is in Comedy.
Germany/Africa/Russia/Austria/France have made far greater contributions to music, France/Russia/Japan/Germany/Italy/China/Korea/Sweden/Finland/India have made far greater contributions to films, tons of countries have made far greater contributions in literature, France/Japan in animation, Japan in videogames, and on and on and on. A few good things have started to come out of Canada, but it really doesn't compare.
Second, even if we did put a lot of weight into popularity (which I wouldn't), are you just referring to the Top 40 in North America? Does that sentiment actually hold up internationally? (it might, I'm just unfamiliar with those numbers) As Canadians, we're exposed far more to our own stuff than others, and that needs to be taken into account. You can't just base it on celebrities you see on TV.
If anything, as Canadians we probably give ourselves a bit too much credit, IMO, because if there's something Canadian that's even remotely respectable, it's brought to our attention right away, gets hyped up, and raised on a pedestal out of nationalistic pride, to some degree.