Category: Main Page

Didja see this?

The Index of Consumer Confidence moved higher in March, climbing 2.7 points to 71.5 (2002 = 100). Respondents continue to indicate considerable concern about their families’ current and future financial situation. However, on the question of future employment opportunities in their communities, sentiments did improve, and, for the sixth consecutive month, a greater share of respondents indicated that now was a good time to make a major purchase.

You can read the whole report [PDF] from the Conference Board of Canada.

In Richmond, B.C., senior citizens are getting $18,500 from the federal government to hold a few “intergenerational” movie nights.
In Denzil, Sask., a seniors club will receive $25,000 to form an exercise club.
And in Beauval, Sask. — where the most recent census found just 86 people who were over the age of 60 — the federal government has set aside $20,000 so those seniors can teach others native beadwork, dancing, and storytelling.
The projects are all funded with money from a federal government program called New Horizons for Seniors Programs. The initiative has a budget of $15 million this year to help pay up to $25,000 for 800 projects across the country.
“I can call it a waste of money without ambiguity,” said Kevin Gaudet, federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
“If someone wants art lessons or multimedia lessons or native dancing or beadmaking lessons, they can pay for it themselves,” he said.
One of the seniors projects is in Wildwood, Alta., where Rob Merrifield, minister of state for transport, is the MP. He presented a cheque last week for $21,000 to a group that will bring together children and seniors in long-term care facilities to develop a scrapbook so that seniors could share their life experiences.
“Seniors have a lot of experience and wisdom and it’s actually translating that into future generations,” said Merrifield. “It’s a great program.”
The latest grant to be announced went to a group in the Central Ontario town of Haliburton — where MP Barry Devolin is also a Conservative — who are helping seniors paint, draw, take pictures and video and then talk about their work at a local art gallery. The group received $19,000 from Ottawa to do that.
“Is this the best use of taxpayers’ money?” Liberal Judy Sgro asked. “Sounds like buying votes, to me. I suspect there are much higher priorities for Canadians today.” [Read the rest of the story]

The Montreal Gazette gives Hubert Bauch the front of its “Extra” section today to look at the case of my friend Globe and Mail reporter Daniel Leblanc.

Leblanc is not a sponsorship villain. More like a sponsorship hero. He's the reporter who broke the story of the $100-million boondoggle that ultimately brought down the federal government of the day.

It was a series of articles by Leblanc in The Globe and Mail nine years ago that first brought to public light the looting of a fund to promote Canadian allegiance in Quebec by a select group of local ad agencies which, in collusion with a corrupt senior bureaucrat, bilked the government for tens of millions of dollars, some of which was kicked back to the Quebec section of the governing federal Liberal Party.

The budget for the program, mounted in frantic haste after the 1995 referendum scare when the separatists almost won, was $250 million; it was later established that $100 million of it was simply ripped off by the clubby set of sponsorship culprits who were hired to do the job of promoting the country.

Leblanc was hailed for his sterling journalistic coup by no less than Justice John Gomery who headed the commission of inquiry into the affair. It was Leblanc's reports, the commission report acknowledges, that “made the problems affecting the program a matter of public discussion.” Yet despite this signal public service, Leblanc is due to be dragged into court for a hearing that could land him in jail, as was the case with so-far convicted sponsorship felons Jean Lafleur, Jean Brault, Paul Coffin and Charles Guité. Criminal charges are also pending against adman Gilles-André Gosselin and Benôit Corbeil, a former director-general of the federal Liberal Party's Quebec wing.

But unlike the rest, who stood before the courts in shame, Leblanc will be standing on principle at his hearing scheduled for next month. He will be asked to name, or at least provide vital clues to the identity of the source who put him on the scandal's track, one he promised to keep confidential.

And he plans to keep that promise.

Last week, it was Jeff Rubin at CIBC Capital Markets who crunched the numbers and came up with a gloomy forecast:

“Second-quarter GDP in both the US and Canada is likely to show further substantial contractions in the economy, while the banking crisis in the US is likely to continue to have spillover effects on Canadian financial stock valuations. Both factors will likely push the TSX down to 7,000 before Washington’s massive fiscal stimulus and financial rescue package gain traction.”

The TSX Composite Index was hovering around 8,400 at mid-day.

Today, Merrill Lynch economist and chief Canadian strategist David Wolf looks at some recent numbers and, for the third time since Dec. 18, revises his forecast downward.

Wolf is more bearish than Rubin though they are both in the same ballpark. Wolf has the TSX Composite bottoming at 6,900 this year. That would be a drop of nearly 18 per cent from today's mid-day level.

With global and U.S. economies still shrinking, Canada — ever vulnerable to foreign economies because our dependence on trade — is going to see its economy shrink even more. In Wolf's view, real gross domestic product will shrink this year by 3 per cent — that's huge — and the current quarter we're in will be absolutely awful — a contraction of 9.1 per cent!! Wolf believes Canada's economy will grow by 2.2 per cent in 2010.

How do those predictions translate into your investments? Rubin is moving more money out of equity and into cash.

“We need to see signs of at least stabilization, if not recovery, in the economy, before adding more weight to stocks. At the same time bonds remain a very problematic sanctuary. Quantitative monetary easing and the massive deficits ahead, both suggest reflation will be a big part of any economic recovery.

Within our equity portfolio we are moving a percentage point of weighting from financials to gold. Bullion is likely to take another run well through $1,000 per ounce and the gold sector will continue to be perceived by investors as a safe haven against a troubled global financial sector. Our more pessimistic outlook on near-term growth prospects for the economy compels us to move a percentage point of weighting out of base metals and move it into the more defensive consumer staples sector. We continue to hold a large overweight in energy stocks, with our holdings skewed heavily to oil producers.”

The U.S. Department of Transportation reports today that: “U.S.–Canada surface transportation trade totaled US$537 billion in 2008, up 5.1 percent compared to 2007. The value of imports carried by truck was 6.0 percent lower in 2008 than 2007 while the value of exports carried by truck was 2.4 percent higher.” That would be $1.5 billion worth of goods that's going back and forth over the world's longest undefended border every day, most of which — 60 per cent — is being borne on the back of a truck. About 17 per cent of the value of that trade came and went by train and 16 per cent came and went by pipeline.

Speaking of which: The U.S. imported US$82 billion worth of goods — oil and natural gas mostly — via pipeline but exported just US$4.3 billion worth of pipeline material. The U.S. also received much more in Canadian imports by rail than exports but more goods flowed from the U.S. into Canada by truck — $179 billion — than flowed the other way – $141 billion.

The Michigan-Ontario border points were tops with $67-billion worth of goods going back and forth through 2008.

Auto analyst Dennis Desrosiers is out with his list of best-selling passenger vehicles in Canada for February, 2009. As always, small cars dominate the list. In fact, I think the top 10 is nothing but small cars. Is the Dodge Caliber (No. 8) a small car or a midsize? But perennial list-topper the Honda Civic has now dropped all the way to number 3. That's a bit of a shock.

Here's Desrosiers top five selling cars in Canada in February, with units each model sold during the month:

1. Mazda – Mazda3 – 2,932
2. Toyota – Corolla – 2,665
3. Honda – Civic – 2,605 (sales are down 57.6 per cent for Feb 09 compared to Feb 08. Only the Toyota Yaris – down 49% year-over-year is worse)
4. Hyundai – Accent – 2,178
5. Hyundai – Elantra – 1,860 (sales up, year-over-year, 95.8%!)

General Motors, incidentally, does not have a single model in the top 10 sellers in February. Chrylser had one — the Caliber — and Ford's Focus came in at number 10.

OK, how about light trucks? It's all D-3 with Ford claiming three top 10 sellers, Chyrsler claiming two, and GM claiming two top 10 sellers.

1. Ford F-Series – 4,581
2. Dodge Caravan – 2,803
3. Ford Escape – 2,162
4. Dodge Ram – 1,594
5. Hyundai Santa Fe – 1,503

And just so you can compare, Desrosiers has compiled a list of the best-selling passenger vehicles since 1990 in Canada. The Honda Civic tops that list. In fact, it's the only model that's sold more than 1 million units in Canada. Here's the top 10 best-sellers since 1990 and their units sold:

1. Honda Civic – 1,080,235
2. GM – Cavalier – 738,437
3. Toyota – Corolla – 719,414
4. GM – Sunbird/Sunfire – 596,915
5. Honda – Accord – 518,984
6. Toyota – Camry – 427,163
7. Ford – Taurus – 379,930
8. GM – Grand Am – 331,059
9. Volkswagen – Jetta – 308,928
10. Ford – Focus – 306,364

You'll notice that there is not a single Chrysler product in that top 10. The Neon was number 11 at 301,794. In fact, only one other Chrysler product, the Intrepid, made the top 30. GM had 7 in the top 30. Ford had six. Now, Chrysler might have more popular products in the selling pick-up/minivan category. The Dodge Ram and the Dodge Caravan have been very popular (if fading, now) models. Still, GM and Ford have also had strong truck and van products. Chrysler's failure to find a top-selling vehicle in the last 20 odd years may be part of the problem it's now facing …

And notice that the top 4 were all in the compact category. Canadians like their cars small. I have no idea what the top 30 in the U.S. are but everytime I've spoken to Dennis he's always said that mid-size or better makes for bigger sales down south. That has important implications for fuel efficiency regulations. Because of consumer preferences in Canada, our fleet is more fuel-efficient. Smaller cars use less gas. So if Canada decides to harmonize with U.S. fuel efficiency standards, we're not really doing much because we already are more fuel efficient. (Federal governments arrive at a fuel efficiency number by basically averaging out all the vehicles sold in a given year in a market. So, lowering a given jurisdiction's fuel efficiency is an easy matter because all you have to do is ban the gas-guzzlers.) If Canada wants to do more, then, to reduce GGE's from cars, it needs to go beyond the U.S. standards.

Heritage Minister James Moore goes into the bear pit that is Tout Le Monde En Parle this evening. He gets the cultural pop quiz and defends his government's investment choices when it comes to arts cuts. The House of Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage has been studying these cuts. As a primer for Moore's appearance, you could review testimony that committee heard from the Canadian Independent Film and Video Fund or from those who represent Canadian theatre production companies and magazines. I wrote up a summary of the committee's meeting with many Quebec-based artists. Those artists said the cuts were killing jobs and hurting Canadian culture.

Moore, for his part, has been a vigourous defender of his government's positions on arts funding.

Now Tout Le Monde airs at 8 p.m. EDT on Radio Canada, the very same time I'll be one of the panellists on Dale Goldhawk Live on CPAC. Naturally, you'll want to tape both to watch at your leisure.

Goldhawk is taking a look at the state of manufacturing in the country and the federal government's policy response. Viewers can call in with their viewpoints. I'll be part of the panel taking those calls but the panelist I'm keen to hear from is Ken Lewenza, the president of the Canadian Auto Workers. Corrine Pohlman of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business is the other panelist.

So again that's on at 8 pm EDT/5 pm Pacific and your call-in number is 1-877-296-2722.

Technorati Tags: art, auto industry, james moore, ken lewenza, puppy

The Printed Blog is just that: A collection of user-generated content — mostly stuff that’s bloggers voluntarily give to a guy named Joshua Karp — printed on good old-fashioned paper. Karp, the publisher and founder, sells an ad or two to go with it and then distributes the whole thing free at newspaper-style boxes around Chicago.

That’s the front-page of the first edition, which debuted on Jan. 27, 2009.

These editions were eight pages long. The ad stack is down in the corner.

They don’t pay for the content. I’m not sure if Karp is paying the editors. The bios of the staff (you can read about them in the first edition [PDF]) indicated there’s lots of college students in their senior year or people who write blogs full-time. The publisher — Karp — used to run a software company.

Here’s their blurb:

“The selection of content in The Printed Blog is based solely on the votes of readers and their geographic location. In such a way, The Printed Blog revolts against the top-down, 'one size fits all' model of newsprint, as we know it. Instead of one paper serving hundreds of thousands of people, as is often the case, The Printed Blog publishes hundreds or even thousands of highly-localized editions based on what a community declares is important to them. The papers are distributed to neighborhood pickup points in A.M. and P.M. editions, and will incorporate rapid turnaround reader comments.”

My thoughts:

• The challenge for every editor is finite space. Newsprint space costs money. And that means The Printed Blog is going to have to make choices. If you want to pay the bills doing this, you have to be really good at making those choices. Believe me, that’s not easy.
• You get what you pay for. The New York Times this is not — but it’s neither intending to be that nor is it intending to supplant the Times (or, in this case, The Chicago Tribune.) In fact, though it’s still in beta, it looks more like a weekly magazine. Now many daily newspapers often have a kind of ideas and issues section inside their paper either everyday or once a week which provides this kind of reader experience. The Printed Word is suggesting that letting users decide what goes in will produce better results than letting professional editors guide the content. We'll see.

Technorati Tags: journalism, blogs

… and, you know what, I'm kinda bullish on my craft…

I'll be speaking about this at a March 24 event The National Press Club is organizing.

If you've got $25, you can hear me, my pal Bill Curry, and others talk about journalism's future. Be sure to click on the link above.

Technorati Tags: journalism, david akin

Friend and parliamentary press gallery colleague Tom Hanson died last night. He collapsed while playing hockey This came as a shock to all of us because Tom, who was a Canadian Press photographer, was a force of nature with tremendous energy and enthusiasm. And he was just 41.

Tom, with his wolfish smile, love of hockey and motorcylces, had been here in Ottawa since 1992.

Liberal MP Marcel Proulx just rose in the House to speak about Tom, who travelled the world photographing prime ministers, war zones, sports events, and all sorts of things. He was a tremendous shooter and, as Proulx just said, “He was deeply admired by politicians of all stripes” and “was respected and admired by his colleagues.

You can check out a fabulous portfolio of Tom's work at CP's site.

Here's one of my recent favourites:

Tom took it when Harper visited New York a few weeks ago. Who'd ever seen Harper smile like that before? No, that's not a dig at Harper. It's a comment that Tom was able to show us a “new picture” of a guy he'd photographed thousands of times before. That's what good photogs do.(And here's my friend Tonda MacCharles reporting in The Toronto Star on this picture.)
In the House of Commons, after Question Period this afternoon, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff, the Bloc Quebecois' Pierre Paquette, and NDP leader Jack Layton had this to say about Tom:
Right Hon. Stephen Harper: Mr. Speaker, I rise today on the sad news that we all received this morning, the passing at a very young age of Tom Hanson. As we all know, Tom was a talented photojournalist who distinguished himself by the quality of his work and his character. He was honoured with numerous industry awards and, perhaps most telling of, the universal respect of his colleagues.Through his photos, Tom helped to chronicle our story as Canadians. Whether it was a defining moment on the campaign trail, the shy smile of an Afghan child, or the triumph of a Grey Cup victory, Tom had a unique ability to capture the essence of whatever he was photographing.On a personal level, Tom's sharp wit, his passion for music, hockey, motorcycles, his casual swagger and his personal integrity will be missed by all of us. On behalf of myself, Laureen, our family, and I know all colleagues here who knew him, I just want to pass on our condolences to his wife, Catherine and to Tom's entire family.
M. Michael Ignatieff : Monsieur le Président, la Presse canadienne est une institution nationale et elle a perdu un grand photographe, Tom Hanson, hier. Les photographes sont parfois les journalistes les plus courageux, audacieux et artistiques. Tom Hanson était courageux, audacieux et artistique.We in this House grieve for the loss of a great journalist, a great artist of the camera. We grieve with his family in The Canadian Press. We grieve for his family at home.We will remember his contribution to our public life with respect. We send our heartfelt condolences to his wife, Catherine, and we hope that she will take some comfort from the fact that Tom Hanson's memory will always be regarded with affection and respect by every single member of this House.
M. Pierre Paquette: Monsieur le Président, au nom du caucus du Bloc québécois, je voudrais offrir nos plus sincères condoléances à la conjointe de M. Hanson. Sa mort tragique et inattendue alors qu'il était dans la fleur de l'âge, à 41 ans, nous touche tous et toutes profondément. Son travail comme photographe à la Presse canadienne était apprécié de l'ensemble de la Colline parlementaire. Il a laissé un souvenir impérissable. Encore une fois, nous souhaitons nos sincères condoléances à sa femme et à toute sa famille.
Hon. Jack Layton: Mr. Speaker, I think we all remember that you could always count on Tom for a courteous greeting. He always respected this place, the centre of Canadian democracy, and he was respected by everyone here.This tragic news of a sudden death at such a young age leaves all of us shaken. He was the consummate professional. He always looked for that best shot to tell a story to Canadians. That was a remarkable talent. He had the respect of politicians and his colleagues, which is so important on the Hill.He lived a full life. He travelled the world. He saw places and events that were important and exciting, and he had an ability to communicate what he was seeing to all of us. Like many Canadians, he had a deep passion for hockey. He played the game. I am sure many here remember sharing words about the game with him or even playing hockey with him.He left us far too young. Even as we celebrate his richly lived life, we share our condolences with his wife, with his family, with his dear friends and colleagues at The Canadian Press. He will be remembered through the lens that he offered to all of us. He will be remembered very warmly for his gifts to our country.Merci beaucoup.
H