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- Video: Reward posted for brazen bank robber

- Prairie flooding tops Environment Canada’s list for 2011’s wild weather stories

- Convention exclusivity hinders Liberal rebuilding effort

- Woman killed after truck tire smashes into her car on Ontario highway

- Ontario student placed on in-school suspension over 'I Love Boobies' bracelet

- Jack Layton named 2011's Newsmaker of the Year

- Mayor’s office destroys records of business card purchase

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- In Pictures: Justin Bieber takes T.O.

Video: Reward posted for brazen bank robber

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 10:32AM EST

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Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 10:32AM EST

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Prairie flooding tops Environment Canada’s list for 2011’s wild weather stories

Renata D’Aliesio

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 10:08AM EST

Bryan Ezako boats to his home near St. Francis Xavier, Man., May 9, 2011. (THE CANADIAN PRESS)

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In southern Alberta, wickedly strong autumn winds shattered office tower windows, peeled roofs off houses and pushed cars off the road. In the Arctic, sea ice melted to a near record in September, one of several large ice retreats in recent years. And in the Atlantic, 19 tropical storms formed, seven of them morphing into hurricanes, putting Canada’s East Coast on a long watch for wild weather.

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All were major events, but nowhere was the weather a bigger ordeal this year than on the eastern Prairies, according to Environment Canada. Several rivers and lakes rose to new peaks in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, closing hundreds of roads and forcing thousands of people to flee their homes – making the Prairie flood battle the top weather story of 2011.

“We’ve never seen so much land under water,” said senior climatologist David Phillips, who has for 16 years compiled Canada’s list of top weather events. “The flood went on forever ... They were talking about it from October of last year through to when the military left flood duty in late July.

“It wasn’t just a weather event, it was an economic hit, too.”

Severe weather resulted in nearly $1.5-billion in insurance payouts and adjustment expenses in 2011, said the Insurance Bureau of Canada. It’s one of the country’s costliest years for weather damage, second only to 1998, when a series of ice storms cut power to millions of people in Eastern Canada and parts of the United States.

The tally doesn’t include financial relief offered by governments for damage not covered by insurance. The cost of compensation claims related to Manitoba’s unprecedented spring flooding could eventually top $1-billion, pushing the province’s deficit significantly higher, Premier Greg Selinger said last week.

Second on Environment Canada’s list of top 10 weather stories is the May blaze that ravaged the small northern Alberta town of Slave Lake. Although provincial government officials suspect the fire was deliberately set and have turned over the investigation to the RCMP, Mr. Phillips noted extremely dry conditions and winds clocking up to 120 kilometres an hour greatly fuelled the flames’ destructive path.

“The whole town was threatened. It’s just miraculous people got out,” Mr. Phillips said.

A pilot died fighting the Slave Lake wildfires after his helicopter crashed into a lake. The fires scorched 4,700 hectares of land and destroyed 400 buildings, mostly houses. Insurance payments tied to the disaster have reached $700-million.

Economic hardship and emotional strain were common themes in many of the 134 weather stories that Mr. Phillips reviewed to come up with the top events. Flooding of the Richelieu River in Quebec and the tornado that ripped through the Ontario lakeside community of Goderich both made the list, placing third and fifth, respectively.

In the end, the story of melting Arctic sea ice – which took the eighth spot – may prove to be the most important, Mr. Phillips noted. From 1979 to 2000, the average minimum sea ice cover was seven million square kilometres. On Sept. 9, 2011, the ice cover fell below 4.33 million square kilometres, not far off the record for minimal ice extent set in 2007.

“It has global implications,” Mr. Phillips said, “and it also has implications for years to come.”

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 10:03AM EST

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Convention exclusivity hinders Liberal rebuilding effort

JANE TABER

OTTAWA - Globe and Mail Update

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 9:34AM EST

The podium awaits Michael Ignatieff at the Liberal leader's election-night headquarters in Toronto on May 2, 2011. (Peter Power/The Globe and Mail)

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As Grits gather in mid-January to elect a new president, the delegates will be mostly male and bloggers will have to dig deep into their pockets to attend.

The two issues have emerged as potential irritants as Liberals prepare for their Ottawa policy convention, which begins on Friday the 13th.

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The gathering will not only elect a new president but also look at ways of moving forward and rebuilding after the devastation of the May 2 election that saw the Liberals reduced to third party status.

Two women are running for the top executive job – Shelia Copps, the former deputy prime minister, and Alexandra Mendes, a former MP from Quebec. Michael Crawley, the former president of the Ontario Liberals, is also running.

“The Liberal constitution requires equality in all delegate selection processes,” Ms. Copps told The Globe. “However, as in society, more men are signing up to fill their spots in every riding, hence more men than women. We are still running at one-third women, which is better than the current makeup of Parliament.”

Sarah Bain, a spokeswoman for the Liberal Party of Canada, would not comment on the number of delegates expected or the fact that men could end up dominating the convention. And outgoing president Alfred Apps said the breakdowns will not be known in advance since registration occurs right up to the convention.

Leadership conventions are usually more competitive than policy conventions. At the 2006 gathering in Montreal that elected Stéphane Dion to replace Paul Martin, there were more than 4,000 delegates; in Vancouver in 2009, when Michael Ignatieff was essentially acclaimed, there were about 2,500 delegates.

Mr. Apps predicted attendance at this one will “exceed any non-leadership convention for several decades.” And he suggested it will be higher than Tory or NDP conventions.

It seemed, however, that previous Liberal conventions encouraged or even guaranteed more participation by women delegates. Ms. Copps noted, too, that the Quebec Liberal women’s commission is hoping to hold a “presidential debate” in Montreal.

“They want to explore specific strategies on how to encourage more women’s involvement in the party,” Ms. Copps said.

She added that there has not been a female party president since Senator Marie Poulin served from 2006 to 2008, when a stroke cut her term short. Before that, the only other woman was Iona Campagnolo, who became president in 1982 and served until 1986.

Meanwhile, the issue of bloggers at the convention has provoked a stir in the Twitter-verse.

Only bloggers who are officially associated with a news organization can be accredited. But others will have to pay an $1,100 observer fee.

Ms. Bain, the party spokeswoman, argues there will nevertheless be ample accommodation for bloggers. For example, a riser will be setup in the middle of the convention floor.

She explained that there are many ways to attend the convention: “As a delegate, an observer , or media (including freelance and social media representatives who are sponsored by a recognized news organization.)”

“There is no rule or ban against bloggers, there never has been,” she wrote in an email. “Quite the contrary, we consulted with a group of bloggers and other social media users to discuss the options available to them as delegates. To my knowledge, no delegate or observer who has submitted a registration to our Convention has been denied access because they are a blogger.”

This appears to be counter to what many bloggers want. Tory scribe Stephen Taylor has led the charge, kicking off the controversy when he tweeted this week: “Liberal convention will be the first modern political convention that doesn't accredit bloggers. #cdnpoli”

He’s pursued the issue on his blog. And he’s even garnered support from Liberal bloggers like Jeff Jedras, who argues his party is “foolishly retreating from social media and blogging.”

Ms. Copps’s team also appears unsatisfied. Henry Wright, her campaign chairman, sent an email to Liberal headquarters criticizing the move.

“It is my understanding that the Party has ruled against Bloggers at the Convention,” he wrote. “... We strongly object and would ask that the decision be revisited. We believe that for a Party that wants to rebuild and reach out ... this ruling appears to be counterproductive.”

But Ms. Copps herself told The Globe that “like other media members, bloggers need some sort of accreditation to ensure they are actually media.”

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 9:30AM EST

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Woman killed after truck tire smashes into her car on Ontario highway

Joel Eastwood

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 10:59AM EST

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A woman was killed in Burlington, Ont., Thursday morning, after a flying truck tire smashed into her car on the Queen Elizabeth Way, the latest in a line of similar incidents.

Provincial police say the woman was driving along the Toronto-bound QEW near the Burlington Skyway when a truck tire bounced over the centre median from the Fort Erie-bound lanes.

It smashed into her car, causing it to go off the highway.

The woman was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police say the truck that lost the tire didn't stop, and officers are now looking for the truck that was headed toward the Niagara area.

The incident is similar to the 2006 death of a 41-year-old mother from Oakville, who was killed instantly on the 403 when a pair of truck tires came across the median and smashed through her windshield.

A 25-year-old Calgary women was killed in 2010 after a chunk of steel from a truck's brake shot through her windshield.

And a Toronto man was killed in 2001 when a wheel smashed through the windshield of his van on highway 401.

The eastbound and westbound ramps from North Shore Boulevard to the Toronto-bound QEW are closed as police investigate.

With files from The Canadian Press

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 8:42AM EST

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Ontario student placed on in-school suspension over 'I Love Boobies' bracelet

Woodstock, Ontario - The Canadian Press

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 8:11AM EST

Pink ribbons have been used for years to signal breast-cancer awareness. (Getty Images/Thinkstock)

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Controversy is stirring at a Catholic school in Woodstock, Ont., over bracelets supporting breast cancer awareness.

The bracelets read “I Love Boobies” and a 13-year-old student at St. Rita's Catholic School has been put on in-school suspension over them.

Kelly Millson has been urged by his parents to continue wearing them at school, but he says he is not allowed to be in class, in the hallways or anywhere other students are congregating.

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But he did decide to take the bracelets off this week so he could go out for recess.

School board superintendent Tamara Nugent says the decisions on dress code are made by each school's principal.

Several schools across Canada and the United States have banned the bracelets, deeming them inappropriate.

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 8:09AM EST

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Jack Layton named 2011's Newsmaker of the Year

Stephanie Levitz

Ottawa - The Canadian Press

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 10:11AM EST

New Democratic Party (NDP) leader Jack Layton speaks during a news conference in Toronto, May 3, 2011. Layton will form the official opposition party to Prime Minister Stephen Harper's majority win in Monday's federal election. (MIKE CASSESE/REUTERS)

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John Gilbert Layton wore dozens of different name tags in his decades of public service: activist, guitarist, father and finally, leader of the official Opposition.

Most knew the NDP leader by another name: Jack.

No other Canadian dominated the headlines like Mr. Layton in 2011, making him the clear choice for Newsmaker of the Year by editors and news directors participating in the annual survey of newsrooms across the country by The Canadian Press.

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Mr. Layton received 90 per cent of the votes – one of the most overwhelming margins in the 65-year history of the CP Newsmaker voting. The next closest was Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who received just 5 per cent of the vote totals.

Also earning votes were Canada’s new female premiers, the protesters at the heart of the Occupy Canada movement, former auditor general Sheila Fraser and the Grande Prairie Composite Warriors football team.

“Jack Layton single-handedly shaped Canada’s political narrative in 2011, from the decimation of the Bloc Québécois, to the marginalization of the Liberal party, to the utter vacuum left on Parliament Hill by his death,” said Brodie Fenlon, senior news editor, The Huffington Post Canada.

“We watched the drama of this scrappy underdog, cane in hand, pulling off an astonishing victory only to be felled months later before he could truly make something of it.”

The Canadian Press also conducted a parallel survey in conjunction with Yahoo Canada to allow the public to make its own choices for Newsmaker of the Year. The public results were no less clear: it was Mr. Layton by a landslide.

The late NDP leader claimed fully half of the online votes cast, with hockey commentator Don Cherry a distant second at 16 per cent. Mr. Harper garnered 10 per cent of the vote, narrowly edging the Occupy Canada protesters at 9.5 per cent.

That the public came to know Mr. Layton on a first-name basis wasn’t the result of a slick marketing campaign, though the 2011 election effort marked his slickest one yet.

His smiling face peered from every poster; NDP candidates – especially in Quebec – ran not on their names, but his.

“He’s the person responsible for the NDP’s status as the official Opposition, a status based on its landslide victory in Quebec and the near-disappearance of the Bloc Québécois, which shook the entire sovereignty movement,” said Josee Boileau, managing editor of Montreal’s Le Devoir newspaper.

“The importance of Jack in this historic breakthrough – which is even more important than the fact Stephen Harper’s Conservatives now form a majority government – has become even more obvious since his death, an event that has completely weakened his party.”

The brand that Jack built didn’t come through sterile focus group testing in boardrooms. It came from years of being himself.

As a teacher at Toronto-area universities, he would invite students into his home or take them out for a night of spirited debate at the local pub.

As a city councillor, he and his wife Olivia Chow, who also later became an MP, would ride their tandem bicycle through rallies during the dog days of Toronto summers and in the pelting rains of fall.

“In some ways, Jack Layton is like all of us,” Ms. Chow said in an interview.

“He’s your next door neighbour – your next door neighbour who wants to do something that’s good for the community and for the country, and he happens to be in a position to do a little bit of that. So I think people felt they lost someone that they know.”

He was known for wearing funny hats into fundraisers, chatting with workers in line at the Tim Hortons, and bringing his guitar out for folk-song sing-alongs on campaign planes and in meeting rooms across the country.

His was a rare persona for the NDP, said Vicky Smallman, a long-time NDP organizer who first met Mr. Layton during his years on Toronto’s city council.

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“Usually in the NDP, you’re a policy wonk or you’re an organizer and often there is huge conflict between the two,” Ms. Smallman said.

“But Jack was able to bring those sides together in a way that obviously had good results.”

A combination of his charisma and political savvy helped to fuel the NDP machine. The party had just 19 seats when he became leader in 2003; they won 29 seats in 2006 and 37 in 2008.

But something happened this past May, when an orange wave swept Quebec and helped push the party to 103 seats, making Mr. Layton leader of the official Opposition.

So what changed in 2011, Mr. Layton or the voters?

“He was at his best, he was at his most comfortable, so I think both,” said Brad Lavigne, who directed the NDP’s national campaign.

“I think the country knew Jack. I think there was a connecting between what he was offering and what they were looking for.”

It was a victory 50 years in the making, Mr. Layton said on election night.

“I think of all the people who came before us, the millions of men and women who believed so passionately in a more fair society and they refused to give up, often in the face of overwhelming odds,” Mr. Layton said.

They were words that would come to personify Mr. Layton’s own final moments.

“Jack Layton pulled off the tour de force of the year in politics,” said Gaetan Chiasson, news director at Acadie Nouvelle in Caraquet, N.B. “But we will remember mostly his dignity as he faced death as well as his message of peace and hope.”

Mr. Layton revealed in 2010 that he had prostate cancer and vowed to fight the disease.

Earlier this year, a hip fracture left him using a cane and fuelled speculation that he wouldn’t be able to handle the rigours of the spring election trail.

But he’d been so energetic out on the campaign that when he appeared at a press conference in July to announce he was battling a new form of cancer, the nation collectively gasped at the visibly weakened, creaky-voiced man who was already a shadow of his former self.

Mr. Layton, true to form, pledged to fight on. He died Aug. 22 at the age of 61.

“One could never imagine such a cruel and heart-wrenching end for a man who for so long dreamed so big. Yet even in his final testament, he urged others not to despair,” said Murray Langdon, news director at CFAX in Victoria.

“He pleaded for supporters to continue to build on the party’s strong showing. Above all, he asked for Canadians to join together in making the country better.”

Mr. Layton’s final message to Canadians, delivered in a letter that was published on the day of his death, quickly turned into a rallying slogan for a grieving nation.

“My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair,” Layton wrote.

“So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world.”

His words became a mantra for a grieving nation, scrawled in chalk outside Toronto city hall, where thousands of people lined up to pay their last respects.

Even when the rains washed away the words, people wrote them anew. Impromptu shrines built out of cans of Orange Crush soda sprang up outside the Parliament buildings. Niagara Falls and Toronto’s CN Tower were bathed in orange lights.

The condolence books made it clear how far Mr. Layton’s reach had extended.

Sikhs, Burmese, union workers, academics, doctors, aboriginals, young Canadians, new Canadians, Quebecers, NDP and Tory voters all wrote in to vent their grief.

Even those who professed to be skeptics could not help but admit their admiration.

“To the extent that he sincerely was campaigning for what he believed in and he may have literally sacrificed his own life for it,” said Dan Leger, director of news content for the Halifax Chronicle Herald newspaper.

“You have to stand there and go, ‘Wow, that is profound,’ and I think a lot of people picked up on it that way.”

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 5:39AM EST

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Mayor’s office destroys records of business card purchase

Stephen Spencer Davis

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 5:06AM EST

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Mayor Rob Ford’s office destroyed documents pertaining to the specially embossed business cards procured for the mayor and his staff from his family-owned company Deco Labels and Tags, according to a document obtained by The Globe and Mail.

In late March, Deco sent him an invoice for 20,600 business cards produced at a cost of $1,579.15. After the invoice became public in October, the mayor’s office produced documents indicating that his office had sought two other quotes before selecting Deco as the low-cost supplier. The two companies quoted the mayor’s office rates much higher than Deco’s, the documents said, but the names of the competing firms had been redacted. (Mr. Ford has since reimbursed the city $4,000 to cover the cost of the cards and other office expenses.)

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When a subsequent access to information request was made, a letter from the city clerk’s office said that the mayor’s office had destroyed documents relating to the competitive quotes after deeming them “transitory.” According to Toronto’s Municipal Code, transitory records are considered insignificant or unrelated to city business. The letter from the clerk’s office cites a policy that says the city does not require competitive bids for purchases under $3,000.

When asked why the documents were considered “transitory” and who made the decision, Mr. Ford’s office declined to comment.

The mayor has long been an advocate of transparent competitive bidding and has frequently criticized city staff for relying on unreported sole source tenders.

However, the revelations come at a time when Integrity Commissioner Janet Leiper is investigating allegations from Toronto resident Jude MacDonald that Mr. Ford has not adequately disclosed his office expenses, including those paid out of his own pocket.

Municipal lawyer and lobbyist Nicholas dePencier Wright, who recently provided a legal opinion to councillors on the proposed shark fin ban, said it is not clear whether the business-card documents could be considered transitory.

Mr. dePencier Wright acknowledged the city policy on small purchases, but added, “In this case, because there was a freedom of information request made of the documents and because there was a possibility for the perception of a conflict of interest using a family company, I think it would be responsible to take a more cautious approach.”

Councillor Shelley Carroll (Don Valley East), a strong critic of the mayor, also challenged the mayor’s office. “It’s simply not a defence for destroying the records,” she said, referring to the “transitory” designation. “In this age of accountability, nothing financial is transitory.

“It doesn’t matter which pocket it came out of. If it’s the business of representing the public, you keep records,” Ms. Carroll said.

Deputy Mayor Doug Holyday, however, defended the mayor’s office questioning how long such documents should be kept. “There's only so much room in this building for us to store things” Mr. Holyday said. “There are some things that you must keep and some things that you absolutely need, and I don't know that there's a lot of room around here for other things that could be discarded.”

In an interview, Ms. MacDonald said the destruction of the other bids indicated a lack of transparency.

She is also filing further concerns with Ms. Leiper after obtaining an early version of one of Mr. Ford’s business cards that appears to have been printed prior to the late-March invoice issued by Deco Labels and Tags. That version, which features gold metallic embossed type, included a small typo – “Bloot St.” is printed in tiny lettering on a ward map on the back – which attracted some tongue-in-cheek coverage in the National Post last March.

On cards printed subsequently, the typo has been corrected.

In response to a Globe and Mail access to information request for all documents relating to mayor’s office supplies provided by Deco, Mr. Ford’s staff only released a single printer’s invoice.

“We have one invoice, [but] two cards,” Ms. MacDonald said. “If this card was generated at the beginning of the first quarter [of 2011], an invoice should be associated with it.”

Controversy over Mr. Ford’s reliance on the family business as a supplier of printed material pre-dates recent revelations. A 2007 auditor general and integrity commissioner’s report noted that Mr. Ford, then a city councillor, stocked his office with letterhead and business cards purchased from Deco in 2001.

The report cited Deco president and now-councillor Doug Ford as saying any materials were provided at market rates.

Special to the Globe and Mail, with files from John Lorinc

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 3:00AM EST

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Something for everyone on the list

Patricia Dawn Robertson

Last updated Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011 6:33PM EST

Randy Cunneyworth, Justin Trudeau, Margaret Atwood (Globe and Mail, Canadian Press)

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Okay, so it hasn’t exactly been a banner year here in the Great White North. Things were so tight in 2011 that even Mark Carney, the Bank of Canada Governor, had to take a second job.

Nervous Canadians just aren’t in the mood to splash out on holiday trinkets while we restock the fiscal bomb shelter for the next wave of economic meltdowns. As we collectively brace for 2012, here are some last-minute special requests for Santa to fill from his North Pole gift registry:

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1. For little Peter MacKay, a shiny new Cormorant helicopter.

2. For the out-of-touch optimists in your social circle, Research in Motion stock.

3. For CBC’s hairy hipster, Jian Ghomeshi, a six-pack of disposable shavers.

4. For lone Green Party MP Elizabeth May, a spec condo on the recently discovered – and as yet unspoiled – Super-Earth.

5. For my crabby, late-40-something book club pals, I have some soothing reading suggestions for the coming year: Menopause Made Easy, Painless Poetry and So, You Want to Be a Shaman.

6. For those picky publishers who rejected my regional border collie memoir, copies of Marley & Me from the discount DVD pile at the Superstore.

7. For the bean-counting hoteliers who removed the “emergency mini-bars” from hotel rooms, a trip for two on American Airlines with demented host Alec Baldwin.

8. For Margaret Atwood, the complete DVD set of Little Britain. Stop shilling for Twitter and return to writing comic novels. We’re weary of your downbeat screeds on penny-pinching and the end of days.

9. For the painful introverts, the iPad 2. This portable tool will enable them to further withdraw from polite society with impunity. Now they can point, scroll and surf while bombastic extroverts battle for their lapsed attention.

10. For your melancholy spouse who suffers from seasonal affective disorder, a gift card to Glow Tanning Salon and a big bottle of vitamin D capsules.

11. For the NDP, a new leader and a copy of progressive instigator Michael Moore’s memoir Here Comes Trouble.

12. For the trendy music buyer, happily swindled by Susan Boyle’s The Gift for Christmas, 2010, there’s Justin Bieber’s Under the Mistletoe for 2011. Expect Nickelback’s Sledneck Christmas for 2012.

13. For regional bookseller McNally Robinson, please remove your self-publisher’s toolkit, the Espresso Book Machine, from your flagship Winnipeg store. It’s turned into Weekend at Gutenberg’s. Retired teachers should support the arts by gambling at casinos like everyone else. Before amateur authors hit print, ask: Does the oversaturated book market really need another Ursula K. Le Guin knock-off riddled with typos and run-on sentences?

14. For baby-faced MP Justin Trudeau, an electric shaver. Movember is over. In the macho House of Commons, see-through mustaches and wispy Three Musketeers beards just won’t do. Also, for his parliamentary potty mouth, Pierre Jr. is eligible for soap-on-a-rope.

15. For the ousted board members of the Canadian Wheat Board, Prime Minister Stephen Harper should offer up some form of job security. Perhaps a lucrative rotating position as a third-party manager at Canada’s most insolvent first nations will slow down the lawsuits.

16. For the first family of Sussex Drive, a gift certificate from Sears Portrait Studio. While the PM’s deficit-busting, Photoshopped efforts are appreciated, you’re building memories here; Canadian taxpayers don’t expect you to scrimp on the annual family Christmas card.

17. For unemployed former Blockbuster managers, lifetime memberships to Netflix.

18. For Minister of the Environment/climate-change denier Peter Kent, a Maldives diplomatic posting and a life preserver.

19. For interim Liberal Leader Bob Rae, a winning lottery ticket so he can stop sending out $5-begging e-mail requests to rebuild his ailing party.

20. For Randy Cunneyworth, the new unilingual coach of the Montreal Canadiens, a French immersion weekend with a Chicoutimi family, compliments of the Bloc Québécois.

Writer Patricia Dawn Robertson lives in Wakaw, Sask.

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 2:00AM EST

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Is Stephen Harper the Dear Leader in disguise?

Margaret Wente

Last updated Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011 6:25PM EST

Lots of people like him, but maybe they've just been brainwashed (AFP/Getty Images, The Canadian Press)

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Is there any difference between Stephen Harper and North Korea’s defunct Dear Leader? Maybe not as much as you might think. Many eminent Canadians are warning that Mr. Harper and his hard-right Conservatives are turning our beloved nation into a thuggish, dictatorial, one-party state.

In an exit interview the other night with As It Happens, outgoing Senator Tommy Banks (appointed by the Liberals, and best known as a jazz musician) declared that he is deeply alarmed about the country’s direction. He vowed to keep fighting as long as he has breath to set things right. Chronicler Peter C. Newman is similarly distressed. In his book When the Gods Changed, he argues not only that the Natural Governing Party is finished, but so too is the Canada he once knew and loved.

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A lot of people in my postal code (adjacent to the University of Toronto) believe that our progressive paradise is lost. “The most remarkable feature of the first half year of Conservative majority rule is how quickly we have been herded toward a one-party system,” writes critic Michael Harris. Our international reputation is also on the skids. By abandoning Kyoto, Mr. Harper has turned us into a pariah state.

Contempt of Parliament. Authoritarian rule. Demagoguery, deceit and dirty tricks. Abuse of power, along with the growing stench of corruption, as the country hurtles down the wrong track. Why, it almost sounds like – the Chrétien government circa 2000!

If this indictment sounds familiar, it’s because the Conservatives made the same case against the Liberals when their positions were reversed. Majority governments in Canada have a lot of power, which is great if you’re on the winning side and awfully frustrating when you’re not. Their power is even greater when the opposition is hopelessly fragmented, essentially leaderless and out of new ideas. Today, the federal centre-left in Canada is furiously impotent – just as the centre-right was for most of a decade.

If you happen to identify with the out-group – as Mr. Banks and some of our leading public thinkers do – it’s a whole lot more satisfying to demonize the bad guys than try to unite the good guys. Perhaps that’s why so many of them insist that Mr. Harper is “dangerous,” or even “extremely dangerous.” This view was recently expressed by Stephen Clarkson, a prominent liberal academic, who warned that Canada is being crushed under the jackboots of the reigning proto-fascists. Mr. Harper, he wrote in the Literary Review of Canada, is “a dangerous figure” who “threatens the country’s constitutional heritage,” and “has rejected consensual centrism in favour of a program carefully conceived to overturn the social-market legacy he has inherited.”

If you are a faithful follower of the mainstream media, you will also know that Mr. Harper is guilty of valorizing the military, being indifferent to the plight of downtrodden aboriginals and clamping down (at vast expense) on imaginary crime. He has also created a quasi-totalitarian world called Harperland in which no dissent is tolerated.

But here’s the worst part. Canadians don’t care! In fact, they claim to be pretty happy with the way things are going. According to a new poll published in Maclean’s, 86 per cent of us believe Canada is the greatest country in the world. For some unfathomable reason, we are way more optimistic than either the British or the Americans. On top of that, the Harper government’s dangerous and misguided policies are overwhelmingly popular. According to a poll by Ipsos Reid, two-thirds of Canadians approve of its efforts to boost the military and fight crime. Sixty per cent of the public feel the government is enhancing Canada’s reputation in the world. And a whopping 80 per cent agree with its decision to ban the niqab at citizenship ceremonies – a move derided by much of the progressive left.

It doesn’t get worse than that.

To tell the truth, I don’t agree with all of Mr. Harper’s policies myself. (e.g., the niqab.) But it seems obvious to me that his government is far more in touch with mainstream Canadians than all those critics who accuse him of abandoning the mainstream. He’s worse than an extremist – he’s a populist. Or else he has duped and terrorized the masses so effectively that they are powerless to resist. Kind of like you-know-who.

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 2:00AM EST

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Only radical change will rebuild trust in the RCMP

Gary Mason

Last updated Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011 6:30PM EST

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If nothing else, RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson’s shockingly forthright interview with The Globe and Mail this week demonstrated his deep understanding of the vast, complex mess he has inherited.

As impressive was his willingness to talk about it openly.

For most of its existence, the RCMP has been a very male-dominated and closed organization. One that has been unwilling to recognize and address its shortcomings and that has kept its problems to itself. This institutional closed-mindedness has created the culture that has led to the demise of our once great national police force.

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That much, Bob Paulson gets.

As someone who has chronicled the rapid descent of public trust in the Mounties, I can’t tell you how refreshing it was to hear a commissioner speak with such jaw-dropping candour. When he said that a litany of controversies has made some members of the force ashamed to say what they do for a living, I was flabbergasted.

Most shocking of all was his intimation that the Mounties are likely just one or two scandals away from extinction – which is why there is some urgency to his mission of returning the force to its former glory.

All of that is wonderful, of course, and certainly a positive start to the commissioner’s time in what is arguably the hardest job in the country. But for now, they are only words. How he follows through on his bold promises will be the key.

The most recent scandal to dog the force is the harassment allegations that have been levelled by several current and former Mounties. The commissioner said he takes the charges seriously (good!) and that he convened an extraordinary meeting of his most senior officers to discuss how the force will be dealing with them.

Harassment, he said, stems from a misuse of power and remedying the problem means changing people’s behaviour. He wasn’t specific about how he intends to do that. I asked him whether female RCMP officers and the public at large can be confident that his leadership group – those mostly male officers across the country charged with dealing with this crisis – are squeaky clean themselves when it comes to harassment.

He admitted that he doesn’t know for certain and agreed it would be a good idea to find out. Yes, it would be – or else he could be dealing with a colossal embarrassment of his own making right out of the gate.

I wasn’t impressed, either, when the commissioner protested the inclusion of the death of Houston, B.C., millworker Ian Bush among the list of examples of disgraceful conduct by members of the force. “I take issue with that,” he said, clearly agitated. While admitting that the shooting death of Mr. Bush while in custody was a tragedy, he said the facts of the case didn’t warrant the torrent of negative criticism the RCMP received over it.

I suggest the commissioner review the facts again. The officer’s description of how he shot Mr. Bush in the back of the head while lying face-first on a couch with the 200-pound millworker on top of him is difficult to believe. At an inquest, the officer declined an invitation to demonstrate how the shooting occurred.

Many, including one of the world’s leading forensic experts, felt the officer’s description of what happened was anatomically impossible. The way the RCMP investigated the shooting was problem-filled as well.

The Bush death is a classic example of the circle-the-wagons mentality Mr. Paulson admits is a problem for the RCMP. He would be wise not to defend the force’s actions in the case too loudly.

I was struck when the commissioner said he could barely breathe when considering the challenge he faces. He said he wished more people in the force felt the same way. I like that thinking.

The new commissioner does have an unnerving test before him. Nothing less than the future existence of the force rests on his shoulders. We could well be witnessing the Mounties’ last stand.

And that does require a few deep breaths, when you think about it.

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 2:00AM EST

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Ontario’s debt, Canada’s woes

Andrea Mandel-Campbell

Last updated Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011 6:29PM EST

Andrea Mandel-Campbell

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No one was really surprised when Ontario’s debt rating took another drubbing last week, adding Canada’s largest province to a long list of debt-swamped jurisdictions from Italy to Spain to be singled out by credit rating agencies for critical review.

Moody’s expressed displeasure with Ontario’s ballooning debt and dismal growth projections by lowering its outlook for the province’s debt rating to “negative.” It’s the latest in a cascade of downgrades beginning in 2009 after the province, having indulged in a massive uptick in government spending, was blindsided by the financial crisis.

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Ontario’s Finance Minister Dwight Duncan promised to take the warning seriously – and the rest of Canada had better hope he means it. Ontario represents 40 per cent of the country’s GDP. As Janice MacKinnon, Saskatchewan’s former finance minister, recently pointed out, the rating agencies don’t look at Ontario in isolation, but at the country in its entirety. Ontario’s debt woes “hurt Canada as a whole,” she said.

So what should Ontario do to rein in a decade of projected budget deficits that would make an Albertan apoplectic? The governing Liberals are vowing to be “creative” in their cost-cutting, and government-hired consultants are in hot pursuit of the secret sauce. But what Ontario really needs is a reality check.

While many Ontarians are concerned about the state of the province’s finances, discussing the affordability of a pricey program like full-day kindergarten is politically taboo. As the mother of a four-year-old who just started kindergarten, I understand the appeal of “free” care. But Ontario is like the divorcee who can’t stop maxing out his credit card at Holt’s even though his alimony payments would suggest a trip to Sears.

Despite being in the worst fiscal straits of all the provinces, Ontario is embarking on the most ambitious early-learning program in the country, introducing not one but two years of full-day kindergarten for four- and five-year-olds. It also went for the gold-plated plan – using teachers instead of early childhood educators for half the day as originally envisioned. Additional cost: $500-million a year.

All of this when Ontario has become a “have-not” province for the first time in its history, receiving equalization payments from more fiscally buoyant provinces like Alberta. The Wild Rose province is in the midst of its own debate about introducing a one-year program, but even without it, Alberta boasts the best education system in the country. For years, Alberta has consistently topped global education rankings, its innovative mix of decentralized teaching and charter schools a model for jurisdictions around the world.

Unfortunately, that is not the kind of creativity Ontario is willing to contemplate. While the province has earned accolades for its steady rise up the education rankings (without full-day kindergarten), the governing Liberals prefer the top-down approach over choice, competition and entrepreneurial schools.

That’s because full-day kindergarten is not just an education plan that also happens to “save” the average Ontario family $6,000 a year in daycare costs. For a province grappling with high unemployment and a struggling manufacturing sector, it’s a job stimulus plan to “hire more teachers.”

In other words, it’s a grand government design meant to be virtuous in its circle by neatly solving several political goals in one fell swoop. But as is so often the case, these theoretical circles rarely, if ever, square in reality. Eventually someone has to pay the piper, and it just might be the rest of Canada.

Andrea Mandel-Campbell is a former anchor at CTV’s Business News Network and author of Why Mexicans Don’t Drink Molson.

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 2:00AM EST

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Baby, it’s warm inside as Justin Bieber comes home for the holidays

Brad Wheeler

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 9:22AM EST

Justin Bieber and his sister Jazmyn perform during a special acoustic Christmas show at Massey Hall in Toronto. (George Pimentel/Getty Images)

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Dreams were realized, fantasies were fulfilled and yet more wishes are still to be granted. After his 105-minute concert at Massey Hall, the toque-wearing teen-idol Justin Bieber presented a giant cardboard cheque to The Children’s Wish Foundation of Canada, to the amount of $500,000.

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He had already thanked his over-the-moon audience, saying that it was his dream – as well as the dream of his accompanist, Toronto’s Dan Kanter – to play at the venerable hall.

And as for fantasies? The screams, squeals and sobs were proof enough that most reasonable desires were satisfied.

The benefit concert, 60 minutes late in starting at its appointed hour, was taped for broadcast today (Dec. 22) on MuchMusic (6 p.m.) and CTV (7:30 p.m.). Encore presentations of Justin Bieber: Home for the Holidays will follow.

The stage setting was a sort of Victorian street scene, with Christmas trees aplenty and stars and a moon overhead. The acoustic evening got off to a bumpy start: The hit single Baby endured a false start, and there was confusion as to whether Christmas Eve or Christmas Love would come next. (It was the latter.) The set list, as would be expected, drew chiefly from the Bieber’s latest album (the big-selling Under the Mistletoe) as well as 2010’s My Worlds Acoustic, a package of stripped down hits. The material was emotive and simply arranged for guitar and voice – Stratford, Ont.’s favourite son supplying the latter. A candy-apple red piano was used for a couple of numbers, including the poignant finale, Silent Night.

For a medley of Never Let You Go, a cover of the hip hop superstar Drake’s Trust Issues and Favourite Girl, the former street-corner singer strummed a left-handed Gibson Hummingbird. “I’m gonna get my guitar, if that’s cool,” he had politely asked, as he left his stool to get his instrument.

A boyish, innocent-looking 17-year-old superstar, Bieber is a slight fellow – his red-and-black checked lumberjack shirt and jeans hung from him if as if he were an undernourished scarecrow.

A small Canadian flag hung limply from his back pocket. Twelve-year-old girls paid that no mind, but others might have found his patriotism flip.

The “home for the holidays” conceit played out adorably: family members in the crowd included Bieber’s three-year-old stepsister, who was brought on stage late to help sing a second snippet of Baby. It was too cute for words, unless that word was mawkish.

“Are you guys ready for my next album?” Bieber asked at one point. We learned that he is writing material, including the song Be Alright, which may or may not be on his next album. It was an impassioned ballad, set to a mid-tempo tempo and built around a percussive guitar riff. “I’ll always be there for you,” Bieber crooned, his voice supple but with a slightly harder timbre than he possessed 18 months ago.

Bieber brought one young girl on stage, having her help with the vocals on Never Say Never. Her parting gift was a signed acoustic guitar.

Later he told his adoring throng of girlies and small children that he was a “normal person.” He said he wasn’t perfect, but that we all should be the best we can be. To strive for new goals and trust your parents was his advice. Corny, coming from a kid? Sure. But Bieber’s mother, who was in the crowd, would have never dreamed of the way her son has turned out.

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 12:59AM EST

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Canucks eke one out against Wings

DAVID EBNER

VANCOUVER - Globe and Mail Update

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 10:30AM EST

Vancouver Canucks Chris Higgins (R) celebrates his goal against the Detroit Red Wings during the first period of their NHL game in Vancouver, British Columbia December 21, 2011. (REUTERS)

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Pure hockey. Detroit at Vancouver, Wednesday night, two of the league’s highest-scoring teams, two of the best goaltenders, fast moving, scrappy, fore-checking, teams that “play the right way,” to evoke the words of Canucks coach Alain Vigneault from earlier in the day.

There were even some near fights, including an aborted scrap between Detroit goaltender Jimmy Howard and Vancouver winger Jannik Hansen after defenceman Alex Edler scored short-handed early in the third to give Vancouver a 4-2 win.

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Howard was angry that Hansen’s push to score, unfairly shoved the goaltender back into the net, freeing Edler to crack the key goal. The goal stood, quick and decisive retribution for a roughing call on Ryan Kesler that was provoked by some thuggery from Detroit’s Niklas Kronwall. The Kronwall-Kesler confrontation itself nearly became a full-on fight, before the refs snuffed it and put Kesler in the box.

Vigneault thought Detroit pushed Hansen into Howard. Howard, who is feeling generally aggrieved of late, insisted it was at least half-purposeful by Hansen, who he said “steamrolled me.”

“Them’s the breaks,” Howard said, sitting in the Wings dressing room, surrounded by reporters, wearing a Wings toque, his very-soft voice a dissonance to his angered tone, a lingering upset after he nearly dropped the gloves for fisticuffs.

“I’m just sick and tired of being run over. It’s every single game. You know, some times you can’t help it, your D battles in front, things do happen, but I’m getting sick of it.”

While a physical game, it was mostly free of penalties as the Canucks extended their relentless ascent back toward the top of the NHL, topping the Red Wings in speedy scrap between two Stanley Cup contenders.

“It was hard fought,” Vigneault said after the game.

He noted that Detroit snatched some momentum with about five minutes left in the second, and kept it up in the third, but couldn’t catch the Canucks, largely due to fine play by Luongo.

The Wings, Vigneault said, “took it to us pretty hard [but] the goaltender stood his ground, as a great goaltender does.”

In the past month, the Canucks have gone on a 12-2-1 run, and with each win, the streak more closely echoes the 18-1-3 stretch from the same time in 2010-11, a glorious run that launched Vancouver to a Presidents’ Trophy.

The Wednesday night victory vaulted Vancouver to within one point of Northwest Division-leading Minnesota, and the Canucks have a game in hand on the Wild.

Vancouver will play host to Calgary Friday night and then Edmonton Monday, two lower-ranked teams the Canucks usually beat up on, two Alberta sides that need every point as the season’s halfway mark approaches.

The first frame The two teams spent the start of the first feeling each other out, like two prize fighters prodding and poking to suss out small openings to exploit. As the offences attempted to find their gear, both teams’ defences gave no quarter.

Kevin Bieksa popped a solid open-ice check on pesky Detroit left winger Tomas Holmstrom near centre ice a couple of minutes into the game, preventing Holmstrom from joining a rush, the type of disruption that hampered both high-scoring sides until …

Bang, bang. Vancouver popped two quick ones, 21 seconds apart. The first popper started when Bieksa neatly sprang a rushing Mason Raymond to a clear run at Detroit’s Howard. Raymond deked right, and as defender Ian White clambered in, pulled it back left and snapped a shot, the rebound bouncing right back to Chris Higgins, who buried the puck for his 10th of the year.

The agile Canucks second line wasted no time piling on. Hansen, on the boards in the neutral zone after the draw at centre, slid a perfect pass to a bolting Cody Hodgson, who flew in with a clear look at Howard. Hodgson ripped a slapper past Howard’s right side, barely a centimetre to spare.

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Detroit responded less than four minutes later, as former Canuck Todd Bertuzzi bashed one in on Roberto Luongo, but Vancouver blasted back when Alex Burrows deftly, barely looking, tipped a Daniel Sedin shot past Howard.

The middle 20 Vancouver was outshot 16-11 in the second, with most of Detroit’s peppering coming later in the frame, but the shot count belies the fact the Canucks controlled the period, even if the team yielded the only goal, a notch that closed the two-goal lead to one.

The Canucks, never heralded for any physicality, had a banging good time to control the play, fore-checking, keeping the pressure on at most times, with everyone involved, from Henrik Sedin on the first line to strong efforts by the fourth line. The hustling fourth-liners on Wednesday night included 5-foot-9 Andrew Ebbett, a 28-year-old from Vernon, B.C., signed as a free agent in the summer. Playing in only his sixth game of the year, he had a team-high three shots after two.

The Detroit goal, coming near the end of the second, was the first time the Wings were really able to lay it on Vancouver, an effort almost singlehandedly due to centre Darren Helm’s push. His eventual one-timer on a pass from Danny Cleary was tipped in by Drew Miller, to Luongo’s high glove side, Miller’s seventh of the year.

The third period Detroit came out with far more game than it showed in the second, carrying some momentum from the end of the middle frame. It looked as if the Wings had an ideal chance to tie it, with the power play on Kesler’s questionable roughing penalty, but it was Vancouver that turned the tide by making it 4-2 on Edler’s sixth of the year, a big one to push the 25-year-old back into the NHL’s top quartet of scoring defencemen.

Detroit piled on particularly hard as the minutes ticked away towards 60 and urgency increased. With less than five minutes to go, Luongo made a series of big, big snatches, including his right pads down on the ice for a near goal from Helm, and then a high glove save on a zinger of a backhander centre and Wings leading scorer Pavel Datsyuk.

Though Vancouver was on the whole stronger on Wednesday night, Detroit did outshoot the home team 40-25. In the third it was 16-4 Detroit on shots.

Raymond, who has hit the ice with ferocity after his broken back from the June Cup final healed, paid tribute after the game to Luongo: “He makes those saves look easy.”

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 12:36AM EST

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Mastermind in Rengel killing seeks to avoid adult prison

ADRIAN MORROW

Last updated Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011 11:13PM EST

Melissa Todorovic was convicted of first-degree murder in 2009 in the death of 14-year-old Stephanie Rengel.

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Less than two weeks before the four-year anniversary of 14-year-old Stefanie Rengel’s murder, the girl convicted of masterminding the crime is trying to avoid moving to an adult prison.

Melissa Todorovic, who was 15 at the time of the killing, turns 20 next month. Because she was sentenced as an adult, that birthday will see her transferred from Roy McMurtry Youth Centre in Brampton to Kitchener’s Grand Valley Institution for Women.

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She is appealing both her conviction and sentence, and her lawyers will ask a court Thursday to let her remain at McMurtry until a judge rules on the appeals.

An affidavit sworn by Julie Santarossa, one of Ms. Todorovic’s lawyers, said the young woman is enrolled in long-distance courses from Alberta-based Athabasca University, in hopes of earning a bachelor of science in biology. The program requires the use of a laptop computer and lab facilities. It took time for the prison to make such arrangements for her, and Grand Valley does not have a laptop, Ms. Santarossa wrote.

The court filings also offer some glimpses into Ms. Todorovic’s life behind bars. She finished high school, earning As in most classes, and takes part in numerous social activities. In her case-management and reintegration plans, prison staff wrote that she gardens, studies French and performed a magic show to teach other inmates about math.

“Melissa has been a role model to her peer group and continues to excel in this area. Although she may not feel this to be true, it is evident in how the other peers react to her,” said one report. “Melissa has a positive attitude, which affects the overall climate of the unit for the better.”

She is also undergoing weekly one-on-one counselling sessions, dealing with body image and social anxiety issues, it said.

Ms. Rengel’s mother, Patricia Hung, said the family plans to be in court Thursday for arguments on the motion, but declined further comment.

On her blog, Ms. Hung described hearing about Ms. Todorovic’s application.

“As I missed one complete night’s sleep and spent the next day trying to figure out why it upset me so much when, quite frankly, it doesn’t impact our family one way or the other, I struggled to find the answer,” she wrote. “Most of the day I walked around in a haze, easily brought to tears and fits of impatience with the kids, angry with myself for allowing this girl – now a woman – to impact my life for one more moment.”

Ms. Hung wrote that she ultimately realized she was upset because Ms. Todorovic was close to marking her 20th birthday, while her daughter “will now always be just [14] years old.”

Ms. Todorovic was convicted in 2009 of first-degree murder for planning with boyfriend David Bagshaw, then 17, to kill Ms. Rengel. The two girls had never met, but Ms. Todorovic believed Ms. Rengel, who once had a brief friendship with Mr. Bagshaw, was her rival. Over the course of several months in 2008, Ms. Todorovic cajoled her boyfriend to do the deed, belittling him and threatening to cheat on him if he didn’t go through with it.

On the first day of 2008, he called Ms. Rengel to lure her outside of her East York home, then stabbed her to death in the street.

Both were convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced as adults.

Mr. Bagshaw was involved in a bloody prison brawl earlier this year, in which he allegedly attacked another inmate with a weapon. Guards shot him and another prisoner, who died. Mr. Bagshaw survived. He faces an attempted murder charge in the incident.

Published on Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011 10:41PM EST

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In Pictures: Justin Bieber takes T.O.

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 12:18AM EST

Justin Bieber performs songs from his hit album Under the Mistletoe at Massey Hall in Toronto, Dec. 21. Bieber's TV special, MuchMusic Presents Justin Bieber: Home for the Holidays, premiering Thursday, Dec.22 at 6 p.m. ET/PT on MuchMusic and 7:30 p.m. ET/PT on CTV. - MuchMusic

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Business

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Thomson Reuters pulls sale of health care unit

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 10:29AM EST

A worker enters the Thomson Reuters building in the Canary Wharf financial district of London August 6, 2009. (SIMON NEWMAN/REUTERS)

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News and information provider Thomson Reuters Corp. said it has pulled the sale of its health care business, as tough economic conditions made it difficult to fetch a good enough price.

The company had announced in June that it planned to sell the unit, which supplies health care data and analysis to companies, government agencies and health professionals, and which had revenue of about $450-million (U.S.) in 2010.

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“Global economic conditions have become more challenging and the company believes they are not conducive to concluding a transaction that reflects the fair value of the healthcare business at this time,” Thomson Reuters said in a statement on Thursday.

A spokesman for the company declined to say what parties had considered buying the health care business or what prices might have been discussed.

Thomson Reuters said it would continue to invest in the health care business “until improved market conditions allow the company to complete a divestiture at attractive terms.”

The company had previously said the sale of the healthcare unit was not expected to have a material impact on its 2011 outlook.

Thomson Reuters provides news and information to financial, legal, accounting and healthcare professionals.

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 10:27AM EST

Companies mentioned in this article ( 1)

Company Price Change Volume

Thomson Reuters

TRI-T 26.40 0.02

0.08% 149,492

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Italy’s austerity budget gets final approval

ROME - Globe and Mail Update

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 9:29AM EST

Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti speaks at the Senate in Rome December 22, 2011. (ALESSANDRO BIANCHI/REUTERS)

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Italy’s Senate on Thursday definitively approved Prime Minister Mario Monti’s €33-billion austerity package aimed at restoring market confidence in the euro zone’s third-biggest economy.

The Senate voted 257 to 41 in a confidence vote called to speed the passage of the measures.

- Monti wins confidence vote on austerity

- Italian government calls confidence vote on austerity

- Italy raises $3.95-billion but rates soar

More to come

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 9:23AM EST

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Strikes over austerity hit Europe holiday travel

RAF CASERT

Brussels - The Associated Press

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 9:21AM EST

A man walks across the empty concourse at Brussels South railway station in Brussels, Thursday Dec. 22, 2012. (Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AP)

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Strikes to protest austerity measures paralyzed ground traffic in Belgium and hit Christmas travellers in several nations across Europe on Thursday, promising days of headaches through the holidays.

Workers were walking off the job to show their ire at budget-slashing measures by their governments to tackle debt and high deficits, and officials were scrambling to try to mitigate delays and cancellations.

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Eurostar and Thalys idled part of their popular service through Brussels as Belgian transport workers walked off the job. In France, a strike by airport security personnel stretched into its seventh day, and in London, football club Arsenal postponed its day-after-Christmas game against Wolverhampton Wanderers by 24 hours because of a planned public transport strike on the U.K.’s Boxing Day holiday.

The French government, anxious to avoid angering voters ahead of next spring's presidential election, was looking at options on Thursday to get police to replace security personnel and make sure Christmas Sunday is as undisturbed as possible. Delays appeared to be shortening.

“The issue is to have airplanes take off so that the French people who have had a tough autumn and are feeling the crisis can get to their families and not be blocked at airports,” Transport Minister Nathalie Koscusko-Morizet said on France Info.

In the Netherlands, doctors got in on the act, with about one in six holding a three-hour wildcat strike after Parliament approved plans to reduce their reimbursement for many common procedures. Doctors who participated said they were only available in case of emergency.

In Greece, train workers planned a five-hour work stoppage from noon Thursday, and in Spain more airline and transport action is expected next week, with Iberia pilots to strike again Dec. 29 over the state company's decision to launch a low cost airline. Meanwhile, the small CGT union has called strikes at the public rail company Renfe for Christmas and New Year's.

The major unions in Belgium were protesting pension reform being pushed through Parliament for early next year that would require people to wait two years longer before early retirement. All but one of Belgium's major airports were operating close to normal, but intermittent road blocks by strikers worsened road delays around the capital. The strike also affected postal services, schools and hospitals.

At the Brussels South train station, the tracks of the popular Eurostar and Thalys trains linking London and Paris through Brussels with Amsterdam and Germany, remained empty.

“Eurostar and other onward connecting rail services will not be able to operate to or from Brussels during this period,” the rail company said of the 24-hour strike.

Simply waiting a day would be tough for holiday travellers since the trains are often fully booked for days on end.

All local lines were canceled on Thursday, too, keeping many workers home.

“Again, it is at the expense of travellers. We are literally left out in the cold,” said Kees Smilde of the TrainTramBus consumer group.

The reforms are part of a slate of austerity measures approved by Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo's coalition to get Belgium out of the financial crisis.

Unions were especially irked that the government is trying to push through pension reform, sidestepping the traditional worker-employer negotiations that have become a cornerstone of the nation's welfare state system.

Workers “are striking against the government retirement measures because they are imposed on us in the absence of any kind of social negotiations,” the Socialist ABVV union said in a statement. Another day of action is planned for Jan. 30, when a summit of EU government leaders is planned, and further wildcat strikes are expected.

In London, Arsenal was forced to take action after subway workers decided to stage a strike the day after Christmas in a dispute over holiday pay in a walkout sure to cause problems on one of the busiest shopping days of the year. The London Underground's management calls the unions' demand for more pay and another day off “outrageous.”

In Paris, the airport security personnel strike continued but delays were shortening and no flight cancellations were recorded at De Gaulle, Paris' busiest airport Wednesday.

Unions representing workers who conduct pat-downs on travellers and operate the bag-screening machines launched the walkout a week ago to demand negotiations over an increase in pay. It was timed for maximum effect during the holiday getaway season.

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 9:18AM EST

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Rob Carrick's Reader: The big year ahead

Rob Carrick

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 9:03AM EST

Bull figurine symbolizing bull market ((C) 2008 Jupiterimages)

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The best of the Web on money, markets and all things financial, as chosen daily by Globe and Mail personal finance columnist Rob Carrick.

The Big Year Ahead

Money managers are quite optimistic about 2012 on the whole, with 80 per cent expecting positive returns in the Canadian market and 33 per cent expecting double-digit returns.

Why Cash Is King

Some thoughts on the benefits of holding a large amount of money in cash, even at a time when interest rates are low.

‘Twas The Night Before Christmas

The My Own Adviser blog uses the classic Christmas poem as a guide to some of the personal finance bloggers and writers out there. Thanks for the shout-out, MOA.

Turning Talk To Action on Savings

A smart take on savings – just talking about it doesn’t accomplish much. You actually have to make a choice to save and then follow through with some action.

Personal Finance on Facebook

Subscribe to my Facebook page for discussions like the one yesterday on what financial advisers can do for you.

Follow us on Twitter: @globemoney

Editor's note: If you don't receive Rob Carrick's newsletter twice weekly by email, you can sign up to get it for free at The Globe and Mail. All you need to do is register for the site, or if you've already registered, log in and go to your profile at the top of the homepage. Once you're in your profile, look under Newsletters and Alerts and look for the Personal Finance Reader and other newsletters. Other financial newsletters include: Business Ticker, a summary of the day's top business stories; Berman's Market Update, a summary of the markets at the open, noon and close; and All-Star Investors, a monthly collection of articles exploring an investing trend or theme.

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 9:03AM EST

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U.S. GDP: Good news, bad news

SONALI VERMA

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 9:17AM EST

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A quick look at what economists are saying about third-quarter economic growth numbers and last week's jobless claims data out of the United States:

"Good and bad news in today’s data, with third-quarter GDP revised down for a second time, but weekly initial claims again coming in better than the street’s expectation. GDP was knocked down two ticks to 1.8 per cent from the second estimate, and making the 2.5 per cent pace recorded in the flash something of a distant memory," wrote Andrew Grantham, economist at CIBC World Markets.

"Most worryingly, much of the revision stemmed from personal consumption, which is now estimated as rising by a meager 1.7 per cent (previously 2.3 per cent). Private investment was revised up a touch to partly offset, with a small negative turning to a marginal positive (1.3 per cent versus -0.9 per cent previously)."

NBF Financial senior economist Krishen Rangasamy saw the numbers in a positive light.

"While the downward revision to GDP isn’t good news, it’s old news at this point. More importantly, the current quarter is showing promising signs with consumers bouncing back and even housing seemingly stabilizing. The more upbeat consumer has a lot to do with the improving labour market – the latter is evidenced by the downtrending initial jobless claims," he wrote.

"It's clear that the U.S. economy accelerated in the fourth quarter based on monthly data. Unless Congress decides to be play spoilsport, momentum should carry through to 2012 helped by a resurgent consumer, business spending and inventory refills."

Going forward, it may well mean good news, agreed Scotia Capital economists Derek Holt and Karen Cordes Woods.

"It seems to me that the biggest takeaway here is that economists will likely firm up or revise slightly higher their fourth-quarter growth forecasts on a weaker than anticipated third-quarter hand off," they wrote.

"The second broad takeaway is that despite upward revisions to inventories and business investment in equipment and structures, downward revisions to consumer spending led to the unexpectedly greater headline GDP weakness."

"Claims handily beat expectations and this will only further intensify the debate over whether U.S. job gains are likely to accelerate going forward. These are the lowest claim figures since April 2008 but they leave open the debate over whether a job acceleration lies around the corner versus whether they simply signal a period of reduced firings in a relatively jobless recovery."

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 8:58AM EST

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U.S. growth slower than thought

WASHINGTON - Reuters

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 10:52AM EST

For the first time in months, several key indicators are pointing in the right direction. Holiday spending is holding up well, exports are picking up, new jobless claims are steadily falling, the economy is adding jobs, consumer confidence is rising and housing is bottoming out. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

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U.S. economic growth was slower than previously estimated in the third quarter on a sharp drop in health care spending, but stronger business investment and a fall in inventories pointed to a pickup in output in the current period.

Gross domestic product grew at a 1.8 per cent annual rate in the third quarter, the Commerce Department said in its final estimate on Thursday, down from the previously estimated 2 per cent.

- U.S. GDP: Good news, bad news

- U.S. jobless claims fall to lowest since 2008

- Wages still failing to keep up with inflation

Economists had expected growth to be unrevised at 2 per cent. Though spending on health care dropped by $2.2-billion, spending on durable goods was stronger than previously estimated, indicating household appetite to consume remains healthy.

Health care spending had previously been reported to have increased at a $19.7-billion rate. Health care spending subtracted about 0.1 percentage point from the GDP change in the final revision, whereas the previous estimate had it adding 0.61 percentage point to growth.

Even as much of the rest of the world is slowing down and a mild recession is forecast in Europe next year, the U.S. economy remains resilient.

The labour market is improving, households continue to spend, home building is picking up and factory output is expanding, putting the economy on course for at least a 3-per-cent growth pace in the fourth quarter.

That would be the fastest pace in 18 months.

Despite the downward revision, last quarter’s growth is still a step-up from the April-June period’s 1.3-per-cent pace. Part of the pick-up in output during the last quarter reflects a reversal of factors that held back growth earlier in the year.

A jump in gasoline prices had weighed on consumer spending earlier in the year, and supply disruptions from Japan’s big earthquake and tsunami in March had curbed auto production.

The government revised consumer spending to a 1.7-per-cent growth rate from 2.3 per cent because of adjustments to health care services, in particular non-profit hospitals.

Spending on durable goods was, however, revised up to a 5.7 per cent pace from 5.5 per cent.

Business inventories dropped $2.0-billion, which sliced off 1.35 percentage points from GDP growth. Inventories had previously been estimated to have declined $8.5-billion.

The drag from inventories was offset by strong business spending, which increased at a 15.7 per cent rate, instead of 14.8 per cent.

Excluding inventories, the economy grew at a still brisk 3.2-per-cent rate, revised down from 3.6-per-cent pace. Final sales increased at a 1.6-per-cent pace in the second quarter.

The Department also said after-tax corporate profits increased at a 2.7-per-cent rate, revised down from 3.0 per cent. After tax profits increased at a 4.3 rate in the second quarter.

Export growth was stronger than previously estimated, rising at a 4.7-per-cent rate instead of 4.3 per cent. Imports increased at a much faster 1.2-per-cent rate rather than 0.5 per cent.

Trade contributed 0.43 percentage point to GDP growth. Elsewhere, residential construction grew at a 1.3-per-cent rate instead of 1.6 per cent. Government spending fell at an unrevised 0.1 per cent.

The GDP report also showed some inflation pressures in the economy. A price index for personal spending rose at an unrevised 2.3-per-cent rate in the third quarter.

That compared to a 3.3-per-cent rate in the second quarter. A core inflation measure, which strips out food and energy costs, rose at a 2.1-per-cent rate rather than 2.0 per cent. The measure – closely watched by the Federal Reserve – grew at a 2.3-per-cent rate in the prior three months.

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 8:41AM EST

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European belt tightening hits iPhone 4S sales

Tarmo Virki

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 8:33AM EST

Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks in front of an image of the iPhone 4S. (REUTERS)

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Weakening economies and falling prices of rival smartphones are hurting sales of Apple Inc. ’s iPhones across Europe, data from research firm Kantar Worldpanel ComTech showed on Thursday.

The October roll-out of Apple’s iPhone 4S boosted its position in Britain and United States, but the new phones failed to excite interest in continental Europe, where Apple’s share of the fast-growing smartphone market slipped.

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The smartphone industry is dominated by Google Inc. , which has stormed the market with its free Android platform.

“In Great Britain, the U.S. and Australia, Apple’s new iPhone continues to fly off the shelf in the run-up to Christmas. However, this trend is far from universal,” said Dominic Sunnebo, global consumer insight director.

Apple’s market share in the 12 weeks to end-November rose to 36 per cent in the United States from 25 per cent a year earlier and in Britain to 31 per cent from 21 per cent, Kantar said.

However, in France its share slipped to 20 per cent from 29 per cent and in Germany to 22 percent from 27 per cent. Similar drops were seen in Italy and Spain.

“The French market is showing increasing signs of price sensitivity,” Mr. Sunnebo said.

In part, the European sales of the expensive Apple model were hit by weakening economies across the continent.

Euro zone GDP grew just 0.2 per cent in the third quarter and most economists expect it to contract in the fourth and also in the first three months of next year, sending the bloc back into recession after its two-year recovery from the worst global financial crisis since the 1930s.

The euro zone’s own crisis with government debt has scared off investment and eaten into business and consumer confidence, particularly since August when investors intensified their scrutiny of the bloc’s problems.

European consumers are keeping a lid on their expenses as government spending cuts and job losses deprive companies of demand for goods and crush exports.

Google had market shares of between 46 and 61 per cent in all markets. Cellphone makers like Samsung Electronics, Sony Ericsson, LG Ericsson and Motorola Mobility all use its Android platform in their phones.

“In Germany, Android achieved a dominant 61 per cent share of smartphone sales in the latest 12 weeks, with the Samsung Galaxy S II the top selling handset,” Mr. Sunnebo said.

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 8:26AM EST

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Consumer confidence hits 2 1/2 year low

Lauren Krugel

Ottawa - The Canadian Press

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 11:13AM EST

A sale sign is seen at Aritzia at the Eaton Centre in Toronto. (Kevin Van Paassen/The Globe and Mail)

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The Conference Board of Canada says the latest consumer confidence numbers show the index hitting its lowest level since the height of the recession.

The Ottawa think tank said Thursday its Index of Consumer Confidence posted a 6.5-point drop in December, bringing 2011 to a “disappointing” close and signalling further belt-tightening by Canadians is in store.

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At 69.9, the index is down 11.1 points from where it was at the end of 2010 — its lowest point in more than two and a half years.

“Consumers continue to report deep concerns about their financial situation,” the board said.

“At a time when the major banks are warning that consumer debt levels have risen to record levels, Canadians say they are losing ground.”

The board uses a 2002 base of 100 in compiling the index, which reflects how Canadians feel about the economy, job creation, future major purchases and their personal finances.

The board said opinion eroded on all four questions, but responses to the major purchases question were particularly gloomy.

In December, just 34.1 per cent of respondents said now is a good time to buy a big-ticket item like a car or an appliance, down 1.9 percentage points from November and the eighth consecutive monthly decline.

More worrisome is that 54 per cent said now is a bad time to make a major purchase, up 3.5 percentage points and more than 10 points higher than a year ago.

“The results reflect the Conference Board of Canada's recent economic forecast, which suggests that consumer spending will remain weak in the coming months.”

Confidence was down across the country, with the biggest drop in Atlantic Canada, wiping out a recent gain after the Halifax Shipyard won a $25-billion shipbuilding contract earlier this fall.

British Columbia registered a third consecutive monthly decline, and confidence also dropped in Ontario and Quebec, the heart of Canada's manufacturing sector.

The Prairie provinces recorded only a small drop and confidence in the resource-rich region remains the highest in the country.

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 8:20AM EST

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Premarket: Smart rally in Europe

SONALI VERMA

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 7:37AM EST

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European stocks rallied as banks led the way, and U.S. stocks appeared ready to open higher amid thinning year-end volume.

Britain's FTSE 100 rose 1.1 per cent, France's CAC 40 gained 1.3 per cent, and Germany's DAX was 1.1 per cent higher.

Dow futures rose 53 points, or 0.4 per cent, to 12,077, while S&P 500 futures gained 5.9 points, or 0.5 per cent, trading at 1,242.20 about two hours before the New York Stock Exchange opened.

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Financial stocks led the European market recovery amid indications that the nearly half a trillion euros banks borrowed from the region’s central bank on Wednesday will ease funding strains. The scale of the funding operation initially aggravated concerns about the health of the financial system but was increasingly regarded as having eased pressure on the banks.

Key euro zone bank-to-bank lending rates fell in response to the lending operation. Three-month Euribor rates, traditionally the main gauge of unsecured interbank euro lending, fell to 1.410 per cent from 1.416 per cent. Longer-term rates also fell.

The euro steadied near $1.3055 (U.S.).

Japan's Nikkei fell 0.7 per cent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng dipped 0.2 per cent. Global stocks, as measured by MSCI world equity index edged up 0.2 per cent.

Italian 10-year bond yields were about 3 basis points lower at 6.79 per cent. Equivalent Spanish paper was yielding 5.36 per cent, about 5.0 basis points higher.

The cost of insuring Hungary’s debt against default jumped sharply after Standard & Poor’s cut the country’s rating to junk, highlighting another vulnerable point in the European region.

Britain's economy grew by a slightly better than anticipated 0.6 percent in the third quarter, after unexpectedly stalling in the previous three month period, official figures showed Thursday.

Gold edged lower to $1,612.50 an ounce.

Oil rose above $99 a barrel.

The Canadian dollar traded higher at 97.63 U.S. cents.

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 7:33AM EST

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Ottawa’s health plan: When money misses the point

ARMINE YALNIZYAN

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 9:27AM EST

The federal government will put up $27-billion this year through the Canada Health Transfer. By 2017, when the deal ends, the annual transfer will have grown to $36-billion. (Chad Hipolito for The Globe and Mail)

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Armine Yalnizyan is a senior economist with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives

As Christmas presents go, this one was a shocker: Over lunch on Monday, cash-strapped Finance Minister Jim Flaherty promised provincial and territorial finance ministers he'd increase federal funding for health care by six per cent each year for the next five years. No strings attached. No negotiations. A done deal. With a catch.

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The provinces and territories have five years to figure out how to make health care sustainable on their own terms, every Premier for himself. After that, the Harper Government will contribute less, tying federal contributions to the growth in the economy, with a floor of 3 per cent.

That punts serious discussions about tackling growing health and regional disparities to the other side of the next federal election. And it maintains the Harper government's "talk to the hand" stance on major changes in public policy which affect other jurisdictions, like the senseless census long-form debacle and the evidence-free crime and punishment agenda.

But, politics aside, what does the six per cent mean economically and fiscally?

For starters, it means one more year of a sure thing than what was on offer a mere 72 hours ago.

In terms of cold hard cash, the feds will put up $27-billion this year through the Canada Health Transfer. By 2017, when the deal ends, the annual transfer will have grown to $36-billion. See this post for more about the history of federal contributions to health care in Canada.

In the context of austerity and slow growth, a budget item worth $9-billion more in five years sounds sweet. In the context of what the provinces and territories spend on health care ($130-billion), not so much. See the related chart.

Over the next five years the automatic 6 per cent escalator will pump an accumulated $26-billion more into provincial and territorial coffers.

That's not chump change, but it pales in comparison with the more than $220-billion dedicated to tax cuts since 2006, or the 20-year, $490-billion commitment to refurbishing military hardware.

As costly as these other priorities are, nobody's scrutinizing their sustainability the way the future of public health care is regularly questioned.

If sustainability means bending the cost curve for health care, we need more than what Flaherty's Done Deal offers. I'm not talking more money. The $26-billion over five years could buy important reforms if it's harnessed to that purpose, just like our federal, provincial and territorial governments agreed to do in 2004.

The 2004 Health Accord was negotiated, not decreed. Everyone agreed, new money had to buy change. It provided an injection of $41-billion in new federal funds over 10 years to "fix" health care.

It named wait times, diagnostic equipment, pharmaceuticals and access to primary care as the biggest problems to fix.

Seven years later, we see that the provinces and territories delivered results on the first two problems and dropped focus on the last two.

Wait times for cataract, knee and hip and cardiac surgery and screening for cancers have fallen dramatically across the country. That means that in every part of Canada more citizens are getting more care more quickly.

You never hear about that. The attention is always on what isn't working. For sure, everyone knows there is plenty of room for improvement. So, as the 10-year 2004 Health Accord comes to a close, the question is: what is the most important thing for our governments to focus on improving, together, right now?

The Harper Team boiled down the meaning of the 2004 Health Accord to an automatic escalator. That misses the point. The Accord has shown that focus and commonality of political will, with a long-term financial guarantee, can bring about positive and meaningful change.

More money without a plan is just that, more money. Canadians deserve better than that. Our most valued social program needs a plan. A plan that tackles growing disparities in health outcomes and growing gaps in access to care. A plan that brings our best minds together, working in concert, to bend the cost curve by focusing on improving health and improving care. It's possible, but it requires more than the blunt tool of cost control. It requires a shared strategy and focus on improvement. A health "plan" without a plan is just a fancy way to say "devolution".

Economy Lab, winner of the 2011 Eppy Award for best business blog. Follow Economy Lab on twitter

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 7:04AM EST

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Japan cuts economic growth forecasts

Tokyo - The Associated Press

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 7:05AM EST

Pedestrians walk past advertisments for discount fresh foods displayed at a shopping mall in Bangkok on August 22, 2011. (PORNCHAI KITTIWONGSAKUL/AFP/Getty Images)

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Japan's government lowered its economic growth forecasts as the country struggles with the yen's export-sapping strength and the fallout from Europe's debt crisis.

The Cabinet said Thursday it expects the economy to shrink 0.1 per cent in the fiscal year through March 2012 and grow 2.2 per cent in the following year as reconstruction efforts in the wake of the March earthquake boost demand.

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The Cabinet had previously forecast the economy to grow 0.5 per cent in the current fiscal year and 2.8 per cent in the year through March 2013.

It said unemployment would fall to 4.3 per cent from the 4.5 per cent projected for this year.

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 7:01AM EST

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U.K. economic growth revised up to 0.6%

LONDON - The Associated Press

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 7:07AM EST

Nissan technicians prepare doors for the Qashqai car at the company's plant in Sunderland, northern England November 9, 2011. (NIGEL RODDIS/REUTERS)

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Britain's economy grew by a slightly better than anticipated 0.6 per cent in the third quarter, after unexpectedly stalling in the previous three month period, official figures showed Thursday.

The 0.1-per-cent upward revision to the third quarter growth was offset by an equivalent reduction to the previous quarter to show no growth at all.

- Japan cuts economic growth forecasts

- U.K. announces sweeping changes to banking legislation

- Fitch downgrades seven global banks

The Office for National Statistics said the upward revision was largely due to agriculture, construction and services performing better than estimated. Those sectors outweighed the impact of a faltering industrial sector.

The third quarter rise was the highest since the third quarter of 2010, when the British economy also grew by 0.6 per cent but analysts aren't getting too carried away.

Britain's economy remains threatened by the debt crisis in Europe, rising unemployment and weak domestic growth, and the Bank of England has forecast little or no growth over the next few quarters.

“The underlying trend is very clearly one of an economy that is struggling in the face of what seems to be an ever-growing list of headwinds,” said Chris Williamson, chief economist at financial services information company Markit.

The Conservative-led government has staked its reputation on a strategy of cutting costs and jobs in the public sector while trying to boost private sector growth. Britain's unemployment rate is now 8.3 per cent, up 0.4 per cent on the quarter and at its highest level since 1996.

Influential credit ratings agency Moody's warned this week that the U.K.’s cherished triple-A credit rating is at risk from both a weak domestic economy and the financial crisis in the euro zone. It warned that the country's deficit “has eroded its ability to absorb further macroeconomic or fiscal shocks without rating implications.”

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 6:57AM EST

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Supreme Court rejects Ottawa's bid for national securities regulator

BILL CURRY

OTTAWA - Globe and Mail Update

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 11:07AM EST

The Supreme Court of Canada in Ottawa. (Sean Kilpatrick for The Globe and Mail)

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The Supreme Court has unanimously declared Ottawa’s proposed national Securities Act unconstitutional, siding with provinces that insisted the day-to-day regulation of securities markets does not belong in federal hands.

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty had asked for the court’s opinion on the constitutionality of the proposed law, arguing that the lack of a uniform national body to regulate securities trading was a glaring weakness in Canada’s financial system.

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- Top Court to rule on national securities regulator

Ontario, where the majority of Canada’s securities trading takes place, was the only province to side with Ottawa’s approach.

Several other provinces argued that the existing system – in which individual regulators work together to ensure common national standards – is enough to protect investors and the Canadian economy.

In its opinion – which is not a judgment because it was simply asked by Ottawa to clear up the question of constitutionality – the Supreme Court notes that it is not weighing in on whether a national security regulator would be a better option in terms of public policy.

“The courts do not have the power to declare legislation constitutional simply because they conclude that it may be the best option in terms of public policy,” the court states.

The Supreme Court’s decision marks the third time courts have ruled against Ottawa in this case. Appeals courts in Quebec and Alberta previously came to the same conclusion.

Canada’s argument that – in light of lessons learned from the 2008 economic crisis – a national regulator is needed to prevent systemic risk to the financial system appears to have found some sympathy among the judges, but not enough to sway the final decision.

“Aspects of the [proposed federal Securities Act], for example those aimed at management of systemic risk and at national data collection, appear to be directly related to the larger national goals which the Act proclaims are its raison d’être. However, important as these elements are, they do not, on the record before us, justify a complete takeover of provincial regulation,” the court states.

Ottawa had argued that the federal Constitutional power over trade and commerce trumped the provincial constitutional authority over the regulation of securities markets. Provinces outside of Ontario successfully argued that securities regulation falls under their constitutional authority over the regulation of property and civil rights.

Still, the court suggests there may still be room for a federal law that recognizes these provincial powers over securities regulation – but also the need to address some aspects nationally.

“It is not for the Court to suggest to governments of Canada and the provinces the way forward by, in effect, conferring in advance an opinion on the constitutionality of this or that alternative scheme,” the court states, noting that other federations are able to resolve such governance questions via “cooperative solutions.”

“Co-operation is the animating force. The federalism principle upon which Canada’s constitutional framework rests demands nothing less.”

Several groups that argued in favour of the proposed Securities Act - such as the Canadian Bankers Association and the Investment Industry Association of Canada - insisted the ruling was positive because it confirmed Ottawa has at least some role to play in securities regulation.

They pointed to the court’s language around systemic risk and data collection as examples of areas where Ottawa could still pursue a national regulator that incorporates the provincial authority to regulate day-to-day transactions.

“What this does is set the constitutional platform for us to move forward and actually build a national regulator for Canada, which is essential for our capital markets,” said Ian Russell, President and CEO of the Investment Industry Association of Canada.

The seniors advocacy group CARP issued a statement expressing disappointment with the ruling, noting that its members were looking forward to improved investor protection via stronger investigative powers under the proposed national body.

“Now the provinces, especially those that opposed the national body, must step up and demonstrate how they would replace that vital investor protection,” said Susan Eng, CARP’s vice-president for advocacy.

University of Ottawa law professor Errol Mendes, who is editor-in-chief of the National Journal of Constitutional Law, criticized the court for suggesting that somehow a co-operative approach can address risks to Canada’s financial system.

“The Supreme Court does not seem fully aware of the reality of how day to day can give rise to systemic risk,” he wrote in an analysis of the ruling that he provided to the Globe. “The complexity of the financial markets today is dramatically different from the time that the Constitution Act was passed in 1867. Overall, the decision of the Court on the national securities legislation is not a good decision for Canada.”

Philip Anisman, a prominent Toronto securities lawyer who advised the government panel that recommended a national regulator in 2008, said the ruling does not mean the door is closed for good.

Mr. Anisman, who first took on the issue as a summer student working for the government in 1966 and later actually produced draft legislation for Ottawa in 1979, said the Supreme Court’s ruling actually does uphold federal jurisdiction in certain areas, for example, the regulation of “systemic risk.”

And it leaves open the idea that the provinces and Ottawa could co-operatively come up with a new national regulatory regime on their own, he said. Under such a scheme, the provinces would maintain their jurisdiction of securities regulation, but could delegate it to a newly created body.

“The court isn’t saying that the federal government has no jurisdiction,” Mr. Anisman said. “So it doesn’t put an end to it.”

With a file from Jeff Gray in Toronto

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 6:16AM EST

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Be a leader Warren Buffett would invest in

Christine Comaford

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 6:50AM EST

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Warren Buffett doesn’t normally invest in technology stocks. So why did he recently buy over $10-billion (U.S.) of IBM?

Over the course of nine months, Mr. Buffett bought over 5 per cent of the company. Then two weeks after IBM’s announcement of their next CEO, he stopped investing. He openly regrets not investing when the current CEO first started.

What Warren Wants

Many of Mr. Buffett’s top portfolio picks were bought a few years into a new CEO’s tenure after they’ve demonstrated successes.

Coca-Cola was one of Mr. Buffett’s earliest investments and his largest holding. He bought in 1988 after the CEO successfully navigated a backlash from the company’s new formula by introducing Coke Classic, and by refocusing on the core business of soda. Eventually Mr. Buffett purchased 7 per cent of the entire company.

In the years following Warren’s investment in Coca-Cola the company grew through global expansion and the introduction of new soft drinks.

That was still their strategy a few years later.

And a few years after that.

More countries, more soft drinks. That’s it. It has worked for over a century.

Buffett’s Leadership Lesson #1: Focus on a simple strategy and execute it. Rapidly course-correct if tactics fail. Influence over the industry and a strong market position will result.

The #2 spot in Mr. Buffett’s portfolio is Wells Fargo, a financial services company that stayed on the straight and narrow while other banks gave out risky loans. They stayed accountable and stuck to the strategies that already worked despite tremendous industry pressure. They stayed accountable to their shareholders as well, bypassing the short-term gains that appeal to some investors.

19.5 per cent of Mr. Buffett’s holdings are in Wells Fargo. For a reason.

Buffett’s Leadership Lesson #2: Be Accountable to your strategy and stick to your standards, avoiding flashy and risky short-term gains.

#3 is American Express. Mr. Buffett bought it at a discount in 1964 when a fraud scandal brought the shares to an all-time low. Amex had made millions in loans based on the assessed, verified value of oil used in salad dressings. One tiny snag – the oil was actually huge tanks of water with oil on top, part of a sophisticated scam. Amex had a choice: pay out the loans they’d been scammed out of or punt and tank their reputation. American Express delivered on its promises by footing a bill for millions. A massive loss was the result, but the scandal demonstrated leadership through a crisis. The following year the shares doubled.

Buffett’s Leadership Lesson #3: Be Direct. If a crisis occurs, handle it swiftly and completely.

How Do You Stack Up?

So what does Mr. Buffett really want? The following leadership qualities plus one more that makes all the difference…

Be Focused. Be here now, not in the past or future. We chose what we want to focus on and what we want to ignore or defer. Being focused is about both being attentive and aware of issues, challenges and the real numbers and events that are taking place.

Be Accountable. Make and keep commitments to yourself and others. Developing leaders give their accountability away to either other people or circumstances. The quality and speed of results are directly proportional to how much accountability one takes on about having those results.

Be Direct. Be clear and explicit in your words, actions, visions, intentions and strategies. Otherwise misunderstandings, miscommunications and wasted resources will result. Clarity strengthens a team’s commitment and trust with one other and their projects.

Be Influential. How much influence do you have over outcomes and others? Developing leaders may think influence comes through domination. This is not sustainable, and results in a crushed culture. Influence occurs through our language, decision making, requests and promises, actions, intentions and ways of being. Influence is all about empowering others in tangible, measurable, specific ways.

How do you score on Mr. Buffett’s Leadership Lessons? Find out by taking a five-minute assessment here (where you’ll find the fifth key leadership quality too!).

Christine Comaford is a five-time CEO who has sat on over two dozen private and public company boards.

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 6:00AM EST

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Canada’s venture-capital taps slow to trickle

Kevin Depew

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 5:40AM EST

Roy Pereira, taking the search for VC to NYC (Tom Feiler)

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It’s early October in New York City and Roy Pereira is standing in the NHL Powered by Reebok store on 6th Avenue at 47th Street, just below a fairly low-tech sign scrolling updated preseason news about the Winnipeg Jets. On this night, the store is closed for a private party sponsored by the Maple Leaf Digital Lounge, an industry-led initiative founded last year and dedicated to helping Canadian entrepreneurs promote their businesses outside of Canada.

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The event is part of New York’s sprawling Advertising Week conference, billed by its organizers as “the world’s premier annual gathering of marketing and communications leaders.” So it’s the perfect place, really, for digital start-ups and their founders to rub shoulders with potential clients, and perhaps even potential investors, here among pricey NHL jerseys, hats and other merchandise. Imagine a gathering of the world’s best salespeople, marketers and idea generators in a single place, each one aggressively pitching his or her best idea, and you can get a sense of the atmosphere. At one point, a very pleasant but slightly overenthusiastic pitchman nearly bodychecks me into a rack of Sidney Crosby jerseys. For a novice salesperson – a reporter, say – it can be intimidating.

Like nearly all the attendees at tonight’s party – the usual mix of digital publishers, online advertising executives and junior associates attracted by the promise of free beer and wine – Pereira is in full-on pitch mode, which for him manifests as an enthusiastic serenity. Casually dressed in a dark suit and blue- and yellow-striped open-necked shirt, he is friendly and engaging without being obsequious. He’s clearly done this before.

Pereira, an Ottawa native, is a veteran of five start-ups dating back to 1992, including TimeStep, which was acquired by Newbridge Networks for “close to $200-million,” and Snipe Networks. Tonight he is here to talk about his latest venture, Shiny Ads, a Toronto-based advertising technology company focused on helping large online publishers maximize their revenue on ad buys of less than $5,000 – the kinds of smaller orders that, though vital for companies with limited ad campaigns and budgets, can be time-consuming and not even worth a publisher’s effort. Shiny Ads wants to help both sides. “It’s a niche we discovered, a market that’s underserved,” says Pereira.

The reason Pereira is in New York is actually twofold. There is the Maple Leaf Digital event, of course, and the chance to pitch directly to people in Shiny Ads’ target market. But he’s also looking for expansion capital. Shiny Ads closed a seed round of capital in late 2010, raising $500,000. “We used those funds to accelerate growth and I always knew we’d get to a point where that money would run out; it’s what the life of a start-up is all about,” he says. Pereira has spoken to three New York-based venture capital firms and will continue to shuttle back and forth between Toronto and New York with the hope of securing more cash. He is one of many Canadian entrepreneurs now making trips to places like Silicon Valley, Boston and NYC for VC funding that’s increasingly hard to find at home.

Go south, young start-up

Continue Reading

Traditionally, a start-up company goes through a distinct life cycle. First comes the idea. If the idea is good enough, then the next step is raising what is called “seed capital,” typically a relatively small amount of money ponied up by family and friends and so-called angel investors that simply helps an entrepreneur get the doors open and turn the lights on. Once the seed money gets things rolling, entrepreneurs who want to accelerate their growth and expand often need to raise a larger amount of capital called a “Series A round.” Then, after growth is achieved, the entrepreneurs and early-stage investors look for an “exit.” That exit could be a larger company coming in and buying the start-up outright or making a significant investment in it, allowing earlier funders to take out their initial investment plus a reasonable return. It could also be an initial public offering, where the public buys shares in the company.

The lack of returns for those early investors is frequently cited as a major roadblock for Canadian entrepreneurs trying to raise capital. According to Jevon MacDonald, co-founder of Halifax’s GoInstant and co-founder of StartupNorth, which tracks Canadian start-up activity, the declines in returns for early investors in all types of new enterprises is something that began long ago. “We’re now reaping what we’ve sown in terms of capital availability,” he says. “At the end of the day, very few funds in Canada have capital to deploy.” The remaining venture capitalists in Canada are “way better than the guys who were doing venture capital before,” the ones who “squandered the money” during the last tech boom, as MacDonald puts it.

In other words, the venture capitalists left in Canada are the survivors: They made it through the severe downturn. Unfortunately, the number of survivors is few, and the dollars available small. In 1998, 807 Canadian companies obtained venture capital financing at home in Canada; by 2010, that figure had plunged to 357. In absolute dollar terms, the capital invested fell 25 per cent, from $1,511,000 in 1998 to $1,129,000 last year, according to data from Thomson Reuters Canada. Since the global economic crisis began in 2007, exacerbated by the collapse of Bear Stearns and then Lehman Brothers, the decline in capital available to start-ups has been even more stunning: It’s down nearly 50 per cent.

Chad Bayne, a partner in the Toronto office of law firm Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP, whose practice is focused on the technology sector and whose clients include IBM and Google, says the Canadian VC market has changed dramatically over the past decade. “There’s been a general hollowing out in the number of institutional investors,” explains Bayne. “Quite a few years ago, there were a large number of VC players, labour-sponsored investment funds and attractive tax breaks for individuals.” But recent tax law changes in Ontario (where the majority of tech activity takes place), including the phasing out of tax credits connected to LSIFs, have meant that those funds are slowly but surely becoming extinct.

The decline in VC market activity in Canada explains why homegrown entrepreneurs such as Roy Pereira are now looking south – and why U.S. venture capitalists, from San Francisco to Boston, are looking north. “I’ve talked to two lawyers in Toronto who say more than 50 per cent of their funding deals are from the U.S.,” Pereira says, “and I think it comes back to there being a lack of A-round funding availability here. So you’re seeing U.S. VCs take notice – like sharks circling in the water, smelling blood.”

Indeed, in September New York-based Union Square Ventures, a pre-eminent venture capital firm founded by Fred Wilson and Brad Burnham that invests primarily in early-stage companies, was part of a group that invested $3.5-million in a Series A round for Toronto-based Wattpad. Union Square is also an investor in Kik, based in Waterloo, Ontario, which in March completed a Series A round capital raise of $8-million. According to Union Square’s Wilson, however, the firm’s investments in the two digital media start-ups were solely based on the individual companies, not a result of geographic targeting. “We’re not experts in what’s going on in Canada,” Wilson says. “Those are two companies that are working, building on solid ideas, and we found them. We don’t have a geographic focus. We invest in markets we’re interested in, and the fact they were in Canada was of no interest to us.”

While Union Square Ventures was attracted to Wattpad because of the idea, not the location, Wattpad CEO and co-founder Allen Lau, like Roy Pereira, spent a significant amount of time travelling to San Francisco, New York and Boston in search of Series A round expansion capital. “Compared to 10 years ago, there are definitely fewer venture capital firms in Canada,” Lau says. “We’re not in Silicon Valley where there are 50 VC firms to talk to, so you have to get out there and be more aggressive finding investors who are right for you.”

In search of the exits

Since 2008, the main issue confronting the industry has been the difficulty venture capitalists have in recouping their investments through successful exits, be it initial public offerings or acquisitions by larger firms.

“There just haven’t been a lot of notable exits in Canada in the past few years,” Chad Bayne says. “There have been very limited IPOs, so a lot of funds have been waiting to get out of their investments...(social gaming company) Zynga did their first deal up here, so there is activity, but in terms of public markets we’re just not seeing a lot of public companies created.”

In fact, according to Dealogic, 2011 has seen the highest number of global IPOs postponed or withdrawn in history, surpassing the record set in 2008. As of Sept. 15, 215 initial public offerings had either been withdrawn or postponed. Instead of public companies being created in Canada and the U.S., cash-rich companies such as Google, Research In Motion and IBM have this year embarked on a buying spree; through the first nine months of 2011, 26 Canadian start-ups were acquired, according to techvibes.com.

While the lack of high-profile IPOs may have eliminated one avenue for venture capitalists to realize a return on their investments, it’s not necessarily a bad thing for the entrepreneur. Increased regulations and higher investment banking fees make the process of taking a start-up public more difficult. “To be honest,” Allen Lau says, “I’m not sure that’s the path most entrepreneurs should take anyway. Ten years ago, Facebook and Zynga would have gone public long ago, but today they’ve chosen, so far, not to because all the regulations and the overall environment is different.”

Attorney Rubsun Ho, a partner in the Toronto-based “virtual” law firm Cognition LLP, which does extensive work with start-up technology companies, has seen a significant increase in the number of companies exiting at an earlier stage. “There are a lot of companies selling out in the $20-to-$25-million range,” he says. “Instead of pursuing a [later stage] round of funding, a buyer comes along and the company takes the offer.”

Ho remembers a far different environment for raising capital in 1999 and 2000. “At one of the companies I was involved in, we did a raise of $50-million and all we had was a PowerPoint presentation,” he says with a slight, almost embarrassed, chuckle, noting that at the time the company barely had any revenue but that the deal was still “oversubscribed” (with more people willing to fund it than was required). A $50-million raise? Today a start-up would make headlines for even exiting at that level.

“We don’t want to compare anything to ‘99 or 2000,” Union Square’s Wilson cautions. “Those two years were an aberration.” Of course, Wilson is in the enviable position of helming a U.S.-based VC fund with a sterling track record, with investments in Foursquare, Tumblr, Twitter and Zynga, among others. The U.S. VC industry may not be as impaired as Canada’s, but the ability of funds that don’t boast Union Square’s portfolio to raise new capital has not fully recovered to pre-crash levels. In fact, numbers recently released by the National Venture Capital Association and Thomson Reuters show 52 U.S.-based VC funds raised $1.72-billion (U.S.) in the third quarter of this year, down 53 per cent year-over-year and the lowest amount raised in the third quarter of any year since 2003. More worrisome, the decline in the third quarter comes after two impressive prior quarters (year-to-date, U.S. VC fundraising is still up 26 per cent year-over-year, by dollars), suggesting that start-ups on both sides of the border may be about to face renewed risk aversion from both VC firms and their investors.

Risk aversion: The new normal

Given the perilous state of the global economy, it should come as little surprise that today’s investor is more interested in safety and return of principal, as opposed to risk and return on principal.

Peter Atwater, president of U.S.-based Financial Insyghts, a macroeconomics consulting firm, and author of an upcoming book on social mood, decision-making and financial markets, points to the market’s current preference for dividend stocks, particularly of the world’s largest corporations. “These are the antithesis of the ‘concept’ stocks of the late 1990s,” he says. “Today everything requires a proven track record rather than the prospect of opportunity. It’s all very rear-view- mirror focused.”

To make his point, Atwater notes the reaction to Apple co-founder Steve Jobs’s recent death. Media column after column lamented the fact that there was no other Steve Jobs out there waiting to assume the mantle of tech visionary, and, to be clear, stepping into the stratospheric airspace Jobs occupied as a tech leader and innovator is hardly an easy task. Still, it’s as if his death marked the end of innovation itself. “No wonder people aren’t putting money into venture capital,” Atwater says. “It’s the perception that there are no new opportunities, people or ideas worth investing in.”

According to Atwater, at the top of what he calls the social mood cycle, investors have a tendency to put the cart before the horse. “They put ideas ahead of revenues,” he says. Today, it’s the reverse. “Not only does the market want the horse in front of the cart, they want to make sure that the cart is filled with gold.”

In other words, the downturn has brought with it, as downturns always do, an increased level of scrutiny. It’s no longer enough for an entrepreneur to approach potential investors with little more than a PowerPoint presentation and a dream. More discipline is demanded, as well as stronger execution.

Although this can prove painful for the start-up entrepreneur working out of his or her garage, it’s not necessarily a bad thing in the end. “I think we kind of went into the trough in Canada, but we really did shake off a lot of the chaff,” says GoInstant’s MacDonald. “There’s still a marketplace for good ideas, though.”

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 6:00AM EST

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Facts & Arguments

- It’s the shortest day of the year. Time to celebrate

- Christmas is a battle of paddles at our house

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- I have big shoes to fill this Hanukkah

It’s the shortest day of the year. Time to celebrate

MICHAEL KESTERTON

Last updated Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011 6:10PM EST

Druids gather for a winter solstice ritual to mark the shortest day's sunlight on Beacon Hill near Loughborough, central England, December 19, 2010. (Darren Staples / Reuters)

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The shortest day

“Throughout history, the day with the least daylight has been marked with celebrations,” says The Washington Post. “Once called Yule, it was marked with the burning of a log. Today, many people still observe the winter solstice, which falls on Dec. 22 this year, as a time to look forward to longer days with more light and warmth from the sun. That was even more important before modern heat and electricity!”

Christmas is cancelled

“North Korea’s so serious about mourning Kim Jong-il that it’s cancelled Christmas,” The Daily Beast reports. “That is to say, Pyongyang’s furious protests over South Korea’s plan to display Christmas lights near the two sides’ border has persuaded Seoul to cancel the display as a gesture of goodwill.”

Your name picks your job?

“Scientists are exploring the theory that people are drawn to certain trades and professions based on the connotations of their surnames. … [S]erious research is now being dedicated to the concept – known as nominative determinism – to explain why it occurs,” says The Daily Telegraph. “… A paper in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology has concluded that people are disproportionately likely to ‘choose careers whose labels resemble their names.’ The paper, entitled ‘Why Susie Sells Seashells by the Seashore: Implicit Egotism and Major Life Decisions,’ cites the disproportionate number of dentists called Denise or Dennis as an example of the trend. … However, New Scientist points out that it is more difficult to explain examples of people who have unfortunate surnames in relation to their jobs, such as doctors called Pain.”

Football versus education

“According to three University of Oregon economists, when a university’s football team has a winning season, the grade point average of male students goes down,” Miller-McCune.com reports. “At least, that was the case at their own school over the course of nine recent seasons. Given that the University of Oregon is ‘largely representative of other four-year public institutions,’ they have no reason to believe the equation won’t apply elsewhere. ‘Our estimates suggest male grades fall significantly with the success of the football team,’ the research team, led by Jason Lindo, writes in a National Bureau of Economic Research working paper. Furthermore, the economists find this effect is ‘larger among students from relatively disadvantaged backgrounds, and those of relatively low ability.’ ”

Anxious and surprised

“Anxious individuals are commonly characterized as being easily threatened and more sensitive than their counterparts,” says Psych Central News. “But a new study measuring brain activity challenges this perception as researchers found that anxious individuals may not be sensitive enough. Researchers from Tel Aviv University used an electroencephalograph (EEG) to measure brain activity as study participants were shown images designed to induce fear and anxiety. … The discovery that anxious study participants weren’t shown to be as physiologically sensitive to subtle changes in their environment as less fearful individuals surprised the investigators, says Tahl Frenkel, a doctoral candidate and study leader. She suggested that anxious people could have a deficit in their threat evaluation capabilities – necessary for effective decision-making and fear regulation – leading to an under-reaction to subtle threatening stimuli. … Essentially, anxious people are ‘surprised’ by fearful stimuli that non-anxious individuals have already subconsciously noticed, analyzed and evaluated.”

Penguin jealousy?

“People queuing to see the panda enclosure at Edinburgh Zoo are being hit by penguin droppings as the curious birds have been watching proceedings,” BBC News reports. “Rockhopper penguins have been standing along the edge of their enclosure since the pandas arrived earlier this month. The penguins are higher than the panda enclosure. … Now officials are planning to build a glass panel in a bid to stop people being hit by the guano. Gary Wilson, Edinburgh Zoo’s director of business operations, said: ‘Our rockhopper penguins in particular have been watching the events at the panda enclosure below with great interest, ever since work started on the enclosure. …We’re hoping it’s not a case of monochrome jealousy, but one or two of our rockhoppers seem to have had surprisingly good aim.’ ”

Thought du jour

“Friendship multiplies the good of life and divides the evil.”

Baltasar Gracian (1601-58)

Spanish writer

Published on Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011 4:00PM EST

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Christmas is a battle of paddles at our house

Emily Smart

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 9:29AM EST

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The travel itinerary for the Inaugural Hurt Feelings Invitational read like a Russian novel in its weight and digressive nature. To get from Toronto to Red Lake, Ont., for 10 days of Christmas merriment, it would take 12 hours of a gruelling series of connecting flights showcasing Ontario’s finest single-strip runways and 19-seater Fairchild Metroliner twin turboprop aircraft.

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The return trip saw 13 takeoffs and 13 landings, plus one nail-biter of a near-landing because of blanket-grade fog off Lake Superior. We were standby-class passengers, meaning we could be stranded at any of the many points along the way (Kitchener-Ottawa-Sudbury-Sault Ste. Marie-Thunder Bay-Dryden-Sioux Lookout-Red Lake). Compared with the big-city airport experience, where direct passenger-to-pilot contact constitutes a security breach, Bearskin Airlines pilots boast plane-flying and small-talk skills.

Located deep in Ontario’s boreal heart (i.e., you’ve never been there), Red Lake seems to have sat down exhausted at the end of Highway 105, a historically treacherous tributary of the Trans-Canada Highway where moose loiter roadside like parade spectators. To get to Red Lake, you can go the long way or the longer way.

Red Lakers love the outdoors; they might as well because it’s everywhere. It’s a ragged, rugged and roughed-up town in all kinds of bushwhacker ways. Its international reputation in fields mineral and animal attracts all sorts, including my parents. My father arrived from Ottawa and my mother from Thunder Bay for work, just ahead of the Great Forest Fire of 1980.

My dad fondly recalls the heady, smoky days of Fire 14. The soon-to-be bride and groom deferred evacuation and crossed their fingers that the only road out would reopen in time for the wedding. Three children and three decades later, the forest has filled in and my parents are still there.

We like to focus our family get-togethers on a unifying (in theory) theme, and 2010’s was Ping-Pong. Past holiday motifs include Aging Family Dog’s Last Christmas, which featured home video screenings of puppy footage and a proud highlight reel of obedience infractions. Deer Sausage Blowout was the result of a critical oversupply in the family deep-freeze.

The Hurt Feelings Invitational inaugurated the new table tennis unit Dad gave Mom as either a late birthday gift or an early Christmas gift, or both. If your birthday falls in late November, any “shipping delay” results in a handy blurring of gift-giving lines.

On the afternoon of Dec. 25, the Day of Competition, prospective and as-yet un-Hurt entrants drifted down the basement stairs to “check it out” and perhaps “hit a few.” These efforts were non-committal and certainly not of tournament-grade action.

A draft officially divided the competition into two rounds, qualifying and sudden-death elimination. Freshly ousted players would then join the “Scotch in one hand, jar of mixed nuts near the other” group on the leopard-print couch. The Gallery.

Family history is shaped by the winners – at least in our family, it’s the victorious who tend to retell the tales – and down in that rumpus room, when things got going, it was every competitor for themselves. This meant Dad, the racquet sports extremist, delivering unsolicited mid-game coaching tips to me, in the hope that I’d pull myself together and eliminate both my brother and my husband so he wouldn’t have to face either of them in the final.

The final would take place in the evening, at which point, the Gallery commented, “sobriety will be an issue.”

There was some scorekeeping – imperfect because the rules of the game had not been ceremoniously explained before the tournament commenced. The result: an entire match played during which neither party had served correctly, not once.

The Gallery contributed to the genial spirit of low-stakes battle, but every once in a while, the mood darkened, sportsmanship levels plummeted and the strong would hand to the weak their weaknesses. For its part, the Gallery consistently weighed in on the side of the strong, as crowds do, chanting, “Hurt her feelings, hurt her feelings,” as if pounding a ritual drum.

Finally, while the Brussels sprouts braised in the oven upstairs, it was time for the final showdown between Dad (5-0) and the fourth-seeded son-in-law (2-3). Dad reached the championship round wearing a flat pair of slippers and Rob, my husband, had all day enjoyed the comfort of long johns as pants. Both had a Scotch glass at the ready.

The match went to a winner-takes-all third game, and in the end Rob could not hold off my Dad. When it comes to sports of the racquet genus, nobody ever has. Then it was over and the participants were relieved that, looking back, it maybe wasn’t as bad as it could have been and nobody cried, even if one or two did tear up a bit but managed to fight it back because, well, it’s only Ping-Pong.

This year’s tournament, the I’m Sorry Classic, and the chance for any table tennis legacy-making on Dad’s part, has been bumped by the upstart theme of Baby’s First Christmas. We now have a two-month-old named Reggie who is set to steal the holiday spotlight (and who will most certainly be schooled in the racquet arts when the time comes).

Emily Smart lives in Toronto.

Published on Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011 4:00PM EST

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From smiling to seaweed, tips for staying healthy

MICHAEL KESTERTON

Last updated Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2011 4:50PM EST

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Survival tips?

Some thoughts on how to stay healthy, from The Independent:

– “Jeanne Calment, the oldest person in history, who died in 1997 aged 122, attributed her longevity to a diet rich in olive oil, port and ‘regular smiling.’ ”

– “In 18th century France, noblemen were obsessed with the quest for longevity. Some believed that if you found a magic formula it should be stored inside a clock, literally to hold back time.”

– “Seaweed-eating nations often have higher-than-average life expectancies. In Iceland, dried seaweed known as sol is credited with helping nationals to live, on average, to 83, thanks to its fat-absorbing qualities.”

Recipes east and west

“Many differences divide traditional North American and Asian food cultures – cooking methods, dining habits, famous recipes,” The Huffington Post says. “They each have signature ingredients – think of soy sauce, ginger and sriracha in Southeast Asian food or butter and molasses in Southern food. But a new study from an international team led by Yong-Yeol Ahn and Sebastian Ahnert, published in Scientific Reports, shows that there are actually deeper patterns at play. It turns out North American and Western European cuisines tend to include ingredients with similar flavour molecules together in one recipe, while East Asian and Southern European cuisines tend not to. That means that the ingredients in most recipes traditionally associated with Western cuisine overlap and deepen each others’ constituent flavours, while those in Asian recipes tend to bristle against one another with distinctive flavours.”

How a dictator eats

In 1988, a Japanese sushi chef was asked to be the personal cook for North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. The chef later wrote a memoir under the pseudonym Kenji Fujimoto, says The Daily Beast. “Although Kim was at the time renowned for his heft (only 5-foot-2, he weighed more than 200 pounds), the North Korean was a gourmet, not a glutton. He took food seriously and owned a collection of several thousand cookbooks. His palate was so sensitive that he could detect if the kitchen added a few grams too much sugar to the sushi rice. Before cooking the rice, the kitchen staff would inspect each grain individually and discard any blemished by irregularities of shape or colour. … Money was no object when it came to food. Fujimoto made shopping trips around the world to pick up ingredients – to Iran and Uzbekistan for caviar, to Denmark for pork, to Thailand for mangoes, durians and papayas. On a whim, Kim once sent Fujimoto to pick up a box of his favourite rice cakes, which were scented with mugwort and available only at a department store in Tokyo.”

Here come the meerkats

“When Meerkats Turn Bad; 101 Uses for a Dead Meerkat; Where’s the Meerkat? – drawn by the success of last year’s surprise Christmas hit, the fictional meerkat memoir The Simples Life, [British] publishers have been piling into the market for meerkats in an attempt to find this year’s quirky bestseller,” says The Guardian. “… Despite publishers’ efforts – When I Were a Meerkat is another of this year’s 16 meerkat titles, while Knitted Meerkats is lined up for 2012 – just one meerkat book is in the book charts in the week before Christmas: Where’s the Meerkat?, which racked up sales of more than 20,000 copies in a week.”

Self-cleaning clothes

“Efforts to create self-cleaning cotton fabrics are bearing fruit in China,” reports BBC News. “Engineers have created a chemical coating that causes cotton materials to clean themselves of stains and remove odours when exposed to sunlight. The researchers say the treatment is cheap, non-toxic and ecologically friendly. … The research was carried out by engineers at Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Hubei University for Nationalities, and is published in the latest issue of the Applied Materials and Interfaces journal.”

Thought du jour

“College is a refuge from hasty judgment.”

Robert Frost (1874-1963), American poet

Published on Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2011 4:47PM EST

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I have big shoes to fill this Hanukkah

Rachael Schelew

Last updated Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2011 4:56PM EST

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With the arrival of Hanukkah, I decided it was time to introduce the holiday to my two-year-old son, Sam.

Not knowing where to start, I consulted iTunes, since music had played a central role in my Hanukkah experience. With more excitement than a woman of close to 30 should have, I come across Paul Zim’s The Magic of Chanukah, the same album I used to listen to as a kid.

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Within a few seconds of pressing play, I could barely hold back tears. Suddenly I was back at my childhood home, cuddled up beside my dad, watching the Hanukkah candles burn. I remember a time of innocence and wonderment, when my awareness had not yet extended beyond the safe parameters of home.

I long to feel that way again. When did life get so complicated? Not feeling much older or different from that eight-year-old girl, I am bewildered by the fact that I will be turning 30 soon and have a two-year-old child of my own.

A menorah is part of my lesson plan but Sam grows more frustrated by the minute, trying to grab the candles. He gets hold of one, breaking it into a million little pieces. Watching this makes me think about my new role as Jewish educator and what that might entail over the next 18 years.

I’m blank except for a mental image of my father, my Jewish educator. Dad made it his duty to ensure that my brother and I had some kind of Jewish identity and gave this role everything he had. I wasn’t so sure I could do the same.

Raising us Jewish wasn’t an easy feat for him. We lived in a homogeneous, church-going neighbourhood in Dartmouth, N.S., with my mother, who preferred to march to the beat of her own drum. If we were going to have any religious foundation, it would be up to him.

In the weeks leading up to Hanukkah, Dad would fill the car with Hanukkah tapes, playing them as we drove to and from our activities. At night before bed, the tapes would come out again. Drawing on his love of Broadway musicals, Dad would break out into song and dance. We would follow his lead, arms waving wildly, skipping and jumping to the rhythm of the music.

There we were, just the three of us, laughing, shrieking and parading around the house, singing at the top of our lungs. We were untouchable, a unit, and in that moment, nothing else seemed to matter, even the painful reality that caused my stomach to knot and weighed on my heart: My parents were going to separate. What I didn’t know at the time was that moments like these would be our last memories of living together under the same roof. They separated when I was 12.

I never thought much about my father spending hours teaching us about Jewish traditions and how to read Hebrew, or having to leave work early three times a week to drive us across the Macdonald Bridge to the synagogue in Halifax for Hebrew school. Only now, as a parent having learned fast this gig isn’t a walk in the park, do I have a deep appreciation for the dedication and hard work my Dad put into making sure we had a faith to hold onto.

Judaism has become like a long and invisible rubber band tied securely to my ankle. No matter how many times I have strayed, tried to deny it, investigated alternative belief systems or been too lazy to get myself to a synagogue, I can only venture so far before it finds me again and taps me on the shoulder to remind me of who I am.

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I’m fully aware that to the more observant, my Judaism is watered down. I will be the first to admit that if you were to quiz me on history and theoretical discourse, I would get a big F. There are times when I question who I am and what I believe in, but what I do know is this – Judaism has been the one thing in my life that has remained consistent and real.

No matter where I am, what I am doing or who I think I should be, hearing the familiar Hebrew melodies gives me a sense of connectedness and brings me to a place that feels like home.

The day my father realized his efforts had come to fruition happened two years ago, on the first Friday of my son’s life, also known as the Sabbath, or Shabbat. With candles lit, the familiar traditional prayers filled the room.

I looked up from rocking my newborn baby over at my dad, singing with enough gusto to put Pavarotti to shame. Something made me look again, and this time I saw it, a flicker of melancholy in his eyes. I tried to catch his attention, but it looked like he was working hard to fight back tears.

I knew exactly what he was feeling because I was feeling it too. All those years, all those memories that we both share – trips to Toronto to stock up on Hanukkah gear, celebrating the holidays, singing and dancing around the house to Jewish music, trips to the synagogue, Hebrew school, my Bat Mitzvah, lighting the Hanukkah candles, the uphill battle my Dad struggled with to pass on his Jewish identity – flooded in all at once and, no surprise, I started to cry too.

My father, doing his best to cover up any sign of his emotional outpour with his quirky jokes, gave me a nod and said, “Very good commander, keep up the good work.”

I nodded back and smiled, knowing he had just passed the torch on to me. It is now my turn to teach my son everything Dad taught me, although it took until now at Hanukkah, two years later, to fully understand what that meant.

Rachael Schelew lives in Toronto.

Published on Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2011 4:45PM EST

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Technology

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Chinese microbloggers mock latest round of state controls

Terril Yue Jones

Beijing - Reuters

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 9:05AM EST

It is not clear how many microbloggers there are among China’s nearly half-billion Internet users. Some estimates say 300 million.

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China further tightened rules on microblogs on Thursday, requiring new authors on seven websites in southern Guangdong province to register their real names, state-run Xinhua news agency reported, in a move users decried as ineffective.

Microblogs such as Sina’s Weibo allow users to issue messages of a maximum of 140 Chinese characters that can course through tens of millions users everyday, defying censors with posts on sensitive topics such as human rights and the foibles of the top leadership.

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The new rule was quickly mocked by microbloggers whose posts in many cases have sparked off national online protests against official corruption and reported events such as the deadly collision of a bullet train this year quicker and more accurately than official media.

“I say a couple of things, and they’re going to come get me?” said one, using the name Pan Gui. “China has more than a billion people; if a few hundred million complain are they going to have a place to put them all away?”

“What’s this about?” wrote another, posting as Wang Weijin. “They want to control our freedom of speech???”

It is not clear how many microbloggers there are among China’s nearly half-billion Internet users. Some estimates say 300 million.

But Xinhua quoted Tong Liqiang, executive deputy director of the Beijing Internet Information Office, as putting the number at 63 million – with 600 million microblog IDs in Beijing alone. But many are unused dummy accounts.

Websites in Guangzhou and Shenzhen cities in Guangdong including Tencent Holdings Ltd., China’s biggest Internet company by revenue, will only require newly registering users to provide their real names, the report said.

Users will continue to be allowed to post using their real names or pseudonyms.

The new regulation is intended to “foster healthy Internet culture” and “strengthen management and guide social networking services and instant-messaging tools,” Xinhua quoted a statement from Guangdong province as saying.

“Experts claim the new rules will purify the Internet environment, as fake and fraudulent information is often seen spreading through microblogs, which are gaining popularity among users.”

Last week Beijing authorities gave all Weibo users 90 days to register their real names or face unspecified consequences.

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 9:02AM EST

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European belt tightening hits iPhone 4S sales

Tarmo Virki

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 8:33AM EST

Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks in front of an image of the iPhone 4S. (REUTERS)

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Weakening economies and falling prices of rival smartphones are hurting sales of Apple Inc. ’s iPhones across Europe, data from research firm Kantar Worldpanel ComTech showed on Thursday.

The October roll-out of Apple’s iPhone 4S boosted its position in Britain and United States, but the new phones failed to excite interest in continental Europe, where Apple’s share of the fast-growing smartphone market slipped.

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The smartphone industry is dominated by Google Inc. , which has stormed the market with its free Android platform.

“In Great Britain, the U.S. and Australia, Apple’s new iPhone continues to fly off the shelf in the run-up to Christmas. However, this trend is far from universal,” said Dominic Sunnebo, global consumer insight director.

Apple’s market share in the 12 weeks to end-November rose to 36 per cent in the United States from 25 per cent a year earlier and in Britain to 31 per cent from 21 per cent, Kantar said.

However, in France its share slipped to 20 per cent from 29 per cent and in Germany to 22 percent from 27 per cent. Similar drops were seen in Italy and Spain.

“The French market is showing increasing signs of price sensitivity,” Mr. Sunnebo said.

In part, the European sales of the expensive Apple model were hit by weakening economies across the continent.

Euro zone GDP grew just 0.2 per cent in the third quarter and most economists expect it to contract in the fourth and also in the first three months of next year, sending the bloc back into recession after its two-year recovery from the worst global financial crisis since the 1930s.

The euro zone’s own crisis with government debt has scared off investment and eaten into business and consumer confidence, particularly since August when investors intensified their scrutiny of the bloc’s problems.

European consumers are keeping a lid on their expenses as government spending cuts and job losses deprive companies of demand for goods and crush exports.

Google had market shares of between 46 and 61 per cent in all markets. Cellphone makers like Samsung Electronics, Sony Ericsson, LG Ericsson and Motorola Mobility all use its Android platform in their phones.

“In Germany, Android achieved a dominant 61 per cent share of smartphone sales in the latest 12 weeks, with the Samsung Galaxy S II the top selling handset,” Mr. Sunnebo said.

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 8:26AM EST

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Elpida/Nanya: memory loss

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 8:08AM EST

Elpida DRAM chips. (NICKY LOH/REUTERS)

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From the FT's Lex blog

A report in the Nikkei newspaper that two serially lossmaking chip makers were poised to join forces set both companies’ shares alight on Thursday. Nanya Technology chairman Wu Jiazhao pooh-poohed the report, pointing out that Nanya’s rumoured partner, Elpida Memory of Japan, is currently suing it for patent infringement (Nanya has responded in kind).

But does Mr Wu have any better ideas?

On its own, the Taiwanese manufacturer of Dynamic Random Access Memory chips has lost money in 17 of the past 18 quarters, and has just tapped its parent, Formosa Plastics, for its third capital infusion in three years. Alliances - or better still, full mergers - are exactly what the troubled DRAM industry needs. Two years ago, Taiwan tried to hammer together a single state-led mega-corporation from six domestic players: Nanya plus Inotera, Powerchip, Rexchip, PROMOS and Winbond. But egos got in the way, as they often do, and as chip prices rebounded, companies found the cash to keep creditors at bay.

Since then, though, the rise of tablet devices - which use about a quarter of the DRAM chips of the typical laptop - has sent prices plunging again, down about two-thirds this year. In the third quarter, only the market leader - Samsung Electronics - made any money from DRAM. The combined equity of the five Taiwanese companies still in the business - including PROMOS, suspended from trading in September while it asked lenders to forgo interest payments - is now worth less than a sixth of their nominal outstanding debt of $380-billion (Taiwan new dollar, $12.6-billion U.S.). Overlapping interests mean that no tie-up will be easily negotiated: Nanya has 30 per cent of Inotera, a joint venture with Idaho’s Micron Technology, while Elpida has 52 per cent of the Rexchip JV with Powerchip. But this week Micron posted a second successive quarterly loss and said tepid PC sales made consolidation inevitable. Better to act now than wait and be acted upon.

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 8:08AM EST

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Yahoo to weigh deals for Asian assets

Last updated Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011 8:33PM EST

The "Yahoo" sign, which overlooks the I-80 freeway from 6th St. is dismantled, Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011 in downtown San Francisco. (Michael Macor/AP)

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Yahoo Inc. is discussing a plan to slash its stakes in China’s Alibaba Group and a Japanese affiliate in a complex deal worth roughly $17-billion (U.S.), sources familiar with the matter said.

The deal – the latest proposals put forth in recent months to resuscitate the once high-flying Internet company – is expected to be considered by Yahoo’s board on Thursday, one of the sources said.

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The board was uninterested in entertaining offers for the entire company at this point, the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, added.

Yahoo’s increasing difficulty in competing with Internet heavyweights such as Google Inc. and Facebook have forced it to explore proposals to revamp its business. The former Internet powerhouse, which fired its Chief Executive Carol Bartz in September, has a market value of around $18.5-billion.

The company’s board has come under fire from prominent shareholders for its seeming lack of movement and for putting its own interests ahead of those of shareholders.

Alibaba chief Jack Ma has said several times he would like to buy back Yahoo’s stake in his company, one of Asia’s largest Internet corporations. Investors have long said Yahoo’s investment in Alibaba, along with its 35 per cent slice of Yahoo Japan, are far and away the U.S. company’s most prized assets.

Last week, sources told Reuters a consortium consisting of private equity group Silver Lake, Microsoft Corp. and venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz were reworking a bid for a minority stake in Yahoo.

In the latest deal, Yahoo would effectively transfer most of its 40 per cent of Alibaba back to the Chinese company and all of its stake in Yahoo Japan to Softbank Corp. in return for cash and assets, one of the sources said.

The exact value of the deal would depend on how the assets are valued, one source said.

Yahoo shares, which languished in the red along with much of the technology sector on Wednesday, reversed course and ended the session almost 6 per cent higher at $15.99. It inched further upward in after-hours trading to $16.09.

Yahoo was not immediately available for comment. The possible deals were first reported in The New York Times.

Published on Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011 8:30PM EST

Companies mentioned in this article ( 1)

Company Price Change Volume

Yahoo!

YHOO-Q 16.23 0.24

1.50% 13.84M

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Oracle’s glitch sinks tech shares

NICOLAS JOHNSON

Last updated Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011 7:53PM EST

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Oracle Corp.'s lower-than-expected results are raising fears that companies are delaying investments on technology amid concern that the global economy may slow.

The database giant's stock plunged the most in almost a decade in New York on Wednesday and triggered a rout in technology shares across Europe and North America.

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Unlike most firms, Oracle has a fiscal quarter that ends Nov. 30. Its earnings, reported after the close of market Tuesday, provided investors with a relatively up-to-the-moment glimpse into whether large corporate purchasers are cutting back – and the news wasn't good.

“The concern is whether the macro-economic climate has declined in recent weeks and whether that's causing a shift in customer-spending intentions,” said Thanos Moschopoulos, a Canadian software analyst in Toronto at BMO Nesbitt Burns. “We have this data point which is Oracle, one of the largest tech companies, coming in with disappointing numbers, and that's what's prompting the caution. What the market's saying today is: maybe it's broader than just Oracle.”

Technology shares suffered the only decline among the 10 industry groups in the S&P 500 and had the biggest drop among 19 groups in the Stoxx Europe 600 Index. Oracle, the world's second-biggest maker of software, plunged 11.7 per cent, the steepest decline in the U.S. benchmark index. SAP AG, a large German rival, fell the most in Europe.

The U.S. company reported profit before some costs last quarter of 54¢ (U.S.) a share and revenue of $8.81-billion, compared with the 54¢ a share and $9.23-billion expected on average by analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. The company forecast its sales will rise between 1 per cent and 5 per cent this quarter, well below the 7.4 per cent that had been estimated by analysts.

“Oracle is really a bellwether and the number was surprisingly weak, and that does not bode well for the industry outlook,” said Mark Lin, who holds Oracle shares in the technology fund he manages in Montreal for CIBC Global Asset Management Inc.

“Oracle posted a substantial shortfall for a company that is typically quite predictable,” Richard Davis and David Hynes, analysts at Canaccord Genuity Corp., said in a research report. The analysts cut their investment rating on Oracle's stock to “hold” from “buy.”

Wednesday's rout in technology shares led to decreases of more than 3 per cent at companies ranging from Accenture Plc and Amazon.com Inc. to Citrix Systems Inc. and International Business Machines Corp.

On the Toronto Stock Exchange, Celestica Inc. fell 1.8 per cent, and Open Text Corp. sank 5.4 per cent, while Canada’s benchmark stock index rose.

Published on Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011 6:18PM EST

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Video: Russia sends multinational crew to ISS

Last updated Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011 5:53PM EST

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Published on Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011 5:19PM EST

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Later nerds: Microsoft to pull out of CES tech show after 2012

Peter Svensson

New York - The Associated Press

Last updated Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011 7:22PM EST

U.S. companies with top ratings, such as Microsoft, have seen credit spreads on their bonds actually drop since the beginning of the year. (Steve Marcus/Reuters)

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Microsoft Corp. is pulling out of the International Consumer Electronics Show, the largest trade show in the Americas. It's joining Apple in saying that it prefers to put on its own events when the time is right to show off its products.

Microsoft said the next show, to be held Jan. 9-12 in Las Vegas, will be the last show at which it has a booth or the CEO delivers the customary kick-off speech.

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Company founder Bill Gates delivered keynote speeches at the show for 11 straight years. Current CEO Steve Ballmer has delivered the speech for the past three shows and will present his last next month.

The software company has been one of the biggest U.S. supporters of the annual event, which gathered nearly 150,000 people this year. Originally focused on living-room electronics, the show has become the big annual U.S. event for all consumer technology after the demise of big computer-focused shows such as Comdex.

Microsoft says it will continue to use CES as a place to connect to customers, but it won't have a booth because its product milestones don't align with the show's January timing.

At the upcoming show, Mr. Ballmer is scheduled to speak about the Windows 8 operating system. But the software isn't expected to be ready until late next year, so computer makers won't have any real Windows 8 products at the show.

“They're not cooked yet. So he's going to be stuck trying to present a bunch of stuff that will be months away from being ready,” said technology industry analyst Rob Enderle.

Apple doesn't participate in trade shows at all after pulling out of the Macworld Conference & Expo after 2009.

The Consumer Electronics Association, which organizes CES, said it has tremendous demand for invitations to hold keynote speeches, and it has already received feelers from companies that want to rent for the 2013 show the space where Microsoft usually has its booth.

Published on Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011 2:14PM EST

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Video: Google celebrates 10 years in Canada

Last updated Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011 12:37PM EST

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Published on Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011 12:37PM EST

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The top 25 video games of 2011

Chad Sapieha

Last updated Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011 2:52PM EST

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, a vast fantasy role-playing game with one of the most immersive virtual worlds ever created. We think it's the best game of 2011 (Bethesda Softworks)

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2011 saw one epic video game saga come to a brutal and bloody conclusion even as another reached new heights atop beautifully rendered mountains.

A small Canadian studio’s deeply original iOS adventure effectively put an end to the “Are games art?” debate while an Australian developer advanced the technical side of the medium with extraordinary new performance capture technology.

- Photo Gallery The top 25 video games of 2011 in pictures

Our creativity was unleashed as we built our own worlds, our minds were expanded via cunning spatial-temporal puzzles, and our reflexes were put to the test in harrowing military battles.

It was, in short, a great year for games. Here are some of the best.

Skyrim: The Elder Scrolls V

Few video game worlds have ever been as convincing or as easy to lose oneself in as the snowy, Nordic lands of Skyrim. This fantasy RPG entangles us in tales of dragons and plots of political intrigue while simultaneously providing players the freedom to scuttle off and climb mountains and spelunk caves at will. Open-world adventuring has rarely been so epic. (Bethesda Softworks; PS3, X360, PC)

Batman: Arkham City

This dark, moody game is a graphic novel come to interactive life. Its beautifully choreographed action sequences feel as though they’ve been ripped from the pages of a DC comic, and our brooding, reliably resolute hero is everything one could reasonably hope for in a video game adaptation of the Dark Knight. (Rocksteady Studios; PS3, X360, PC)

Portal 2

When properly and efficiently solved, the clever teleportation-themed puzzles in this test-subject-in-a-maze game confer upon players the satisfying illusion of genius. A genuinely smart and funny script brought to life by talents like Stephen Merchant and J.K. Simmons elevates the experience to something sublime. (Valve Corp.; PS3, X360, PC)

Gears of War 3

There’s something irresistible about Gears of War’s excessively aggressive jarheads. Perhaps it’s because – and this is especially evident in the franchise’s surprisingly moving concluding chapter – when you cut through all the blood and bullets, you find men willing to lay down their lives for their families, their friends, and the hope for a better life. That, and they look awesome wielding chainsaw rifles. (Epic Games; X360)

Minecraft

This low-fi but highly addictive indie hit has players using minerals mined from procedurally generated worlds to build anything they can think of. The game’s community, now more than four million strong, has compulsively created and shared castles, cities, spaceships, planets, and more. It’s an unmatched phenomenon of player imagination. (Mojang; PC, iOS, Android)

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

Neither the messy departure of the series’ founders nor the emergence of competent competitors has put a dent in this juggernaut franchise, the latest iteration of which delivers a thrilling Third World War campaign combined with a deep and long-lasting multiplayer experience. It remains the most gratifying and complete military-themed first-person shooter around. (Infinity Ward; PS3, X360, PC, Wii)

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

It begins slowly, but once this puzzle-filled adventure from Nintendo visionary Shigeru Miyamoto gets going it does its quarter-century-old pedigree proud. The downright ingenious challenges found in its dungeons make for some of the most pure and joyful moments of interactive entertainment in any game this year. (Nintendo; Wii)

Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP

Boldly experimental yet cleverly reverent, this Canadian-made game resists description. Its RPG-ish story takes cues from sources as diverse as The Legend of Zelda and Twin Peaks, its pacing is weirdly affected by the cycle of the real moon, and everything is rendered in the most striking 8-bit graphics I’ve ever seen. It’s an artistic oddity of the most delightful sort. (Capybara Games; iOS)

Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception

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If ever there were a video game for fans of adventure films, this would be it. Proudly cinematic in both narrative and appearance, the third entry in one of PlayStation 3’s greatest success stories feels like a 12-hour Indiana Jones movie set in modern times. The twist, of course, is that we’re in control of its roguish, tomb-raiding hero. (Naughty Dog; PS3)

L.A. Noire

This Australian-made game about a cop investigating crimes in 1940s-era Los Angeles features facial animations so realistic that players rely on them to surmise whether suspects are lying during interrogation. This bar-raising performance capture technology combines with fast-paced action to create an interactive detective tale like no other. (Rockstar Games; PS3, X360, PC)

The Binding of Isaac

This indie hit about a boy attempting to escape the murderous hands of his cult-addled mom offers homage to classic Zelda and Robotron games while delivering wry commentary on the evils of religious zealotry. The game is designed to be finished in a single sitting – assuming you don’t die (it’s devilishly hard) – but randomly generated dungeons filled with endless secrets provide good reason to play over and over again. (Edmund McMillen; PC)

Super Mario 3D Land

Hands-down the most enjoyable game yet released for Nintendo 3DS, this excellent platformer combines the best of old-school Super Mario Bros. (intuitive play, short and sweet worlds) with Super Mario Galaxy’s ingenious three-dimensional level design. It’s pretty much a must-buy if you plan on picking up Nintendo’s stereoscopic handheld. (Nintendo; Nintendo 3DS)

Deus Ex: Human Revolution

Many were skeptical when they learned the legendary Warren Spector wouldn’t lead development of this prequel to his beloved sci-fi role-playing game. Those concerns are swept away in Human Revolution’s opening chapters, which clearly embrace the series’ philosophy of open and emergent play. A terrific story that intelligently tackles the thorny subject of transhumanism provides narrative depth to match. (Eidos Montreal; PS3, X360)

The Gunstringer

No one can accuse Twisted Pixel of playing it safe. This inspired bit of Kinect-enabled whimsy sees players using their hands to manipulate a cowboy’s skeleton in a western-themed puppet show that takes place on stage in front of a live-action audience. It’s funny to watch, a blast to play, and acts as elegant proof that motion controlled games can be more than sports compilations and dance simulations. (Twisted Pixel Games; X360)

Infinity Blade II

The original Infinity Blade, a sword-slashing fighter, showed serious gamers that touch-screen devices were capable of hosting serious games. This sequel makes the original seem like little more than a tech demo. It offers more environments to explore, delivers a richer story that provides some much-needed insight into the series’ protagonist, shows off prettier Unreal Engine 3-powered graphics, and deepens the finger swiping combat. From presentation to interface, it exploits Apple’s hardware like no other game. (Epic Games; iOS)

Dragon Age 2

Other RPGs focus on providing immense worlds and incredible action. This one is all about rich dialogue and sophisticated character development. A role-playing game in the truest sense, it provides players a malleable immigrant protagonist who can be molded into an altruistic protector, a conniving egoist, or some complex mixture of the two. Its characters, their plights, and their delights will stay with you long after the credits roll. (BioWare; PS3, X360, PC)

LittleBigPlanet 2

This sequel to Sony’s original game-making game was an outstanding play when it debuted in January, then became even better with the addition of PlayStation Move levels and functionality this fall. Whether you want to learn the rudiments of game design, partake in an enormous community that has created and shared millions of user-generated levels, or just enjoy a charming and witty story, it's an enviable treat for PlayStation 3 loyalists. (MediaMolecule; PS3)

Mario Kart 7

If you want to share a 3DS experience with your kids, this is the game to get. The seventh entry in Nintendo’s popular kart racer retains its all-ages appeal while adding a few new elements, such as propellers for underwater driving and wings to help you get a little more distance off higher jumps. Wonderfully imaginative tracks – we get to drive over musical keyboards and on undulating rainbows – are the sugar on top. (Nintendo; Nintendo 3DS)

Child of Eden

This one has players using their hands to control pulses of energy that target and wipe out digital malignancies affecting the emergence of an artificial intelligence in the far future. Its about as bizarre as it sounds, but stellar kaleidoscopic visuals, an impossibly upbeat electronic score, and terrific motion controls combine to spawn one of the most immersive motion gaming experiences yet created. Just remember to play with the volume pumped and the lights turned off to maximize the effect. (Ubisoft; PS3, X360)

The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

Among the most visually sophisticated games ever made, the cities and forests in this Polish-made RPG are simply jaw dropping – assuming you play on a PC with enough rendering power to do them justice. Its complex, twisty, and decidedly mature story is just as impressive, and provides players an exceptional amount of control over the direction and outcome of certain plot threads. Just make sure you’re ready for a challenge; the sophisticated – but satisfying – combat system isn’t for rookies. (CD Projekt RED; PC)

Dead Space 2

Lots of games go for creepiness, but if you want good old-fashioned Aliens-style terror, look no further than the second entry in EA’s excellent sci-fi horror series. It piles on one shocking moment after another, turns up the disturbing factor with alien-possessed babies, then covers everything with a thick layer of psychological suspense that makes players question their every action. (Electronic Arts; PS3, X360, PC)

Professor Layton and the Last Specter

The fourth game in Level-5’s series of portable puzzlers pushes our professor back in time a few years to explore how he met his amiable assistant, Luke. Its conundrums are as varied and challenging as ever, and its perplexing story of a British town under attack by a strange creature keeps us guessing to the end. It's the best DS release of the year. (Level-5; Nintendo DS)

Forza Motorsport 4

An enormous garage of gorgeous cars, scores of authentic and fictional courses, and surprisingly effective Kinect integration helped lift the fourth entry in Turn-10’s Xbox-exclusive racing franchise to the top of the podium. It could have done with bolder innovation – it merely evolves rather than revolutionizes the genre – but there’s little denying what’s here is about as good as it gets in the world of console racing simulation. (Turn-10; X360)

Bastion

The star of this game is its raconteur, a smooth-voiced narrator who provides informative and amusing play-by-play commentary on everything we see, from our hero’s handiwork in combat to his accidental plunges over ledges. It’s a novel and instantly engaging form of interactive storytelling that we can expect to see emulated in coming years. The flowing action, hand-painted settings, and award-winning acoustic score merely sweeten the deal. (Supergiant Games; X360, PC)

Star Wars: The Old Republic

The few brief days I’ve spent playing this brand new MMORPG set in a galaxy far, far away were enough to make it a last minute addition to this list. It carries us along a story that's more structured and engaging than we've come to expect of games in this genre. Its attractively simple design, meanwhile, should appeal not just to MMORPG fans, but also Star Wars acolytes in general. The Force is strong with this one. (BioWare; PC)

Published on Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011 12:00PM EST

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The top 25 video games of 2011 in pictures

Chad Sapieha

Last updated Monday, Dec. 19, 2011 1:53PM EST

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, a vast fantasy role-playing game with one of the most immersive virtual worlds ever created. We think it's the best game of 2011 - Bethesda Softworks

Chad Sapieha picks his favourite games from the last 12 months, from January's LittleBigPlanet 2 to December's Star Wars: The Old Republic.

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RIM’s suitors wary of declining U.S. sales

IAIN MARLOW AND BOYD ERMAN

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 6:29AM EST

A person poses the BlackBerry Torch 9860. (MARK BLINCH/REUTERS)

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Microsoft Corp. and Nokia Corp. did a financial analysis on a takeover of Research In Motion Ltd. earlier this year but were scared off because of the rapid deterioration of the BlackBerry maker’s market share in the United States, according to a source familiar with the matter

Private equity funds have also looked into a potential purchase of Waterloo, Ont.-based RIM, but turned away for similar reasons. The funds feared that a turnaround was unlikely in the U.S., a bellwether for global smartphone sales. Without a change of fortune in its largest market, RIM’s future cash flow is uncertain, making it difficult to forecast how much debt the company could manage if it was acquired in a leveraged buyout.

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RIM has been battered by a series of problems in 2011, most seriously the flop of its tablet computer, the PlayBook, and the swift loss of smartphone market share to rivals like Apple Inc., HTC Corp. and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. The stock hits its lowest point since 2003 this week, and its shrunken market value of $7.4-billion has led to more talk that it is vulnerable to a takeover.

The shares surged in after-hours trading Tuesday and in regular trading Wednesday after reports by the Wall Street Journal and Reuters said that a number of parties had examined the idea of buying RIM, including Microsoft, Nokia and Amazon.com Inc. In Toronto, RIM closed up nearly 10 per cent from Tuesday’s level, despite analysts’ warnings that an imminent sale of the company was unlikely.

A RIM spokeswoman said the company does not to comment on “rumours and speculation.”

That rivals and private equity firms ran the numbers on a takeover highlights RIM’s precarious position as its executive team tries to execute a turnaround in the U.S. while expanding in emerging economies. The company’s top executives unveiled a worsening outlook for the fiscal fourth quarter last week and said the launch of a powerful line of smartphones running a new operating system will be delayed until late 2012.

Some investors say they are reaching out to RIM’s board of directors in a bid to make changes, but are getting nowhere. They said they doubt the company’s board has the stomach for a radical change in strategy and are unlikely to listen to calls to shuffle top management, including the company’s co-CEOs, Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, who also serve as co-chairmen of the board.

In June, the company announced it would strike a committee to report to the board by January 31, 2012, on the unusual leadership structure. The board has promised to publicly respond to the committee’s findings within 30 days.

Sentiment surrounding the company has turned markedly sour recently, after the two CEOs told investors on a third quarter conference call on Dec. 15 that phones running the BlackBerry 10 operating system – based on the company’s acquisition of QNX Software Systems – will come out nearly almost a year later than promised.

“I think in terms of separating the chairman and CEO roles, it’s possible [the board] might have some success there, but I don’t think they’ll have any success in terms of replacing Mike and Jim,” said one fund manager, who has sold down his firm’s large position in RIM but remains a shareholder. “I think RIM wants to see how the new QNX smartphones are received in the market before they would contemplate selling out.”

At the same time, pressure is likely to keep building on the company. Vic Alboini, chief executive officer of Toronto merchant bank Jaguar Financial, said on Wednesday that three members of an informal investment group have met with RIM’s top executives. Mr. Alboini, says his group, whose members he will not disclose, hold roughly 10 per cent of RIM’s shares. He said he believes the board needs to break up and sell the company, to capitalize on the hidden value of its strong business in providing secure communications for enterprises.

“There will be change, the question is when and how,” said Mr. Alboini, who has vocally criticized RIM in press releases. “There are not a lot of shareholders saying, ‘Let’s wait until BlackBerry 10 to do something.’”

Published on Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011 9:53AM EST

Companies mentioned in this article ( 1)

Company Price Change Volume

Research In Motion

RIM-T 14.03 -0.14

-0.99% 722,606

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EA’s big bet: Star Wars MMO builds high expectations

Liana B. Baker

Last updated Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011 9:57AM EST

Electronic Arts Inc. executives stand with Star Wars characters to ring the opening bell at the NASDAQ Market Site in New York, December 20, 2011. EA was celebrating Tuesday's launch of EA's "Star Wars: The Old Republic" game and the re-listing of Electronic Arts Inc. on the NASDAQ under the new symbol "EA". Pictured are (2nd R-L) NASDAQ Executive Vice President of the Corporate Client Group Bruce Aust, President of EA Labels Frank Gibeau, EA Senior Vice President Ray Muzyka and EA Vice President Greg Zeschuk. (Mike Segar/Reuters)

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Electronic Arts invested more money and firepower into Star Wars: The Old Republic than it has on any game in its 30-year history. Starting this week, the company will find out if the bet pays off.

If it succeeds, the game, which features the Star Wars movies’ familiar Jedis, Wookies, and Siths, could bring EA riches for years to come. If it fails, EA’s earnings will be hurt in future quarters.

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“A lot is at stake for EA,” said Robert W. Baird & Co. analyst Colin Sebastian, who estimates the company spent more than $300-million to make “the Old Republic.”

Other analysts think between $100-million and $300-million was spent on the game. EA has not divulged the cost.

“This caps years of development and hundred of millions of dollars. It’s a very important part of their pipeline for the next several years. If it’s a failure, it’s a huge loss for EA,” Mr. Sebastian said.

Star Wars: The Old Republic is different from other recent high-profile releases by EA such as Battlefield 3 in that it is a massive multiplayer player online game, or MMO, that allows thousands of people to play simultaneously for a monthly subscription fee as opposed to a one-time purchase.

Gamers will pay $60 up front and then about $15 a month for Star Wars: The Old Republic, reflecting a move by the video game industry to evolve into a cable television business model. Companies like EA are trying to create a steady and predictable revenue stream from subscribers as opposed to a current Hollywood-like business model where games can be one-time blockbuster events.

Despite the film franchise’s commercial pedigree, however, the game is no slam dunk. The success of MMO games is hard to predict and early reviews by critics may not gauge its success since it can take months to test the hundreds of hours of playing time.

EA has made no secret that it is using the game, developed in Austin by Edmonton-based BioWare Studio over three and a half years, to go after World of Warcraft, the title made by its biggest competitor, Activision Blizzard.

World of Warcraft represents the genre’s gold standard, in some years generating $1-billion in revenue by itself. To help compete, EA hired more than 1,000 voice actors for Star Wars: The Old Republic, which broke an industry record.

“There hasn’t been a big MMO release in many years, not since World of Warcraft, that is this ambitious in scope and broadly appealing,” said Frank Gibeau, president of EA labels.

Mr. Gibeau said that monthly subscriptions giving players constant access to new content could make the game a “10-year business.” The company has previously said it needs 500,000 subscribers to break even on the game and that more than 1 million subscribers would make it “a very profitable business.”

According to Arvind Bhatia, a Sterne Agee analyst, EA should have no trouble reaching that milestone. Bhatia expects the game to sell 3 million copies at the start and sign up 1.5 million subscribers by the end of 2012.

Mr. Bhatia, underscoring how much EA has riding on this one game, added that the company’s annual earnings next year could take a 15 to 20 cent hit if the game is a bust.

“If it’s a flop, then it’s bad for the sentiment of the stock and from an earnings standpoint,” Mr. Bhatia said.

It’s not impossible Old Republic will fail to catch: BioWare is not the first developer to bring the “Star Wars” franchise into the multiplayer gaming world. Sony Online Entertainment launched the highly anticipated Star Wars Galaxies in 2003, but the game failed to live up to expectations and was ultimately cancelled, with the servers going offline for good last week.

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EA’s Mr. Gibeau downplayed the idea that it could suffer a major loss if the game, which was developed by more than 400 full-time EA employees, does not catch on.

“In terms of scale, scope and expense, this doesn’t make or break the company. This is just one initiative and we have many other bets we are making,” Mr. Gibeau said.

Activision Blizzard Chief Executive Bobby Kotick has questioned whether EA would make money off the game since it has to pay Lucas Arts, the owner of the Star Wars license, for rights.

“Lucas is going to be the principal beneficiary of the success of Star Wars,” Mr. Kotick told Reuters in November. “We’ve been in business with Lucas for a long time and the economics will always accrue to the benefit of Lucas, so I don’t really understand how the economics work for Electronic Arts.”

EA has since brushed off Mr. Kotick’s claim, with Mr. Gibeau saying EA is used to making money off major licensing deals, from its soccer game, FIFA to its football title Madden NFL.

“I wasn’t aware Bobby had access to our deal and knows what we are going to get,” said EA’s Mr. Gibeau. “That’s not the case here. This is a very good business for us.

The game takes place thousands of years before the popular “Star Wars” films. The Galactic Republic has forged a tenuous peace with the despotic Sith Empire, and the Republic's Jedi knights are seeking to rebuild after being decimated their enemies in the last war. Peace does not make for an engaging video game plot, however, and soon the universe is again swept up in a conflict between the two sides.

Players can choose to either serve the Republic or Empire as their characters embark on a journey that will take them to several far-flung planets, including “Star Wars” favourites such as icy Hoth or arid Tatooine. Along the way players will take on a multitude of quests to progress their individual stories, either alone or with a group of friends. Players have a choice in what kind of characters they want to be, from an honourable Jedi knight wielding an iconic lightsaber to a bounty hunter for hire.

With interactive dialogues storylines influenced by players' decisions, the focus on the game's story is immediately apparent. BioWare has taken the role-playing elements that made their games Mass Effect and Dragon Age: Origins popular and integrated them into a video game genre where narrative often takes a back seat.

“The real crux, the defining difference from other games, is actually a sense of choice,” says Greg Zeschuk, co-founder and vice-president of BioWare. “A typical MMO game will say ‘get five of these,' and you'll go get five of them and the guy goes ‘here's your prize.’ And that's it. In our game there's usually a context, there's some story set up for it.”

While gamers have been salivating for years over leaked details of the game, investors like Dan Niles, chief investment officer of the AlphaOne Capital Partners hedge fund, have also been paying close attention, but for a different reason. Mr. Niles said if the game does well, he may buy EA shares.

At Monday’s close of $19.84 per share, EA shares have gained 21 per cent for the year. However, the company’s shares have also shed 19 percent since its last earnings report on October 27.

“I am looking forward to the game coming out to see if it could be interesting for the stock,” Niles said.

With files from Curtis Withers, Canadian Press

Published on Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011 9:51AM EST

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Video: More takeover speculation for RIM

Last updated Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011 9:45AM EST

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Published on Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011 9:45AM EST

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China passes U.S. as top patent filer in 2011

Lee Chyen Yee

Hong Kong - Reuters

Last updated Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011 1:20PM EST

Published applications from China’s patent office have risen by an average of 16.7 per cent annually from 171,000 in 2006 to nearly 314,000 in 2010, data from Thomson Reuters Derwent World Patents Index showed. Workers are seen inside a Foxconn factory in the township of Longhua in the southern Guangdong province in this May 26, 2010 file photo. (Bobby Yip/Reuters)

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China became the world’s top patent filer in 2011, surpassing the United States and Japan as it steps up innovation to improve its intellectual property rights track record, a Thomson Reuters research report showed on Wednesday.

The report said the world’s second-largest economy aimed to transform from a “made in China” to a “designed in China” market, with the government pushing for innovation in sectors such as automobiles, pharmaceuticals and technology.

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However, legal experts said China would need to do more before it can lead the world in innovation as the quality of patents needed to improve.

The government provided attractive incentives for companies in China to file patent applications, regardless of whether a patent was eventually granted, they said.

“The idea of subsidizing patents is not bad in itself, however it is a blunt instrument because you get high figures for filings, but it does not tell you anything about the quality of the patents filed,” said Elliot Papageorgiou, a Partner and Executive at law firm Rouse Legal (China).

“One thing is volume, quality is quite another. The return, or the percentage of grants, of the patents is still not as high in China as, say, in the U.S., Japan or some places in Europe,” he said.

The Thomson Reuters report said published patent applications from China were expected to total nearly 500,000 in 2015, following by the United States with close to 400,000 and Japan with almost 300,000.

Published applications from China’s patent office have risen by an average of 16.7 per cent annually from 171,000 in 2006 to nearly 314,000 in 2010, data from Thomson Reuters Derwent World Patents Index showed.

During the period, Japan had the highest volume, followed by the United States, China, Korea and Europe, the report said. It did not give figures for 2011.

“The striking difference among these regions is China – it is experiencing the most rapid growth and is poised to lead the pack in the very near future,” it said.

Of total patents filed in China, the percentage of domestic applications rose to nearly 73 per cent in 2010 from less than 52 per cent in 2006, indicating that Chinese companies have outpaced foreign entities in the patent boom.

In terms of patents overseas, Chinese companies have also been climbing in the rankings, according to data from the World Intellectual Property Office (WIPO).

In 2010, China’s No.2 telecommunications equipment maker ZTE Corp was second on the list of applicants, ranking just behind Japan’s Panasonic Corp.

U.S. chip maker Qualcomm Inc. came in third, while China’s Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd, the world’s second-largest telecom gear maker, was fourth, according to WIPO.

Chinese companies have been trying to be more innovative as they transform from contract manufacturers to regional and global brand names producing higher end products to improve margins.

Patent filings have also increased among Chinese companies due to legal battles that they have had to fight, especially in the telecommunications sector. For instance, Huawei and ZTE have been embroiled in patent disputes over fourth-generation wireless technology.

Published on Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011 9:09AM EST

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Astronauts head for space station aboard the Soyuz

Irene Klotz

Last updated Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011 10:07AM EST

International Space Station (ISS) crew member, U.S. astronaut Donald Pettit, gives the thumbs up as he boards the Soyuz TMA-03M spacecraft at Baikonur cosmodrome, December 21, 2011. (SHAMIL ZHUMATOV/REUTERS)

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A trio of astronauts blasted off aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket Wednesday on a mission to bring the International Space Station back up to full manpower after an August cargo launch accident disrupted flights.

The rocket carrying Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, NASA astronaut Don Pettit and the European Space Agency’s Andre Kuipers lifted off at 8:16 a.m. EST under freezing conditions at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, a NASA Television broadcast showed.

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The all-veteran crew was scheduled to reach the orbital outpost at 10:22 a.m. EST Friday. They will join station commander Dan Burbank and two Russian cosmonauts who arrived last month, bringing the complex back to its full live-aboard staff of six.

Soyuz flights to the station were disrupted by the failure of a Russian Progress cargo ship in August. The Progress’ upper-stage engine is virtually identical to the one used to fly crews to the station, prompting a suspension of flights until the cause of the accident could be found and fixed.

Russian engineers traced the problem to contamination in a fuel line, which prevented the rocket engine from firing. The capsule broke apart as it fell back through the atmosphere, scattering debris over parts of Siberia.

After detailed inspections and new procedures to tighten quality control, Russia resumed station cargo flights Oct. 30 and crew transports on Nov. 14.

In addition to ramping up science experiments aboard the station, the astronauts and cosmonauts are expected to oversee the start of commercial cargo resupply flights.

Space Exploration Technologies, one of two firms hired by NASA to deliver cargo to the station following the space shuttles’ retirement this summer, plans a trial run in February.

“I view these vehicles like wagon trains supplying some government-run fort out West,” Pettit said in a prelaunch interview. “We have commercial entities that are lining up to take supplies to and from space station.”

NASA eventually wants to buy rides to fly astronauts to the station commercially as well and is contributing to four firm’s efforts. The U.S. space agency has $406 million to spend on space taxi development for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1 and plans to issue its next solicitation in mid-February, program managers said Tuesday at an industry briefing at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

With the space shuttles’ retirement, NASA is dependent on Russia to fly crews to the station, a service that currently costs the United States about $350 million a year.

The station, a $100 billion project of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan and Canada, is a multi-purpose research laboratory for biology, physics, astronomy and other studies that orbits about 240 miles above Earth.

Published on Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011 9:01AM EST

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Investing

- Thomson Reuters pulls sale of health care unit

- Today’s small-cap stocks to watch

- Italy’s austerity budget gets final approval

- Strikes over austerity hit Europe holiday travel

- Rob Carrick's Reader: The big year ahead

- U.S. GDP: Good news, bad news

- U.S. growth slower than thought

- Three behaviors that can affect your investment performance

- European belt tightening hits iPhone 4S sales

- Consumer confidence hits 2 1/2 year low

- Japan cuts economic growth forecasts

- U.K. economic growth revised up to 0.6%

- Supreme Court rejects Ottawa's bid for national securities regulator

- Be a leader Warren Buffett would invest in

Thomson Reuters pulls sale of health care unit

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 10:29AM EST

A worker enters the Thomson Reuters building in the Canary Wharf financial district of London August 6, 2009. (SIMON NEWMAN/REUTERS)

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News and information provider Thomson Reuters Corp. said it has pulled the sale of its health care business, as tough economic conditions made it difficult to fetch a good enough price.

The company had announced in June that it planned to sell the unit, which supplies health care data and analysis to companies, government agencies and health professionals, and which had revenue of about $450-million (U.S.) in 2010.

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“Global economic conditions have become more challenging and the company believes they are not conducive to concluding a transaction that reflects the fair value of the healthcare business at this time,” Thomson Reuters said in a statement on Thursday.

A spokesman for the company declined to say what parties had considered buying the health care business or what prices might have been discussed.

Thomson Reuters said it would continue to invest in the health care business “until improved market conditions allow the company to complete a divestiture at attractive terms.”

The company had previously said the sale of the healthcare unit was not expected to have a material impact on its 2011 outlook.

Thomson Reuters provides news and information to financial, legal, accounting and healthcare professionals.

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 10:27AM EST

Companies mentioned in this article ( 1)

Company Price Change Volume

Thomson Reuters

TRI-T 26.40 0.02

0.08% 149,492

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Today’s small-cap stocks to watch

Dave Price

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 9:38AM EST

A trader signals an offer in the Chicago Board Options Exchange on Wednesday. Markets responded enthusiastically as the world's major central banks stepped in to ensure capital keeps flowing. Stocks soared to their highest level since August. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

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Bioniche Life Sciences Inc. , a research-based, technology-driven Canadian biopharmaceutical company that closed Wednesday near two year lows, announced that it has entered into two distribution agreements to expand its product offerings in North America. No finacial details were provided. The first agreement is with MedTrade Products Limited, a U.K.-based company.

The agreement provides a number of equine and companion animal health products based on MedTrade's CeloxTM technology for exclusive distribution by Bioniche in Canada. The second agreement is with Mueller Medical International LLC, a U.S.-based company. The agreement provides an equine product - Equine Gastrafate - for exclusive distribution in Canada and the U.S. by Bioniche.

Perseus Mining Limited released an updated resource estimate for the Edikan Gold Mine in Ghana, West Africa. Highlights include: 954,000oz increase in Measured and Indicated mineral resources at EGM; M&I mineral resources at EGM now 143.9Mt, containing 5.3Moz of gold; Perseus's total M&I mineral resources increased to 184.5Mt containing 6.7Moz of gold; Perseus's total Inferred mineral resources increased 76,000oz to 76.9Mt containing 2.3Moz of gold; maiden Resource estimate has been declared for the Bokitsi deposit; drilling is continuing on deposits the subject of the upgrade, assays results for 50 holes pending; revised reserve estimate based on the new resource models expected to be completed in March 2012.

Perseus's current Reserve base stands at 3.9Moz of gold; Esuajah North resource upgrade will be completed in March 2012 following completion of a large drilling program; further resource upgrades at EGM planned for 2012; upcoming resource upgrade at Company's Cote d'Ivoire projects planned for June Quarter 2012.

Aurora Oil & Gas Limited provided an update to its independent proved and probable reserves estimate for the Company's working interests in the Sugarkane Field with an effective date of Oct. 31, 2011. It announced a 150 per cent increase in proved reserves. Key points include: the Reserves Report continues to demonstrate the rapid transition of the Company's reserves in to the 1P and 2P categories; at the effective date of the Reserves Report, Ryder Scott considers that 65 wells (9 of which are farmout wells) are in the PDP category, 749 future well locations can be considered proved undeveloped and 125 future well locations are in the probable reserves category; the Reserves Report utilizes four type curves across the Aurora acreage and they are broadly consistent with those provided previously.

Rusoro Mining Ltd. , which is trading near a year low 9 cents, reported the 90-day period fixed by the Nationalization Decree No. 8413 to negotiate the compensation due to Rusoro and the terms of the migration of Rusoro's mining assets to a Mixed Enterprise to be controlled by the Venezuelan Government and which expired on Dec. 15, 2011 has been extended by decree No. 8683 for another 90 days, to March 14, 2012.

Armtec Infrastructure Inc. , which gained 10 per cent yesterday, announced it has been awarded a contract, valued at approximately $32-million, with Bechtel Canada Co., who is acting as the agent for Rio Tinto Alcan, to supply precast components for the Kitimat Modernization Project. Manufacturing of these elements is expected to be completed over a two year time frame and is scheduled to get underway early in 2012.

Wildcat Silver Corporation announced the results for eight additional holes completed on the Company's Hermosa property located in Santa Cruz County, Arizona. Results continue to support the expansion and upgrading of the current Hermosa resource. The Company is also announcing that it now expects to issue its updated resource estimate and preliminary economic assessment for the Hermosa project in early 2012.

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Highlights include: HDS-214, located in the east central portion of the Hermosa ore body, demonstrates significant silver and manganese mineralization. This hole encountered three intervals with the upper interval returning 9.1 metres of 395.2 g/t silver, 8.46 per cent manganese, 0.15 per cent zinc, 2.96 per cent lead and 0.22 per cent copper; HDS-216, also located in the east central portion of the Hermosa ore body, returned 10.7 metres of 310.0 g/t silver, 10.81 per cent manganese, 0.17 per cent zinc, 4.36 per cent lead and 0.19 per cent copper; HDS-203, located in the northeast central portion of the Hermosa ore body, encountered three intervals of mineralization. The middle zone returned an extensive interval of 35.1 metres of 160.4 g/t silver, 12.45 per cent manganese, 4.52 per cent zinc, 2.79 per cent lead and 0.26 per cent copper. The Company continues to drill on the Hermosa property and remains focused on expanding the size and upgrading the quality of the current resource. Wildcat's current cash position remains strong and the Company expects it will be sufficient to fund its planned activities through 2012.

Riva Gold Corporation , which closed Wednesday near a year low of 32.5 cents, announced that the Board of Directors has approved the sale of the Company's subsidiaries, assets and properties thereby concluding its focus on mineral exploration in Guyana. The Company said its current objective is to minimize cash outflow as it is aware that there are other exploration opportunities in other jurisdictions which could be a better use of the Company resources. Riva's four subsidiaries have been sold to the Pereira Group for $50,000 (U.S.). In addition, the Company has identified opportunities to sell certain of its assets and properties locally in Guyana for approximately $445,000 (U.S.), of which $360,000 has been received with the majority of the remaining expected to be received by year end. Riva forecasts its cash position to be approximately $8.8-million (CAN) at Dec. 31, 2011.

SGX Resources Inc. , which dropped 5.5 per cent on Wednesday, announced that it has completed the acquisition of five mineral claims located in the Porcupine Mining Division, District of Cochrane, Ontario from Randall Salo. The consideration paid by SGX to Salo for the Salo Mineral Claims is 100,000 common shares of SGX and $10,000 in cash. The Salo Mineral Claims are also subject to a 2 per cent net smelter royalty in favor of Salo. SGX also announced that it has completed the acquisition of four mineral claims located in Sothman township in the Porcupine Mining Division, District of Cochrane, Ontario from Daryl Bremner. The consideration paid by SGX to Bremner for the Bremner Mineral Claims is 120,000 common shares of SGX and $2,000 in cash. The Bremner Mineral Claims are also subject to a 2 per cent net smelter royalty in favor of Bremner.

Almaden Minerals Ltd. reported results from exploration programs, regional and project specific, carried out by the Company outside on its 100 per cent owned Tuligtic project. In 2011 the Company was primarily focussed on an expanded drill program at the Ixtaca gold-silver zone of the Tuligtic project where 86 holes were drilled for a total of 31,016.64 meters. Despite the focus at Tuligtic the Company continues to prospect for new projects and has also been advancing other projects already in Almaden's large property portfolio.

Avatar Energy Ltd. , which is trading near to a year low 12.5 cents, announced that it has entered into a joint venture agreement with a major Pembina Cardium player to jointly develop its east Pembina acreage. It anticipates spudding the first joint well in the first quarter of 2012. Avatar also provided an update on its previously announced non-brokered private placement financing. It said aggregate gross proceeds from the financing will be approximately $174,500 subject to final acceptance by the TSX Venture Exchange.

ProSep Inc. , a company that provides process solutions to the oil and gas industry, announced today that it has recently secured various contracts with existing customers amounting to $2-million. The company said the contracts are for the design and supply of new equipment including a produced water treatment system valued at $0.7-million and additional parts and change orders related to two different gas treatment projects. Jacques L. Drouin, President and CEO, said: "These recent contract awards bring our year-to-date total orders signed to $48 million, twice last year's orders."

Battery manufacturer Electrovaya Inc. announced late Wednesday its financial results for the fourth quarter ended Sept. 30, 2011. The company said it ended the quarter with a net loss of $399,000 compared to the previous year's $501,000. This was after revenues rose to $2.6-million from $1.7-million in the same period last year.

Colabor Group Inc. , distributor of food and non-food products, said today that it has signed an agreement to purchase the assets of Viandes Decarie Inc., a leading wholesaler and distributor of meat and meat products. The company said this transaction, its second in less than 12 months in the "center of the plate" meal solutions category, will enable it to broaden its product offering and expand its customer base. Gilles C. Lachance, Colabor President and Chief Executive Office, said: "This transaction will further enhance our offering in a growth niche and will allow us to increase our sales to existing customers while penetrating the specialty butcher market."

Residential landlord Killam Properties , which is trading near a year high $11.59, announced today the expansion of its Ontario apartment portfolio with the purchase of a 25 per cent ownership interest in the newly constructed 180 Mill Road Apartments, a 127-unit complex in downtown London, Ontario. The company said the purchase price of 180 Mill Road was $33.3-million ($262,200 per suite), with its 25 per cent ownership interest being $8.325-million.

Lupaka Gold Corp. announced today that it has received assay results on five additional drill holes from the ongoing drilling program being carried out this year on its Crucero Gold Project in southern Peru. The company said the most northerly hole, DDH-50 reported 42 meters grading 1.92 g/t including an intercept of 17.0 meters at 3.31 g/t at a true depth of 75 meters from surface. This is significant because it indicates a continuation of strong mineralization to the north of the previously reported A-1 Zone gold envelope.

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 9:38AM EST

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Italy’s austerity budget gets final approval

ROME - Globe and Mail Update

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 9:29AM EST

Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti speaks at the Senate in Rome December 22, 2011. (ALESSANDRO BIANCHI/REUTERS)

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Italy’s Senate on Thursday definitively approved Prime Minister Mario Monti’s €33-billion austerity package aimed at restoring market confidence in the euro zone’s third-biggest economy.

The Senate voted 257 to 41 in a confidence vote called to speed the passage of the measures.

- Monti wins confidence vote on austerity

- Italian government calls confidence vote on austerity

- Italy raises $3.95-billion but rates soar

More to come

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 9:23AM EST

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Strikes over austerity hit Europe holiday travel

RAF CASERT

Brussels - The Associated Press

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 9:21AM EST

A man walks across the empty concourse at Brussels South railway station in Brussels, Thursday Dec. 22, 2012. (Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AP)

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Strikes to protest austerity measures paralyzed ground traffic in Belgium and hit Christmas travellers in several nations across Europe on Thursday, promising days of headaches through the holidays.

Workers were walking off the job to show their ire at budget-slashing measures by their governments to tackle debt and high deficits, and officials were scrambling to try to mitigate delays and cancellations.

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Eurostar and Thalys idled part of their popular service through Brussels as Belgian transport workers walked off the job. In France, a strike by airport security personnel stretched into its seventh day, and in London, football club Arsenal postponed its day-after-Christmas game against Wolverhampton Wanderers by 24 hours because of a planned public transport strike on the U.K.’s Boxing Day holiday.

The French government, anxious to avoid angering voters ahead of next spring's presidential election, was looking at options on Thursday to get police to replace security personnel and make sure Christmas Sunday is as undisturbed as possible. Delays appeared to be shortening.

“The issue is to have airplanes take off so that the French people who have had a tough autumn and are feeling the crisis can get to their families and not be blocked at airports,” Transport Minister Nathalie Koscusko-Morizet said on France Info.

In the Netherlands, doctors got in on the act, with about one in six holding a three-hour wildcat strike after Parliament approved plans to reduce their reimbursement for many common procedures. Doctors who participated said they were only available in case of emergency.

In Greece, train workers planned a five-hour work stoppage from noon Thursday, and in Spain more airline and transport action is expected next week, with Iberia pilots to strike again Dec. 29 over the state company's decision to launch a low cost airline. Meanwhile, the small CGT union has called strikes at the public rail company Renfe for Christmas and New Year's.

The major unions in Belgium were protesting pension reform being pushed through Parliament for early next year that would require people to wait two years longer before early retirement. All but one of Belgium's major airports were operating close to normal, but intermittent road blocks by strikers worsened road delays around the capital. The strike also affected postal services, schools and hospitals.

At the Brussels South train station, the tracks of the popular Eurostar and Thalys trains linking London and Paris through Brussels with Amsterdam and Germany, remained empty.

“Eurostar and other onward connecting rail services will not be able to operate to or from Brussels during this period,” the rail company said of the 24-hour strike.

Simply waiting a day would be tough for holiday travellers since the trains are often fully booked for days on end.

All local lines were canceled on Thursday, too, keeping many workers home.

“Again, it is at the expense of travellers. We are literally left out in the cold,” said Kees Smilde of the TrainTramBus consumer group.

The reforms are part of a slate of austerity measures approved by Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo's coalition to get Belgium out of the financial crisis.

Unions were especially irked that the government is trying to push through pension reform, sidestepping the traditional worker-employer negotiations that have become a cornerstone of the nation's welfare state system.

Workers “are striking against the government retirement measures because they are imposed on us in the absence of any kind of social negotiations,” the Socialist ABVV union said in a statement. Another day of action is planned for Jan. 30, when a summit of EU government leaders is planned, and further wildcat strikes are expected.

In London, Arsenal was forced to take action after subway workers decided to stage a strike the day after Christmas in a dispute over holiday pay in a walkout sure to cause problems on one of the busiest shopping days of the year. The London Underground's management calls the unions' demand for more pay and another day off “outrageous.”

In Paris, the airport security personnel strike continued but delays were shortening and no flight cancellations were recorded at De Gaulle, Paris' busiest airport Wednesday.

Unions representing workers who conduct pat-downs on travellers and operate the bag-screening machines launched the walkout a week ago to demand negotiations over an increase in pay. It was timed for maximum effect during the holiday getaway season.

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 9:18AM EST

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Rob Carrick's Reader: The big year ahead

Rob Carrick

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 9:03AM EST

Bull figurine symbolizing bull market ((C) 2008 Jupiterimages)

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The best of the Web on money, markets and all things financial, as chosen daily by Globe and Mail personal finance columnist Rob Carrick.

The Big Year Ahead

Money managers are quite optimistic about 2012 on the whole, with 80 per cent expecting positive returns in the Canadian market and 33 per cent expecting double-digit returns.

Why Cash Is King

Some thoughts on the benefits of holding a large amount of money in cash, even at a time when interest rates are low.

‘Twas The Night Before Christmas

The My Own Adviser blog uses the classic Christmas poem as a guide to some of the personal finance bloggers and writers out there. Thanks for the shout-out, MOA.

Turning Talk To Action on Savings

A smart take on savings – just talking about it doesn’t accomplish much. You actually have to make a choice to save and then follow through with some action.

Personal Finance on Facebook

Subscribe to my Facebook page for discussions like the one yesterday on what financial advisers can do for you.

Follow us on Twitter: @globemoney

Editor's note: If you don't receive Rob Carrick's newsletter twice weekly by email, you can sign up to get it for free at The Globe and Mail. All you need to do is register for the site, or if you've already registered, log in and go to your profile at the top of the homepage. Once you're in your profile, look under Newsletters and Alerts and look for the Personal Finance Reader and other newsletters. Other financial newsletters include: Business Ticker, a summary of the day's top business stories; Berman's Market Update, a summary of the markets at the open, noon and close; and All-Star Investors, a monthly collection of articles exploring an investing trend or theme.

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 9:03AM EST

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- Rob Carrick's Reader: Be your own debt doctor

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U.S. GDP: Good news, bad news

SONALI VERMA

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 9:17AM EST

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A quick look at what economists are saying about third-quarter economic growth numbers and last week's jobless claims data out of the United States:

"Good and bad news in today’s data, with third-quarter GDP revised down for a second time, but weekly initial claims again coming in better than the street’s expectation. GDP was knocked down two ticks to 1.8 per cent from the second estimate, and making the 2.5 per cent pace recorded in the flash something of a distant memory," wrote Andrew Grantham, economist at CIBC World Markets.

"Most worryingly, much of the revision stemmed from personal consumption, which is now estimated as rising by a meager 1.7 per cent (previously 2.3 per cent). Private investment was revised up a touch to partly offset, with a small negative turning to a marginal positive (1.3 per cent versus -0.9 per cent previously)."

NBF Financial senior economist Krishen Rangasamy saw the numbers in a positive light.

"While the downward revision to GDP isn’t good news, it’s old news at this point. More importantly, the current quarter is showing promising signs with consumers bouncing back and even housing seemingly stabilizing. The more upbeat consumer has a lot to do with the improving labour market – the latter is evidenced by the downtrending initial jobless claims," he wrote.

"It's clear that the U.S. economy accelerated in the fourth quarter based on monthly data. Unless Congress decides to be play spoilsport, momentum should carry through to 2012 helped by a resurgent consumer, business spending and inventory refills."

Going forward, it may well mean good news, agreed Scotia Capital economists Derek Holt and Karen Cordes Woods.

"It seems to me that the biggest takeaway here is that economists will likely firm up or revise slightly higher their fourth-quarter growth forecasts on a weaker than anticipated third-quarter hand off," they wrote.

"The second broad takeaway is that despite upward revisions to inventories and business investment in equipment and structures, downward revisions to consumer spending led to the unexpectedly greater headline GDP weakness."

"Claims handily beat expectations and this will only further intensify the debate over whether U.S. job gains are likely to accelerate going forward. These are the lowest claim figures since April 2008 but they leave open the debate over whether a job acceleration lies around the corner versus whether they simply signal a period of reduced firings in a relatively jobless recovery."

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 8:58AM EST

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U.S. growth slower than thought

WASHINGTON - Reuters

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 10:52AM EST

For the first time in months, several key indicators are pointing in the right direction. Holiday spending is holding up well, exports are picking up, new jobless claims are steadily falling, the economy is adding jobs, consumer confidence is rising and housing is bottoming out. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

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U.S. economic growth was slower than previously estimated in the third quarter on a sharp drop in health care spending, but stronger business investment and a fall in inventories pointed to a pickup in output in the current period.

Gross domestic product grew at a 1.8 per cent annual rate in the third quarter, the Commerce Department said in its final estimate on Thursday, down from the previously estimated 2 per cent.

- U.S. GDP: Good news, bad news

- U.S. jobless claims fall to lowest since 2008

- Wages still failing to keep up with inflation

Economists had expected growth to be unrevised at 2 per cent. Though spending on health care dropped by $2.2-billion, spending on durable goods was stronger than previously estimated, indicating household appetite to consume remains healthy.

Health care spending had previously been reported to have increased at a $19.7-billion rate. Health care spending subtracted about 0.1 percentage point from the GDP change in the final revision, whereas the previous estimate had it adding 0.61 percentage point to growth.

Even as much of the rest of the world is slowing down and a mild recession is forecast in Europe next year, the U.S. economy remains resilient.

The labour market is improving, households continue to spend, home building is picking up and factory output is expanding, putting the economy on course for at least a 3-per-cent growth pace in the fourth quarter.

That would be the fastest pace in 18 months.

Despite the downward revision, last quarter’s growth is still a step-up from the April-June period’s 1.3-per-cent pace. Part of the pick-up in output during the last quarter reflects a reversal of factors that held back growth earlier in the year.

A jump in gasoline prices had weighed on consumer spending earlier in the year, and supply disruptions from Japan’s big earthquake and tsunami in March had curbed auto production.

The government revised consumer spending to a 1.7-per-cent growth rate from 2.3 per cent because of adjustments to health care services, in particular non-profit hospitals.

Spending on durable goods was, however, revised up to a 5.7 per cent pace from 5.5 per cent.

Business inventories dropped $2.0-billion, which sliced off 1.35 percentage points from GDP growth. Inventories had previously been estimated to have declined $8.5-billion.

The drag from inventories was offset by strong business spending, which increased at a 15.7 per cent rate, instead of 14.8 per cent.

Excluding inventories, the economy grew at a still brisk 3.2-per-cent rate, revised down from 3.6-per-cent pace. Final sales increased at a 1.6-per-cent pace in the second quarter.

The Department also said after-tax corporate profits increased at a 2.7-per-cent rate, revised down from 3.0 per cent. After tax profits increased at a 4.3 rate in the second quarter.

Export growth was stronger than previously estimated, rising at a 4.7-per-cent rate instead of 4.3 per cent. Imports increased at a much faster 1.2-per-cent rate rather than 0.5 per cent.

Trade contributed 0.43 percentage point to GDP growth. Elsewhere, residential construction grew at a 1.3-per-cent rate instead of 1.6 per cent. Government spending fell at an unrevised 0.1 per cent.

The GDP report also showed some inflation pressures in the economy. A price index for personal spending rose at an unrevised 2.3-per-cent rate in the third quarter.

That compared to a 3.3-per-cent rate in the second quarter. A core inflation measure, which strips out food and energy costs, rose at a 2.1-per-cent rate rather than 2.0 per cent. The measure – closely watched by the Federal Reserve – grew at a 2.3-per-cent rate in the prior three months.

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 8:41AM EST

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Three behaviors that can affect your investment performance

Robert Stammers

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 9:23AM EST

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Investors who are believers in the so-called efficient market hypothesis were shaken up yet again when the markets didn’t factor in all available information during the heady days of subprime lending. Indeed, they have had to cede some ground to behavioral economists who point to the role of bias in financial decisions.

The efficient market hypothesis essentially says that investors cannot beat the markets over time since stock prices are based on all available information. The concept underlies some types of passive investment strategies, and I can see certain truths in the efficient market hypothesis. However, bias can play a significant role by unconsciously affecting our decision-making.

Before you begin reviewing your investment strategies and tactics for the New Year, you may want to review some of the inherent biases that plague many individual investors: behaviors that can be hard for most investors to recognize and resolve.

Bias 1: Overconfidence

As noted in the Forbes/CFA Investment Course, confidence can easily turn into overconfidence after a few easy wins:

Many novice investors get lucky: The first few stocks they pick do extremely well. Unfortunately, they start believing in themselves. They think they have a magic touch; or worse, they think they are smarter than everyone else. This often leads to disaster….

Therefore, the wise investor not only knows how to recognize signs of overconfidence in himself (such as bragging about one’s short-term investment performance), he also knows how to apply the brakes when the signs become visible. In other words, he has learned at some point how to use reasoning to overrule his emotions.

Bias 2: Familiarity

The second bias, called familiarity bias, may cause some investors to be too concentrated on opportunities in their own countries. They are more familiar with and confident about local investment opportunities, so despite the fact that it’s much easier than in the past to diversify investments across geographies, they go with what they know and can easily understand.

Mei Wang, a professor of finance at WHU-The Otto Beisheim School of Management in Germany, says that although one should take many other considerations into account, such as tax benefits, transaction costs, and so on, investors in most countries are still substantially under-diversified, in part due to their familiarity bias.

Another example of familiarity bias is a tendency by investors to buy shares in the companies they work for. In doing so, the investor may become over-allocated to the company stock and the unsystematic risks that come from being under-diversified. Individuals that are over-allocated to company stock take the risk of having their assets and their income significantly reduced should the company go through a period of financial difficulty. To weed out familiarity bias, a good approach for the New Year would be to discuss different investing strategies than you typically use with your financial adviser and then consider employing those that are appropriate for meeting your unique financial goals.

Bias 3: Anchoring

A third and final bias I want to touch on is the idea of anchoring, or becoming fixated on past information and using that information to make inappropriate investment decisions.

When investors are influenced by this bias, they may not be able to get their mind off a particular sell-price target, even if new information is available or the investing landscape has shifted significantly. They become stuck and may even ride markets to the bottom if they cannot let go of what they think the price “should” be. Wang says, “Some cognitive biases are built into the brain.”

Know thyself

However, all three biases—the tendency to become overconfident, to go with familiar picks, and to anchor—impact both individual and professional investors. Professional investors may have more tools at their disposal for reading their own biases. For instance, a whole consulting industry has been created around the ideas of behavioral economists and teaching people to understand their own biases in investing.

Perhaps the best advice for individual investors regarding bias is this: Avoid trying to outsmart the markets and instead work to outsmart yourself. Through self-examination and reflection, learn to recognize your own biases when they rear their heads.

Robert Stammers is Director of Investor Education at CFA Institute

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 8:40AM EST

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European belt tightening hits iPhone 4S sales

Tarmo Virki

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 8:33AM EST

Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks in front of an image of the iPhone 4S. (REUTERS)

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Weakening economies and falling prices of rival smartphones are hurting sales of Apple Inc. ’s iPhones across Europe, data from research firm Kantar Worldpanel ComTech showed on Thursday.

The October roll-out of Apple’s iPhone 4S boosted its position in Britain and United States, but the new phones failed to excite interest in continental Europe, where Apple’s share of the fast-growing smartphone market slipped.

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The smartphone industry is dominated by Google Inc. , which has stormed the market with its free Android platform.

“In Great Britain, the U.S. and Australia, Apple’s new iPhone continues to fly off the shelf in the run-up to Christmas. However, this trend is far from universal,” said Dominic Sunnebo, global consumer insight director.

Apple’s market share in the 12 weeks to end-November rose to 36 per cent in the United States from 25 per cent a year earlier and in Britain to 31 per cent from 21 per cent, Kantar said.

However, in France its share slipped to 20 per cent from 29 per cent and in Germany to 22 percent from 27 per cent. Similar drops were seen in Italy and Spain.

“The French market is showing increasing signs of price sensitivity,” Mr. Sunnebo said.

In part, the European sales of the expensive Apple model were hit by weakening economies across the continent.

Euro zone GDP grew just 0.2 per cent in the third quarter and most economists expect it to contract in the fourth and also in the first three months of next year, sending the bloc back into recession after its two-year recovery from the worst global financial crisis since the 1930s.

The euro zone’s own crisis with government debt has scared off investment and eaten into business and consumer confidence, particularly since August when investors intensified their scrutiny of the bloc’s problems.

European consumers are keeping a lid on their expenses as government spending cuts and job losses deprive companies of demand for goods and crush exports.

Google had market shares of between 46 and 61 per cent in all markets. Cellphone makers like Samsung Electronics, Sony Ericsson, LG Ericsson and Motorola Mobility all use its Android platform in their phones.

“In Germany, Android achieved a dominant 61 per cent share of smartphone sales in the latest 12 weeks, with the Samsung Galaxy S II the top selling handset,” Mr. Sunnebo said.

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 8:26AM EST

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Consumer confidence hits 2 1/2 year low

Lauren Krugel

Ottawa - The Canadian Press

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 11:13AM EST

A sale sign is seen at Aritzia at the Eaton Centre in Toronto. (Kevin Van Paassen/The Globe and Mail)

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The Conference Board of Canada says the latest consumer confidence numbers show the index hitting its lowest level since the height of the recession.

The Ottawa think tank said Thursday its Index of Consumer Confidence posted a 6.5-point drop in December, bringing 2011 to a “disappointing” close and signalling further belt-tightening by Canadians is in store.

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At 69.9, the index is down 11.1 points from where it was at the end of 2010 — its lowest point in more than two and a half years.

“Consumers continue to report deep concerns about their financial situation,” the board said.

“At a time when the major banks are warning that consumer debt levels have risen to record levels, Canadians say they are losing ground.”

The board uses a 2002 base of 100 in compiling the index, which reflects how Canadians feel about the economy, job creation, future major purchases and their personal finances.

The board said opinion eroded on all four questions, but responses to the major purchases question were particularly gloomy.

In December, just 34.1 per cent of respondents said now is a good time to buy a big-ticket item like a car or an appliance, down 1.9 percentage points from November and the eighth consecutive monthly decline.

More worrisome is that 54 per cent said now is a bad time to make a major purchase, up 3.5 percentage points and more than 10 points higher than a year ago.

“The results reflect the Conference Board of Canada's recent economic forecast, which suggests that consumer spending will remain weak in the coming months.”

Confidence was down across the country, with the biggest drop in Atlantic Canada, wiping out a recent gain after the Halifax Shipyard won a $25-billion shipbuilding contract earlier this fall.

British Columbia registered a third consecutive monthly decline, and confidence also dropped in Ontario and Quebec, the heart of Canada's manufacturing sector.

The Prairie provinces recorded only a small drop and confidence in the resource-rich region remains the highest in the country.

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 8:20AM EST

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Japan cuts economic growth forecasts

Tokyo - The Associated Press

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 7:05AM EST

Pedestrians walk past advertisments for discount fresh foods displayed at a shopping mall in Bangkok on August 22, 2011. (PORNCHAI KITTIWONGSAKUL/AFP/Getty Images)

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Japan's government lowered its economic growth forecasts as the country struggles with the yen's export-sapping strength and the fallout from Europe's debt crisis.

The Cabinet said Thursday it expects the economy to shrink 0.1 per cent in the fiscal year through March 2012 and grow 2.2 per cent in the following year as reconstruction efforts in the wake of the March earthquake boost demand.

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The Cabinet had previously forecast the economy to grow 0.5 per cent in the current fiscal year and 2.8 per cent in the year through March 2013.

It said unemployment would fall to 4.3 per cent from the 4.5 per cent projected for this year.

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 7:01AM EST

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U.K. economic growth revised up to 0.6%

LONDON - The Associated Press

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 7:07AM EST

Nissan technicians prepare doors for the Qashqai car at the company's plant in Sunderland, northern England November 9, 2011. (NIGEL RODDIS/REUTERS)

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Britain's economy grew by a slightly better than anticipated 0.6 per cent in the third quarter, after unexpectedly stalling in the previous three month period, official figures showed Thursday.

The 0.1-per-cent upward revision to the third quarter growth was offset by an equivalent reduction to the previous quarter to show no growth at all.

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The Office for National Statistics said the upward revision was largely due to agriculture, construction and services performing better than estimated. Those sectors outweighed the impact of a faltering industrial sector.

The third quarter rise was the highest since the third quarter of 2010, when the British economy also grew by 0.6 per cent but analysts aren't getting too carried away.

Britain's economy remains threatened by the debt crisis in Europe, rising unemployment and weak domestic growth, and the Bank of England has forecast little or no growth over the next few quarters.

“The underlying trend is very clearly one of an economy that is struggling in the face of what seems to be an ever-growing list of headwinds,” said Chris Williamson, chief economist at financial services information company Markit.

The Conservative-led government has staked its reputation on a strategy of cutting costs and jobs in the public sector while trying to boost private sector growth. Britain's unemployment rate is now 8.3 per cent, up 0.4 per cent on the quarter and at its highest level since 1996.

Influential credit ratings agency Moody's warned this week that the U.K.’s cherished triple-A credit rating is at risk from both a weak domestic economy and the financial crisis in the euro zone. It warned that the country's deficit “has eroded its ability to absorb further macroeconomic or fiscal shocks without rating implications.”

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 6:57AM EST

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Supreme Court rejects Ottawa's bid for national securities regulator

BILL CURRY

OTTAWA - Globe and Mail Update

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 11:07AM EST

The Supreme Court of Canada in Ottawa. (Sean Kilpatrick for The Globe and Mail)

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The Supreme Court has unanimously declared Ottawa’s proposed national Securities Act unconstitutional, siding with provinces that insisted the day-to-day regulation of securities markets does not belong in federal hands.

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty had asked for the court’s opinion on the constitutionality of the proposed law, arguing that the lack of a uniform national body to regulate securities trading was a glaring weakness in Canada’s financial system.

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Ontario, where the majority of Canada’s securities trading takes place, was the only province to side with Ottawa’s approach.

Several other provinces argued that the existing system – in which individual regulators work together to ensure common national standards – is enough to protect investors and the Canadian economy.

In its opinion – which is not a judgment because it was simply asked by Ottawa to clear up the question of constitutionality – the Supreme Court notes that it is not weighing in on whether a national security regulator would be a better option in terms of public policy.

“The courts do not have the power to declare legislation constitutional simply because they conclude that it may be the best option in terms of public policy,” the court states.

The Supreme Court’s decision marks the third time courts have ruled against Ottawa in this case. Appeals courts in Quebec and Alberta previously came to the same conclusion.

Canada’s argument that – in light of lessons learned from the 2008 economic crisis – a national regulator is needed to prevent systemic risk to the financial system appears to have found some sympathy among the judges, but not enough to sway the final decision.

“Aspects of the [proposed federal Securities Act], for example those aimed at management of systemic risk and at national data collection, appear to be directly related to the larger national goals which the Act proclaims are its raison d’être. However, important as these elements are, they do not, on the record before us, justify a complete takeover of provincial regulation,” the court states.

Ottawa had argued that the federal Constitutional power over trade and commerce trumped the provincial constitutional authority over the regulation of securities markets. Provinces outside of Ontario successfully argued that securities regulation falls under their constitutional authority over the regulation of property and civil rights.

Still, the court suggests there may still be room for a federal law that recognizes these provincial powers over securities regulation – but also the need to address some aspects nationally.

“It is not for the Court to suggest to governments of Canada and the provinces the way forward by, in effect, conferring in advance an opinion on the constitutionality of this or that alternative scheme,” the court states, noting that other federations are able to resolve such governance questions via “cooperative solutions.”

“Co-operation is the animating force. The federalism principle upon which Canada’s constitutional framework rests demands nothing less.”

Several groups that argued in favour of the proposed Securities Act - such as the Canadian Bankers Association and the Investment Industry Association of Canada - insisted the ruling was positive because it confirmed Ottawa has at least some role to play in securities regulation.

They pointed to the court’s language around systemic risk and data collection as examples of areas where Ottawa could still pursue a national regulator that incorporates the provincial authority to regulate day-to-day transactions.

“What this does is set the constitutional platform for us to move forward and actually build a national regulator for Canada, which is essential for our capital markets,” said Ian Russell, President and CEO of the Investment Industry Association of Canada.

The seniors advocacy group CARP issued a statement expressing disappointment with the ruling, noting that its members were looking forward to improved investor protection via stronger investigative powers under the proposed national body.

“Now the provinces, especially those that opposed the national body, must step up and demonstrate how they would replace that vital investor protection,” said Susan Eng, CARP’s vice-president for advocacy.

University of Ottawa law professor Errol Mendes, who is editor-in-chief of the National Journal of Constitutional Law, criticized the court for suggesting that somehow a co-operative approach can address risks to Canada’s financial system.

“The Supreme Court does not seem fully aware of the reality of how day to day can give rise to systemic risk,” he wrote in an analysis of the ruling that he provided to the Globe. “The complexity of the financial markets today is dramatically different from the time that the Constitution Act was passed in 1867. Overall, the decision of the Court on the national securities legislation is not a good decision for Canada.”

Philip Anisman, a prominent Toronto securities lawyer who advised the government panel that recommended a national regulator in 2008, said the ruling does not mean the door is closed for good.

Mr. Anisman, who first took on the issue as a summer student working for the government in 1966 and later actually produced draft legislation for Ottawa in 1979, said the Supreme Court’s ruling actually does uphold federal jurisdiction in certain areas, for example, the regulation of “systemic risk.”

And it leaves open the idea that the provinces and Ottawa could co-operatively come up with a new national regulatory regime on their own, he said. Under such a scheme, the provinces would maintain their jurisdiction of securities regulation, but could delegate it to a newly created body.

“The court isn’t saying that the federal government has no jurisdiction,” Mr. Anisman said. “So it doesn’t put an end to it.”

With a file from Jeff Gray in Toronto

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 6:16AM EST

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Be a leader Warren Buffett would invest in

Christine Comaford

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 6:50AM EST

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Warren Buffett doesn’t normally invest in technology stocks. So why did he recently buy over $10-billion (U.S.) of IBM?

Over the course of nine months, Mr. Buffett bought over 5 per cent of the company. Then two weeks after IBM’s announcement of their next CEO, he stopped investing. He openly regrets not investing when the current CEO first started.

What Warren Wants

Many of Mr. Buffett’s top portfolio picks were bought a few years into a new CEO’s tenure after they’ve demonstrated successes.

Coca-Cola was one of Mr. Buffett’s earliest investments and his largest holding. He bought in 1988 after the CEO successfully navigated a backlash from the company’s new formula by introducing Coke Classic, and by refocusing on the core business of soda. Eventually Mr. Buffett purchased 7 per cent of the entire company.

In the years following Warren’s investment in Coca-Cola the company grew through global expansion and the introduction of new soft drinks.

That was still their strategy a few years later.

And a few years after that.

More countries, more soft drinks. That’s it. It has worked for over a century.

Buffett’s Leadership Lesson #1: Focus on a simple strategy and execute it. Rapidly course-correct if tactics fail. Influence over the industry and a strong market position will result.

The #2 spot in Mr. Buffett’s portfolio is Wells Fargo, a financial services company that stayed on the straight and narrow while other banks gave out risky loans. They stayed accountable and stuck to the strategies that already worked despite tremendous industry pressure. They stayed accountable to their shareholders as well, bypassing the short-term gains that appeal to some investors.

19.5 per cent of Mr. Buffett’s holdings are in Wells Fargo. For a reason.

Buffett’s Leadership Lesson #2: Be Accountable to your strategy and stick to your standards, avoiding flashy and risky short-term gains.

#3 is American Express. Mr. Buffett bought it at a discount in 1964 when a fraud scandal brought the shares to an all-time low. Amex had made millions in loans based on the assessed, verified value of oil used in salad dressings. One tiny snag – the oil was actually huge tanks of water with oil on top, part of a sophisticated scam. Amex had a choice: pay out the loans they’d been scammed out of or punt and tank their reputation. American Express delivered on its promises by footing a bill for millions. A massive loss was the result, but the scandal demonstrated leadership through a crisis. The following year the shares doubled.

Buffett’s Leadership Lesson #3: Be Direct. If a crisis occurs, handle it swiftly and completely.

How Do You Stack Up?

So what does Mr. Buffett really want? The following leadership qualities plus one more that makes all the difference…

Be Focused. Be here now, not in the past or future. We chose what we want to focus on and what we want to ignore or defer. Being focused is about both being attentive and aware of issues, challenges and the real numbers and events that are taking place.

Be Accountable. Make and keep commitments to yourself and others. Developing leaders give their accountability away to either other people or circumstances. The quality and speed of results are directly proportional to how much accountability one takes on about having those results.

Be Direct. Be clear and explicit in your words, actions, visions, intentions and strategies. Otherwise misunderstandings, miscommunications and wasted resources will result. Clarity strengthens a team’s commitment and trust with one other and their projects.

Be Influential. How much influence do you have over outcomes and others? Developing leaders may think influence comes through domination. This is not sustainable, and results in a crushed culture. Influence occurs through our language, decision making, requests and promises, actions, intentions and ways of being. Influence is all about empowering others in tangible, measurable, specific ways.

How do you score on Mr. Buffett’s Leadership Lessons? Find out by taking a five-minute assessment here (where you’ll find the fifth key leadership quality too!).

Christine Comaford is a five-time CEO who has sat on over two dozen private and public company boards.

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 6:00AM EST

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Top Polical Stories

- Convention exclusivity hinders Liberal rebuilding effort

- Ottawa’s health plan: When money misses the point

- Harper's plans for federation hinge on securities-regulator ruling

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- Finance Department presses for new powers to catch money launderers

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Convention exclusivity hinders Liberal rebuilding effort

JANE TABER

OTTAWA - Globe and Mail Update

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 9:34AM EST

The podium awaits Michael Ignatieff at the Liberal leader's election-night headquarters in Toronto on May 2, 2011. (Peter Power/The Globe and Mail)

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As Grits gather in mid-January to elect a new president, the delegates will be mostly male and bloggers will have to dig deep into their pockets to attend.

The two issues have emerged as potential irritants as Liberals prepare for their Ottawa policy convention, which begins on Friday the 13th.

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The gathering will not only elect a new president but also look at ways of moving forward and rebuilding after the devastation of the May 2 election that saw the Liberals reduced to third party status.

Two women are running for the top executive job – Shelia Copps, the former deputy prime minister, and Alexandra Mendes, a former MP from Quebec. Michael Crawley, the former president of the Ontario Liberals, is also running.

“The Liberal constitution requires equality in all delegate selection processes,” Ms. Copps told The Globe. “However, as in society, more men are signing up to fill their spots in every riding, hence more men than women. We are still running at one-third women, which is better than the current makeup of Parliament.”

Sarah Bain, a spokeswoman for the Liberal Party of Canada, would not comment on the number of delegates expected or the fact that men could end up dominating the convention. And outgoing president Alfred Apps said the breakdowns will not be known in advance since registration occurs right up to the convention.

Leadership conventions are usually more competitive than policy conventions. At the 2006 gathering in Montreal that elected Stéphane Dion to replace Paul Martin, there were more than 4,000 delegates; in Vancouver in 2009, when Michael Ignatieff was essentially acclaimed, there were about 2,500 delegates.

Mr. Apps predicted attendance at this one will “exceed any non-leadership convention for several decades.” And he suggested it will be higher than Tory or NDP conventions.

It seemed, however, that previous Liberal conventions encouraged or even guaranteed more participation by women delegates. Ms. Copps noted, too, that the Quebec Liberal women’s commission is hoping to hold a “presidential debate” in Montreal.

“They want to explore specific strategies on how to encourage more women’s involvement in the party,” Ms. Copps said.

She added that there has not been a female party president since Senator Marie Poulin served from 2006 to 2008, when a stroke cut her term short. Before that, the only other woman was Iona Campagnolo, who became president in 1982 and served until 1986.

Meanwhile, the issue of bloggers at the convention has provoked a stir in the Twitter-verse.

Only bloggers who are officially associated with a news organization can be accredited. But others will have to pay an $1,100 observer fee.

Ms. Bain, the party spokeswoman, argues there will nevertheless be ample accommodation for bloggers. For example, a riser will be setup in the middle of the convention floor.

She explained that there are many ways to attend the convention: “As a delegate, an observer , or media (including freelance and social media representatives who are sponsored by a recognized news organization.)”

“There is no rule or ban against bloggers, there never has been,” she wrote in an email. “Quite the contrary, we consulted with a group of bloggers and other social media users to discuss the options available to them as delegates. To my knowledge, no delegate or observer who has submitted a registration to our Convention has been denied access because they are a blogger.”

This appears to be counter to what many bloggers want. Tory scribe Stephen Taylor has led the charge, kicking off the controversy when he tweeted this week: “Liberal convention will be the first modern political convention that doesn't accredit bloggers. #cdnpoli”

He’s pursued the issue on his blog. And he’s even garnered support from Liberal bloggers like Jeff Jedras, who argues his party is “foolishly retreating from social media and blogging.”

Ms. Copps’s team also appears unsatisfied. Henry Wright, her campaign chairman, sent an email to Liberal headquarters criticizing the move.

“It is my understanding that the Party has ruled against Bloggers at the Convention,” he wrote. “... We strongly object and would ask that the decision be revisited. We believe that for a Party that wants to rebuild and reach out ... this ruling appears to be counterproductive.”

But Ms. Copps herself told The Globe that “like other media members, bloggers need some sort of accreditation to ensure they are actually media.”

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 9:30AM EST

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Ottawa’s health plan: When money misses the point

ARMINE YALNIZYAN

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 9:27AM EST

The federal government will put up $27-billion this year through the Canada Health Transfer. By 2017, when the deal ends, the annual transfer will have grown to $36-billion. (Chad Hipolito for The Globe and Mail)

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Armine Yalnizyan is a senior economist with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives

As Christmas presents go, this one was a shocker: Over lunch on Monday, cash-strapped Finance Minister Jim Flaherty promised provincial and territorial finance ministers he'd increase federal funding for health care by six per cent each year for the next five years. No strings attached. No negotiations. A done deal. With a catch.

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The provinces and territories have five years to figure out how to make health care sustainable on their own terms, every Premier for himself. After that, the Harper Government will contribute less, tying federal contributions to the growth in the economy, with a floor of 3 per cent.

That punts serious discussions about tackling growing health and regional disparities to the other side of the next federal election. And it maintains the Harper government's "talk to the hand" stance on major changes in public policy which affect other jurisdictions, like the senseless census long-form debacle and the evidence-free crime and punishment agenda.

But, politics aside, what does the six per cent mean economically and fiscally?

For starters, it means one more year of a sure thing than what was on offer a mere 72 hours ago.

In terms of cold hard cash, the feds will put up $27-billion this year through the Canada Health Transfer. By 2017, when the deal ends, the annual transfer will have grown to $36-billion. See this post for more about the history of federal contributions to health care in Canada.

In the context of austerity and slow growth, a budget item worth $9-billion more in five years sounds sweet. In the context of what the provinces and territories spend on health care ($130-billion), not so much. See the related chart.

Over the next five years the automatic 6 per cent escalator will pump an accumulated $26-billion more into provincial and territorial coffers.

That's not chump change, but it pales in comparison with the more than $220-billion dedicated to tax cuts since 2006, or the 20-year, $490-billion commitment to refurbishing military hardware.

As costly as these other priorities are, nobody's scrutinizing their sustainability the way the future of public health care is regularly questioned.

If sustainability means bending the cost curve for health care, we need more than what Flaherty's Done Deal offers. I'm not talking more money. The $26-billion over five years could buy important reforms if it's harnessed to that purpose, just like our federal, provincial and territorial governments agreed to do in 2004.

The 2004 Health Accord was negotiated, not decreed. Everyone agreed, new money had to buy change. It provided an injection of $41-billion in new federal funds over 10 years to "fix" health care.

It named wait times, diagnostic equipment, pharmaceuticals and access to primary care as the biggest problems to fix.

Seven years later, we see that the provinces and territories delivered results on the first two problems and dropped focus on the last two.

Wait times for cataract, knee and hip and cardiac surgery and screening for cancers have fallen dramatically across the country. That means that in every part of Canada more citizens are getting more care more quickly.

You never hear about that. The attention is always on what isn't working. For sure, everyone knows there is plenty of room for improvement. So, as the 10-year 2004 Health Accord comes to a close, the question is: what is the most important thing for our governments to focus on improving, together, right now?

The Harper Team boiled down the meaning of the 2004 Health Accord to an automatic escalator. That misses the point. The Accord has shown that focus and commonality of political will, with a long-term financial guarantee, can bring about positive and meaningful change.

More money without a plan is just that, more money. Canadians deserve better than that. Our most valued social program needs a plan. A plan that tackles growing disparities in health outcomes and growing gaps in access to care. A plan that brings our best minds together, working in concert, to bend the cost curve by focusing on improving health and improving care. It's possible, but it requires more than the blunt tool of cost control. It requires a shared strategy and focus on improvement. A health "plan" without a plan is just a fancy way to say "devolution".

Economy Lab, winner of the 2011 Eppy Award for best business blog. Follow Economy Lab on twitter

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 7:04AM EST

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Harper's plans for federation hinge on securities-regulator ruling

John Ibbitson

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 7:41AM EST

The Supreme Court of Canada in Ottawa is seen Thursday Oct. 7, 2010. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)

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With Monday’s health-care funding announcement, we saw how Stephen Harper aims to reshape the federation by reducing Ottawa’s influence over social policy. Thursday morning we learn whether he is able to realize the other half of his ambition: giving the federal government a powerful new voice in regulating things.

- Supreme Court rejects Ottawa's bid for national securities regulator

- Top Court to rule on national securities regulator

- Supreme Court nears national regulator ruling

The Supreme Court delivers its decision at 9:45 ET on whether the federal government is within its rights to create a national securities regulator. Quebec and Alberta have led the charge against what they see as encroachment in an area of exclusive provincial jurisdiction.

So Finance Minister Jim Flaherty asked the court to rule on whether Ottawa has the constitutional authority to proceed, provided the provinces were asked to join on a purely voluntary basis.

If the court says no, then that will be that. But if it says yes, then the door opens for a broad strengthening of the federal power.

Ted Morton, who was Alberta’s finance minister when Mr. Flaherty proposed the reference a year and a half ago, complained that “we will be potentially inviting intrusion into other areas of provincial jurisdiction governing finance, such as insurance, pensions and financial institutions.”

He was absolutely right.

The Fathers of Confederation, who could never have imagined the 20th-century welfare state, assigned the provincial governments such mundane tasks as managing hospitals, schools, poor houses and property, while giving the federal government the big jobs like collecting customs duties, which was then the largest source of tax revenues.

This made the provinces the major players in shaping the postwar revolution in social policy, and Ottawa dangerously irrelevant. Liberal governments responded by using the federal spending power to cajole or coerce provincial governments into adopting national standards for public health care, welfare programs, subsidized housing and the like.

Conservatives in general and Stephen Harper especially opposed such federal meddling in provincial concerns. That’s why Mr. Flaherty’s announcement on Monday established a funding envelope for health care out to 2024 with no strings attached.

But that brings back the basic question: What should the federal government do for a living? The Conservatives answer it should act more robustly in its own areas of jurisdiction, such as national defence.

But Mr. Harper also believes that Ottawa could play a major role in promoting and policing the economic union, which is impaired by provincial non-tariff barriers, restrictions on labour mobility and patchwork regulations.

A national securities regulator would be an important first step toward creating a sea-to-sea regulatory environment watched over by the federal government. Already, provinces are starting to come around. Premier Alison Redford has said she is willing to end Alberta’s opposition to a securities regulator. Over time, as the obvious advantages become apparent of allowing businesses and workers to move easily between provinces under a single set of rules, provincial opposition may wither.

This doesn’t have to be a top-down process. Perhaps the single biggest nation-building exercise of the last 20 years is the New West Partnership, under which British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan are creating an open market in goods, services and labour.

Premier Greg Selinger has committed Manitoba to joining the partnership. What if Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty also signed on to what could then be called The New Canada Partnership? An economic union from the Ottawa River to the Pacific would be a far more powerful national adhesive than any agreement on hip replacement wait times.

Quebec is likely to stand aside, as it always does, though Atlantic Canada might wish to join. But regardless of where French Canada’s brain is at, moving toward a single, co-operative, national set of rules and qualifications for all businesses and workers could be a great advance for Canada and an important addition to the federal government’s job description.

You can understand why the Conservatives are awaiting the ruling from the Supreme Court with such interest.

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 6:59AM EST

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Supreme Court rejects Ottawa's bid for national securities regulator

BILL CURRY

OTTAWA - Globe and Mail Update

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 11:07AM EST

The Supreme Court of Canada in Ottawa. (Sean Kilpatrick for The Globe and Mail)

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The Supreme Court has unanimously declared Ottawa’s proposed national Securities Act unconstitutional, siding with provinces that insisted the day-to-day regulation of securities markets does not belong in federal hands.

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty had asked for the court’s opinion on the constitutionality of the proposed law, arguing that the lack of a uniform national body to regulate securities trading was a glaring weakness in Canada’s financial system.

- Explaining the Supreme Court’s national regulator ruling

- Harper's plans for federation hinge on securities-regulator ruling

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Ontario, where the majority of Canada’s securities trading takes place, was the only province to side with Ottawa’s approach.

Several other provinces argued that the existing system – in which individual regulators work together to ensure common national standards – is enough to protect investors and the Canadian economy.

In its opinion – which is not a judgment because it was simply asked by Ottawa to clear up the question of constitutionality – the Supreme Court notes that it is not weighing in on whether a national security regulator would be a better option in terms of public policy.

“The courts do not have the power to declare legislation constitutional simply because they conclude that it may be the best option in terms of public policy,” the court states.

The Supreme Court’s decision marks the third time courts have ruled against Ottawa in this case. Appeals courts in Quebec and Alberta previously came to the same conclusion.

Canada’s argument that – in light of lessons learned from the 2008 economic crisis – a national regulator is needed to prevent systemic risk to the financial system appears to have found some sympathy among the judges, but not enough to sway the final decision.

“Aspects of the [proposed federal Securities Act], for example those aimed at management of systemic risk and at national data collection, appear to be directly related to the larger national goals which the Act proclaims are its raison d’être. However, important as these elements are, they do not, on the record before us, justify a complete takeover of provincial regulation,” the court states.

Ottawa had argued that the federal Constitutional power over trade and commerce trumped the provincial constitutional authority over the regulation of securities markets. Provinces outside of Ontario successfully argued that securities regulation falls under their constitutional authority over the regulation of property and civil rights.

Still, the court suggests there may still be room for a federal law that recognizes these provincial powers over securities regulation – but also the need to address some aspects nationally.

“It is not for the Court to suggest to governments of Canada and the provinces the way forward by, in effect, conferring in advance an opinion on the constitutionality of this or that alternative scheme,” the court states, noting that other federations are able to resolve such governance questions via “cooperative solutions.”

“Co-operation is the animating force. The federalism principle upon which Canada’s constitutional framework rests demands nothing less.”

Several groups that argued in favour of the proposed Securities Act - such as the Canadian Bankers Association and the Investment Industry Association of Canada - insisted the ruling was positive because it confirmed Ottawa has at least some role to play in securities regulation.

They pointed to the court’s language around systemic risk and data collection as examples of areas where Ottawa could still pursue a national regulator that incorporates the provincial authority to regulate day-to-day transactions.

“What this does is set the constitutional platform for us to move forward and actually build a national regulator for Canada, which is essential for our capital markets,” said Ian Russell, President and CEO of the Investment Industry Association of Canada.

The seniors advocacy group CARP issued a statement expressing disappointment with the ruling, noting that its members were looking forward to improved investor protection via stronger investigative powers under the proposed national body.

“Now the provinces, especially those that opposed the national body, must step up and demonstrate how they would replace that vital investor protection,” said Susan Eng, CARP’s vice-president for advocacy.

University of Ottawa law professor Errol Mendes, who is editor-in-chief of the National Journal of Constitutional Law, criticized the court for suggesting that somehow a co-operative approach can address risks to Canada’s financial system.

“The Supreme Court does not seem fully aware of the reality of how day to day can give rise to systemic risk,” he wrote in an analysis of the ruling that he provided to the Globe. “The complexity of the financial markets today is dramatically different from the time that the Constitution Act was passed in 1867. Overall, the decision of the Court on the national securities legislation is not a good decision for Canada.”

Philip Anisman, a prominent Toronto securities lawyer who advised the government panel that recommended a national regulator in 2008, said the ruling does not mean the door is closed for good.

Mr. Anisman, who first took on the issue as a summer student working for the government in 1966 and later actually produced draft legislation for Ottawa in 1979, said the Supreme Court’s ruling actually does uphold federal jurisdiction in certain areas, for example, the regulation of “systemic risk.”

And it leaves open the idea that the provinces and Ottawa could co-operatively come up with a new national regulatory regime on their own, he said. Under such a scheme, the provinces would maintain their jurisdiction of securities regulation, but could delegate it to a newly created body.

“The court isn’t saying that the federal government has no jurisdiction,” Mr. Anisman said. “So it doesn’t put an end to it.”

With a file from Jeff Gray in Toronto

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 6:16AM EST

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Jack Layton named 2011's Newsmaker of the Year

Stephanie Levitz

Ottawa - The Canadian Press

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 10:11AM EST

New Democratic Party (NDP) leader Jack Layton speaks during a news conference in Toronto, May 3, 2011. Layton will form the official opposition party to Prime Minister Stephen Harper's majority win in Monday's federal election. (MIKE CASSESE/REUTERS)

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John Gilbert Layton wore dozens of different name tags in his decades of public service: activist, guitarist, father and finally, leader of the official Opposition.

Most knew the NDP leader by another name: Jack.

No other Canadian dominated the headlines like Mr. Layton in 2011, making him the clear choice for Newsmaker of the Year by editors and news directors participating in the annual survey of newsrooms across the country by The Canadian Press.

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Mr. Layton received 90 per cent of the votes – one of the most overwhelming margins in the 65-year history of the CP Newsmaker voting. The next closest was Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who received just 5 per cent of the vote totals.

Also earning votes were Canada’s new female premiers, the protesters at the heart of the Occupy Canada movement, former auditor general Sheila Fraser and the Grande Prairie Composite Warriors football team.

“Jack Layton single-handedly shaped Canada’s political narrative in 2011, from the decimation of the Bloc Québécois, to the marginalization of the Liberal party, to the utter vacuum left on Parliament Hill by his death,” said Brodie Fenlon, senior news editor, The Huffington Post Canada.

“We watched the drama of this scrappy underdog, cane in hand, pulling off an astonishing victory only to be felled months later before he could truly make something of it.”

The Canadian Press also conducted a parallel survey in conjunction with Yahoo Canada to allow the public to make its own choices for Newsmaker of the Year. The public results were no less clear: it was Mr. Layton by a landslide.

The late NDP leader claimed fully half of the online votes cast, with hockey commentator Don Cherry a distant second at 16 per cent. Mr. Harper garnered 10 per cent of the vote, narrowly edging the Occupy Canada protesters at 9.5 per cent.

That the public came to know Mr. Layton on a first-name basis wasn’t the result of a slick marketing campaign, though the 2011 election effort marked his slickest one yet.

His smiling face peered from every poster; NDP candidates – especially in Quebec – ran not on their names, but his.

“He’s the person responsible for the NDP’s status as the official Opposition, a status based on its landslide victory in Quebec and the near-disappearance of the Bloc Québécois, which shook the entire sovereignty movement,” said Josee Boileau, managing editor of Montreal’s Le Devoir newspaper.

“The importance of Jack in this historic breakthrough – which is even more important than the fact Stephen Harper’s Conservatives now form a majority government – has become even more obvious since his death, an event that has completely weakened his party.”

The brand that Jack built didn’t come through sterile focus group testing in boardrooms. It came from years of being himself.

As a teacher at Toronto-area universities, he would invite students into his home or take them out for a night of spirited debate at the local pub.

As a city councillor, he and his wife Olivia Chow, who also later became an MP, would ride their tandem bicycle through rallies during the dog days of Toronto summers and in the pelting rains of fall.

“In some ways, Jack Layton is like all of us,” Ms. Chow said in an interview.

“He’s your next door neighbour – your next door neighbour who wants to do something that’s good for the community and for the country, and he happens to be in a position to do a little bit of that. So I think people felt they lost someone that they know.”

He was known for wearing funny hats into fundraisers, chatting with workers in line at the Tim Hortons, and bringing his guitar out for folk-song sing-alongs on campaign planes and in meeting rooms across the country.

His was a rare persona for the NDP, said Vicky Smallman, a long-time NDP organizer who first met Mr. Layton during his years on Toronto’s city council.

Continue Reading

“Usually in the NDP, you’re a policy wonk or you’re an organizer and often there is huge conflict between the two,” Ms. Smallman said.

“But Jack was able to bring those sides together in a way that obviously had good results.”

A combination of his charisma and political savvy helped to fuel the NDP machine. The party had just 19 seats when he became leader in 2003; they won 29 seats in 2006 and 37 in 2008.

But something happened this past May, when an orange wave swept Quebec and helped push the party to 103 seats, making Mr. Layton leader of the official Opposition.

So what changed in 2011, Mr. Layton or the voters?

“He was at his best, he was at his most comfortable, so I think both,” said Brad Lavigne, who directed the NDP’s national campaign.

“I think the country knew Jack. I think there was a connecting between what he was offering and what they were looking for.”

It was a victory 50 years in the making, Mr. Layton said on election night.

“I think of all the people who came before us, the millions of men and women who believed so passionately in a more fair society and they refused to give up, often in the face of overwhelming odds,” Mr. Layton said.

They were words that would come to personify Mr. Layton’s own final moments.

“Jack Layton pulled off the tour de force of the year in politics,” said Gaetan Chiasson, news director at Acadie Nouvelle in Caraquet, N.B. “But we will remember mostly his dignity as he faced death as well as his message of peace and hope.”

Mr. Layton revealed in 2010 that he had prostate cancer and vowed to fight the disease.

Earlier this year, a hip fracture left him using a cane and fuelled speculation that he wouldn’t be able to handle the rigours of the spring election trail.

But he’d been so energetic out on the campaign that when he appeared at a press conference in July to announce he was battling a new form of cancer, the nation collectively gasped at the visibly weakened, creaky-voiced man who was already a shadow of his former self.

Mr. Layton, true to form, pledged to fight on. He died Aug. 22 at the age of 61.

“One could never imagine such a cruel and heart-wrenching end for a man who for so long dreamed so big. Yet even in his final testament, he urged others not to despair,” said Murray Langdon, news director at CFAX in Victoria.

“He pleaded for supporters to continue to build on the party’s strong showing. Above all, he asked for Canadians to join together in making the country better.”

Mr. Layton’s final message to Canadians, delivered in a letter that was published on the day of his death, quickly turned into a rallying slogan for a grieving nation.

“My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair,” Layton wrote.

“So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world.”

His words became a mantra for a grieving nation, scrawled in chalk outside Toronto city hall, where thousands of people lined up to pay their last respects.

Even when the rains washed away the words, people wrote them anew. Impromptu shrines built out of cans of Orange Crush soda sprang up outside the Parliament buildings. Niagara Falls and Toronto’s CN Tower were bathed in orange lights.

The condolence books made it clear how far Mr. Layton’s reach had extended.

Sikhs, Burmese, union workers, academics, doctors, aboriginals, young Canadians, new Canadians, Quebecers, NDP and Tory voters all wrote in to vent their grief.

Even those who professed to be skeptics could not help but admit their admiration.

“To the extent that he sincerely was campaigning for what he believed in and he may have literally sacrificed his own life for it,” said Dan Leger, director of news content for the Halifax Chronicle Herald newspaper.

“You have to stand there and go, ‘Wow, that is profound,’ and I think a lot of people picked up on it that way.”

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 5:39AM EST

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Something for everyone on the list

Patricia Dawn Robertson

Last updated Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011 6:33PM EST

Randy Cunneyworth, Justin Trudeau, Margaret Atwood (Globe and Mail, Canadian Press)

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Okay, so it hasn’t exactly been a banner year here in the Great White North. Things were so tight in 2011 that even Mark Carney, the Bank of Canada Governor, had to take a second job.

Nervous Canadians just aren’t in the mood to splash out on holiday trinkets while we restock the fiscal bomb shelter for the next wave of economic meltdowns. As we collectively brace for 2012, here are some last-minute special requests for Santa to fill from his North Pole gift registry:

- Check this list twice so your portfolio looks nice

- Those who inspired in 2011

- Photo Gallery Editorial cartoons, December 2011

1. For little Peter MacKay, a shiny new Cormorant helicopter.

2. For the out-of-touch optimists in your social circle, Research in Motion stock.

3. For CBC’s hairy hipster, Jian Ghomeshi, a six-pack of disposable shavers.

4. For lone Green Party MP Elizabeth May, a spec condo on the recently discovered – and as yet unspoiled – Super-Earth.

5. For my crabby, late-40-something book club pals, I have some soothing reading suggestions for the coming year: Menopause Made Easy, Painless Poetry and So, You Want to Be a Shaman.

6. For those picky publishers who rejected my regional border collie memoir, copies of Marley & Me from the discount DVD pile at the Superstore.

7. For the bean-counting hoteliers who removed the “emergency mini-bars” from hotel rooms, a trip for two on American Airlines with demented host Alec Baldwin.

8. For Margaret Atwood, the complete DVD set of Little Britain. Stop shilling for Twitter and return to writing comic novels. We’re weary of your downbeat screeds on penny-pinching and the end of days.

9. For the painful introverts, the iPad 2. This portable tool will enable them to further withdraw from polite society with impunity. Now they can point, scroll and surf while bombastic extroverts battle for their lapsed attention.

10. For your melancholy spouse who suffers from seasonal affective disorder, a gift card to Glow Tanning Salon and a big bottle of vitamin D capsules.

11. For the NDP, a new leader and a copy of progressive instigator Michael Moore’s memoir Here Comes Trouble.

12. For the trendy music buyer, happily swindled by Susan Boyle’s The Gift for Christmas, 2010, there’s Justin Bieber’s Under the Mistletoe for 2011. Expect Nickelback’s Sledneck Christmas for 2012.

13. For regional bookseller McNally Robinson, please remove your self-publisher’s toolkit, the Espresso Book Machine, from your flagship Winnipeg store. It’s turned into Weekend at Gutenberg’s. Retired teachers should support the arts by gambling at casinos like everyone else. Before amateur authors hit print, ask: Does the oversaturated book market really need another Ursula K. Le Guin knock-off riddled with typos and run-on sentences?

14. For baby-faced MP Justin Trudeau, an electric shaver. Movember is over. In the macho House of Commons, see-through mustaches and wispy Three Musketeers beards just won’t do. Also, for his parliamentary potty mouth, Pierre Jr. is eligible for soap-on-a-rope.

15. For the ousted board members of the Canadian Wheat Board, Prime Minister Stephen Harper should offer up some form of job security. Perhaps a lucrative rotating position as a third-party manager at Canada’s most insolvent first nations will slow down the lawsuits.

16. For the first family of Sussex Drive, a gift certificate from Sears Portrait Studio. While the PM’s deficit-busting, Photoshopped efforts are appreciated, you’re building memories here; Canadian taxpayers don’t expect you to scrimp on the annual family Christmas card.

17. For unemployed former Blockbuster managers, lifetime memberships to Netflix.

18. For Minister of the Environment/climate-change denier Peter Kent, a Maldives diplomatic posting and a life preserver.

19. For interim Liberal Leader Bob Rae, a winning lottery ticket so he can stop sending out $5-begging e-mail requests to rebuild his ailing party.

20. For Randy Cunneyworth, the new unilingual coach of the Montreal Canadiens, a French immersion weekend with a Chicoutimi family, compliments of the Bloc Québécois.

Writer Patricia Dawn Robertson lives in Wakaw, Sask.

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 2:00AM EST

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Is Stephen Harper the Dear Leader in disguise?

Margaret Wente

Last updated Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011 6:25PM EST

Lots of people like him, but maybe they've just been brainwashed (AFP/Getty Images, The Canadian Press)

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Is there any difference between Stephen Harper and North Korea’s defunct Dear Leader? Maybe not as much as you might think. Many eminent Canadians are warning that Mr. Harper and his hard-right Conservatives are turning our beloved nation into a thuggish, dictatorial, one-party state.

In an exit interview the other night with As It Happens, outgoing Senator Tommy Banks (appointed by the Liberals, and best known as a jazz musician) declared that he is deeply alarmed about the country’s direction. He vowed to keep fighting as long as he has breath to set things right. Chronicler Peter C. Newman is similarly distressed. In his book When the Gods Changed, he argues not only that the Natural Governing Party is finished, but so too is the Canada he once knew and loved.

- Under this PM, the state is everywhere

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- Even with a majority, the bullying goes on

- Photo Gallery Editorial cartoons, December 2011

A lot of people in my postal code (adjacent to the University of Toronto) believe that our progressive paradise is lost. “The most remarkable feature of the first half year of Conservative majority rule is how quickly we have been herded toward a one-party system,” writes critic Michael Harris. Our international reputation is also on the skids. By abandoning Kyoto, Mr. Harper has turned us into a pariah state.

Contempt of Parliament. Authoritarian rule. Demagoguery, deceit and dirty tricks. Abuse of power, along with the growing stench of corruption, as the country hurtles down the wrong track. Why, it almost sounds like – the Chrétien government circa 2000!

If this indictment sounds familiar, it’s because the Conservatives made the same case against the Liberals when their positions were reversed. Majority governments in Canada have a lot of power, which is great if you’re on the winning side and awfully frustrating when you’re not. Their power is even greater when the opposition is hopelessly fragmented, essentially leaderless and out of new ideas. Today, the federal centre-left in Canada is furiously impotent – just as the centre-right was for most of a decade.

If you happen to identify with the out-group – as Mr. Banks and some of our leading public thinkers do – it’s a whole lot more satisfying to demonize the bad guys than try to unite the good guys. Perhaps that’s why so many of them insist that Mr. Harper is “dangerous,” or even “extremely dangerous.” This view was recently expressed by Stephen Clarkson, a prominent liberal academic, who warned that Canada is being crushed under the jackboots of the reigning proto-fascists. Mr. Harper, he wrote in the Literary Review of Canada, is “a dangerous figure” who “threatens the country’s constitutional heritage,” and “has rejected consensual centrism in favour of a program carefully conceived to overturn the social-market legacy he has inherited.”

If you are a faithful follower of the mainstream media, you will also know that Mr. Harper is guilty of valorizing the military, being indifferent to the plight of downtrodden aboriginals and clamping down (at vast expense) on imaginary crime. He has also created a quasi-totalitarian world called Harperland in which no dissent is tolerated.

But here’s the worst part. Canadians don’t care! In fact, they claim to be pretty happy with the way things are going. According to a new poll published in Maclean’s, 86 per cent of us believe Canada is the greatest country in the world. For some unfathomable reason, we are way more optimistic than either the British or the Americans. On top of that, the Harper government’s dangerous and misguided policies are overwhelmingly popular. According to a poll by Ipsos Reid, two-thirds of Canadians approve of its efforts to boost the military and fight crime. Sixty per cent of the public feel the government is enhancing Canada’s reputation in the world. And a whopping 80 per cent agree with its decision to ban the niqab at citizenship ceremonies – a move derided by much of the progressive left.

It doesn’t get worse than that.

To tell the truth, I don’t agree with all of Mr. Harper’s policies myself. (e.g., the niqab.) But it seems obvious to me that his government is far more in touch with mainstream Canadians than all those critics who accuse him of abandoning the mainstream. He’s worse than an extremist – he’s a populist. Or else he has duped and terrorized the masses so effectively that they are powerless to resist. Kind of like you-know-who.

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 2:00AM EST

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Only radical change will rebuild trust in the RCMP

Gary Mason

Last updated Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011 6:30PM EST

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If nothing else, RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson’s shockingly forthright interview with The Globe and Mail this week demonstrated his deep understanding of the vast, complex mess he has inherited.

As impressive was his willingness to talk about it openly.

For most of its existence, the RCMP has been a very male-dominated and closed organization. One that has been unwilling to recognize and address its shortcomings and that has kept its problems to itself. This institutional closed-mindedness has created the culture that has led to the demise of our once great national police force.

- RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson at the editorial board

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- Photo Gallery Editorial cartoons, December 2011

That much, Bob Paulson gets.

As someone who has chronicled the rapid descent of public trust in the Mounties, I can’t tell you how refreshing it was to hear a commissioner speak with such jaw-dropping candour. When he said that a litany of controversies has made some members of the force ashamed to say what they do for a living, I was flabbergasted.

Most shocking of all was his intimation that the Mounties are likely just one or two scandals away from extinction – which is why there is some urgency to his mission of returning the force to its former glory.

All of that is wonderful, of course, and certainly a positive start to the commissioner’s time in what is arguably the hardest job in the country. But for now, they are only words. How he follows through on his bold promises will be the key.

The most recent scandal to dog the force is the harassment allegations that have been levelled by several current and former Mounties. The commissioner said he takes the charges seriously (good!) and that he convened an extraordinary meeting of his most senior officers to discuss how the force will be dealing with them.

Harassment, he said, stems from a misuse of power and remedying the problem means changing people’s behaviour. He wasn’t specific about how he intends to do that. I asked him whether female RCMP officers and the public at large can be confident that his leadership group – those mostly male officers across the country charged with dealing with this crisis – are squeaky clean themselves when it comes to harassment.

He admitted that he doesn’t know for certain and agreed it would be a good idea to find out. Yes, it would be – or else he could be dealing with a colossal embarrassment of his own making right out of the gate.

I wasn’t impressed, either, when the commissioner protested the inclusion of the death of Houston, B.C., millworker Ian Bush among the list of examples of disgraceful conduct by members of the force. “I take issue with that,” he said, clearly agitated. While admitting that the shooting death of Mr. Bush while in custody was a tragedy, he said the facts of the case didn’t warrant the torrent of negative criticism the RCMP received over it.

I suggest the commissioner review the facts again. The officer’s description of how he shot Mr. Bush in the back of the head while lying face-first on a couch with the 200-pound millworker on top of him is difficult to believe. At an inquest, the officer declined an invitation to demonstrate how the shooting occurred.

Many, including one of the world’s leading forensic experts, felt the officer’s description of what happened was anatomically impossible. The way the RCMP investigated the shooting was problem-filled as well.

The Bush death is a classic example of the circle-the-wagons mentality Mr. Paulson admits is a problem for the RCMP. He would be wise not to defend the force’s actions in the case too loudly.

I was struck when the commissioner said he could barely breathe when considering the challenge he faces. He said he wished more people in the force felt the same way. I like that thinking.

The new commissioner does have an unnerving test before him. Nothing less than the future existence of the force rests on his shoulders. We could well be witnessing the Mounties’ last stand.

And that does require a few deep breaths, when you think about it.

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 2:00AM EST

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Ontario’s debt, Canada’s woes

Andrea Mandel-Campbell

Last updated Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011 6:29PM EST

Andrea Mandel-Campbell

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No one was really surprised when Ontario’s debt rating took another drubbing last week, adding Canada’s largest province to a long list of debt-swamped jurisdictions from Italy to Spain to be singled out by credit rating agencies for critical review.

Moody’s expressed displeasure with Ontario’s ballooning debt and dismal growth projections by lowering its outlook for the province’s debt rating to “negative.” It’s the latest in a cascade of downgrades beginning in 2009 after the province, having indulged in a massive uptick in government spending, was blindsided by the financial crisis.

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Ontario’s Finance Minister Dwight Duncan promised to take the warning seriously – and the rest of Canada had better hope he means it. Ontario represents 40 per cent of the country’s GDP. As Janice MacKinnon, Saskatchewan’s former finance minister, recently pointed out, the rating agencies don’t look at Ontario in isolation, but at the country in its entirety. Ontario’s debt woes “hurt Canada as a whole,” she said.

So what should Ontario do to rein in a decade of projected budget deficits that would make an Albertan apoplectic? The governing Liberals are vowing to be “creative” in their cost-cutting, and government-hired consultants are in hot pursuit of the secret sauce. But what Ontario really needs is a reality check.

While many Ontarians are concerned about the state of the province’s finances, discussing the affordability of a pricey program like full-day kindergarten is politically taboo. As the mother of a four-year-old who just started kindergarten, I understand the appeal of “free” care. But Ontario is like the divorcee who can’t stop maxing out his credit card at Holt’s even though his alimony payments would suggest a trip to Sears.

Despite being in the worst fiscal straits of all the provinces, Ontario is embarking on the most ambitious early-learning program in the country, introducing not one but two years of full-day kindergarten for four- and five-year-olds. It also went for the gold-plated plan – using teachers instead of early childhood educators for half the day as originally envisioned. Additional cost: $500-million a year.

All of this when Ontario has become a “have-not” province for the first time in its history, receiving equalization payments from more fiscally buoyant provinces like Alberta. The Wild Rose province is in the midst of its own debate about introducing a one-year program, but even without it, Alberta boasts the best education system in the country. For years, Alberta has consistently topped global education rankings, its innovative mix of decentralized teaching and charter schools a model for jurisdictions around the world.

Unfortunately, that is not the kind of creativity Ontario is willing to contemplate. While the province has earned accolades for its steady rise up the education rankings (without full-day kindergarten), the governing Liberals prefer the top-down approach over choice, competition and entrepreneurial schools.

That’s because full-day kindergarten is not just an education plan that also happens to “save” the average Ontario family $6,000 a year in daycare costs. For a province grappling with high unemployment and a struggling manufacturing sector, it’s a job stimulus plan to “hire more teachers.”

In other words, it’s a grand government design meant to be virtuous in its circle by neatly solving several political goals in one fell swoop. But as is so often the case, these theoretical circles rarely, if ever, square in reality. Eventually someone has to pay the piper, and it just might be the rest of Canada.

Andrea Mandel-Campbell is a former anchor at CTV’s Business News Network and author of Why Mexicans Don’t Drink Molson.

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 2:00AM EST

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Finance Department presses for new powers to catch money launderers

COLIN FREEZE

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 1:37AM EST

Canada's Finance Department wants to tear down legal barriers that keep border guards and tax authorities from comparing notes with spies and police. (Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press)

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Federal agents working in financial intelligence want to probe larger numbers of smaller transactions.

Canada’s Finance Department released a consultation paper Wednesday that proposes a range of powers for these agents aimed at red-flagging suspicious transactions. The hope is to catch money launderers and terrorists, but some of the more sweeping steps might prove controversial.

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Some privacy protections, for example, would have to be eliminated if authorities were to put the movement of money under heightened scrutiny. Yet a range of reports lately have urged such stepped-up financial sleuthing.

“You need to have an integration between non-financial intelligence and financial intelligence to get a full picture,” explained lawyer Anil Kapoor in an interview. Mr. Kapoor, a former commission counsel to the Air India inquiry, said terrorists deal in relatively small amounts of money.

For this reason, the government wants to vastly step up scrutiny of electronic fund transfers that are now routinely probed only when they amount to $10,000 or more. There should no longer be any threshold, the consultation paper suggests. “This would require financial entities … to report all EFTs entering or leaving Canada.”

A number of proposals also seek to beef up FINTRAC, the financial spy agency that is frequently criticized for giving vague tips to police. Officials want to ease information-sharing strictures so the agency could pass along much more detailed dossiers.

But the big proposed changes involve making sure federal agencies no longer compartmentalize valuable information. In this new model, Revenue Canada, FINTRAC, the Canada Border Services Agency, the RCMP and CSIS would talk to one another about suspicious money movements, at least to a much greater degree than they are permitted to do now.

Feedback on these proposals is due by March 1. The Privacy Commissioner of Canada is planning to make submissions, and right advocates say that they will be watching.

“The purposes on the surface are reasonable, but we should look at the measures more carefully,” said Richard Rosenberg of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association. “I think people should be aware of the increased role the government is playing,”

Ottawa conducts a review of its money-laundering laws every five years to ensure that they comply with domestic and international standards, said Jack Aubry, a Finance Department spokesman.

He said the federal government has struck a balance between rights and security, and that the proposals “would not affect the existing balance.”

Published on Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011 9:39PM EST

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Canada adding to pressure on ex-Tunisian leader’s family

TU THANH HA

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 7:45AM EST

Sakher el-Materi, son of deposed Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, bought this Montreal mansion for $2.5-million. (John Morstad for The Globe and Mail)

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Relatives of former Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali are under increasing pressure from Canadian authorities, with the RCMP raiding their lawyer’s office and their Montreal-area mansion being put on the auction block.

Mr. Ben Ali’s son-in-law, Sakher el-Materi, had paid $2.5-million in cash for a house in the posh enclave of Westmount in 2008, months before his wife gave birth to their second daughter in Montreal.

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The city of Westmount has now ordered that the house be publicly auctioned next month for the owner’s failure to pay municipal taxes, according to a Dec. 2 public notice.

Mr. el-Materi is believed to have fled to Qatar after the collapse of the Ben Ali regime in January. People at the Westmount house have told reporters that Mr. el-Materi has sold the property but it remains registered under his name, provincial records show.

A local contractor and the federal and provincial revenue departments have also placed liens on the Belvedere Place property.

Meanwhile, RCMP officers are focusing on another Ben Ali relative, brother-in-law Belhassen Trabelsi, who came to Montreal after the president’s ouster.

The federal government has said that Mr. Trabelsi is not welcome in Canada. Last March, Ottawa passed a law to give itself new powers to freeze assets from corrupt regimes.

On Dec. 6, the Mounties executed a search warrant at the Westmount Square offices of Mr. Trabelsi’s lawyer, Donald Kattan.

Mr. Kattan was questioned about whether he had helped manage Mr. Trabelsi’s assets, the warrant application says.

Between March and November, Mr. Kattan “voluntarily did not communicate without delay to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police the existence of assets in his possession or under his control and that, to his knowledge, belong to a member of a corrupt regime or their family,” the court documents said.

Shortly after Mr. Trabelsi landed in Montreal with his wife and four children on Jan. 20, about $1.39-million (U.S.) was wired from a Lebanese bank, purportedly to buy property in Canada, the court filing says.

Corporate records show that Mr. Trabelsi is the president of a Montreal holding company, Gestion Tucan Inc., which was set up in 2000. The listed address is Mr. Kattan’s office.

An employee who answered the phone at Mr. Kattan’s firm said that he was out of town and that there would be no comments.

Mr. Trabelsi has held permanent-residency status in Canada since the 1990s. Sources have told The Globe that members of the Ben Ali clan have between $10-million and $20-million in assets in Canada.

Earlier this fall, a court in Tunis sentenced Mr. Trabelsi in absentia to a 15-year jail term.

Tunisia is asking Canada to send Mr. Trabelsi back, a bid complicated by the lack of a bilateral extradition treaty between the two countries.

In August, Tunisia’s ambassador to Canada, Mouldi Sakri, sent an extensive file on Mr. Trabelsi to Canada’s Justice Department.

With reports from AFP, Celia Donnelly and Ingrid Peritz

Published on Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011 9:28PM EST

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Public’s appetite for efficient health care only goes so far

ADAM RADWANSKI

Last updated Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011 8:10PM EST

Toronto surgeons prepare a patient for a kidney transplant. (Deborah Baic/The Globe and Mail)

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In the abstract, we’re starting to get it.

By the account of a new Environics poll, a majority of Canadians now believe inefficiency, rather than underfunding, is the biggest threat to health care. Perhaps all those dire warnings from politicians and think-tanks and media outlets about costs growing unsustainably are starting to penetrate. If so, it will make life slightly easier for provincial governments as they try to flatten the cost curve.

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But the emphasis is on “slightly.” Because it’s a long way between accepting the need for changes to the way the system is run and embracing – or at least tolerating – those changes when they directly affect us.

Sure, governments have some relatively painless ways to get more bang for their health-care bucks. Ontario – the province facing arguably the worst financial crunch – lowered drug costs by hundreds of millions of dollars last year by forcing pharmacies to accept lower profits. In negotiations with the Ontario Medical Association, it may also be able to target some ways in which doctors are being overpaid.

Alas, those are the exceptions.

Among the most inescapably necessary reforms is hospital restructuring. In Ontario, governments dating back to Bob Rae’s New Democrats have recognized that it’s no longer practical for hospitals, particularly in rural areas, to function as one-stop shops. Much more cost-efficient, and often better for patient outcomes, is to centralize difficult and expensive procedures in fewer places. But that’s happened at a glacial pace because of the ensuing outcry – often fuelled by the media and opposition politicians – whenever service is reduced or phased-out in a particular community.

Then there’s the matter of how family doctors respond to our complaints. As it stands, physicians have little disincentive to ordering whatever tests (or, in some cases, prescriptions) will make patients feel well-served, even if they’re not urgently needed. Governments, both in this country and elsewhere, are pushing to establish clearer rules and guidelines. But what will happen after the first report that someone’s life could have been saved by a referral that a doctor wasn’t allowed to provide?

Even seemingly unobjectionable pushes for efficiency can create controversy. Nobody will object to investments in long-term care and homecare, which are partly motivated by preventing “bed-blockers” with chronic needs from tying up hospital resources. But not everyone wants to leave the hospital – for instance, if it means going to a long-term facility that’s farther away from family.

None of these concerns should be callously dismissed, and few who have suffered through a medical crisis – their own or someone else’s – would be inclined to do so. But for policy-makers, a certain cold-bloodedness is required if anyone is to be able to rely on the public system in decades to come.

The hard truth about health policy, acknowledged by anyone who works in the field, is that it’s largely about rationing care. With limited dollars available, it’s impossible to meet every need the way it would ideally be met. And in an era of structural deficits, aging populations, and spiking costs around new treatments and technologies, politicians have the unenviable task of telling voters that that they will have to make sacrifices to get adequate service to as many people as possible.

In some cases, it’s a matter of deciding how many lives a policy decision will save relative to how many it will cost. To spend on a rare procedure that could save a single life, for instance, might mean quietly not spending on something else that could spare a dozen.

That’s a good example of inefficiency, if a rather crude and unpleasant one. But understandably, it’s probably not what most respondents had in mind when they answered the pollster’s question. Most of us still have a way to go before we wrap our heads around the decisions before us.

Published on Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011 8:07PM EST

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Old Age Security for baby boomers heads toward $100-billion a year

BILL CURRY

OTTAWA

From Thursday's Globe and Mail

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 1:36AM EST

Ottawa's commitments to the Old Age Security program are set to grow to more than $100-billion a year. (Kevin Van Paassen/The Globe and Mail)

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Ottawa has moved on to its next looming demographic challenge after health care: covering the cost of an Old Age Security program that is on track to cost Ottawa more than $100-billion a year.

As the federal government tries to erase the deficit over the next four years, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty will need to accommodate multibillion-dollar hikes in the cost of OAS as Canada’s baby boomers retire.

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Internal documents obtained by The Globe and Mail show Mr. Flaherty was briefed earlier this year on the extent of the increase to the federal retirement benefit. The documents show the cost of providing OAS to Canadians 65 and over is on track to climb from $36.5-billion in 2010 to $48-billion in 2015 – an increase of 32 per cent – before rising further still.

The briefings by Mr. Flaherty’s deputy minister point to data in an actuarial report that was quietly tabled in July and received little public attention. One note outlines how the cost to Ottawa of providing a basic OAS pension will grow dramatically due to the population aging.

“By 2030, the number of beneficiaries of the basic OAS pension is expected to double with expenditures projected to reach $108-billion,” states the June, 2011, briefing note, marketed “secret” and obtained under access to information legislation. The number of Canadians receiving OAS – a program that pays a monthly pension of up to $527 to virtually all seniors in Canada – is expected to climb from 4.7 million in 2010 to 9.3 million by 2030, before falling back.

Senior officials in Ottawa have been seized with the matter of long-term demographics for months. The government’s surprise announcement this week to lay out health and social transfer spending through to the year 2024 shows Ottawa is prepared to act quickly.

A spokeswoman for Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Sara McIntyre, responded cryptically when asked whether the government is planning policy changes to the OAS to limit its cost.

“All seniors will continue receiving their benefits. Our country faces demographic challenges,” she wrote in an e-mail. “We will ensure our retirement security system remains strong and sustainable for generations to come.”

Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page says that by announcing this week that it will no longer increase health transfers by 6 per cent a year after 2016-17, Ottawa should have the cash it needs to pay for OAS.

“This will transfer the fiscal burden to the provinces,” said Mr. Page, who is working to update his long-term projections for Ottawa’s finances in light of the transfer announcement. He said the government is not providing enough analysis as to why it is making these long-term spending decisions.

“It’s acting as if it has a structural deficit, even though it tells everybody it does not,” he said.

The Globe obtained a draft report earlier this year that was circulated at a meeting of federal deputy ministers convened by Wayne Wouters, the Clerk of the Privy Council. That report – called Canada’s Changing Demographics: The Impacts of Population Aging – said the “federal government is well-positioned to address some existing issues,” such as “considering options to reduce disincentives to work for older workers.”

A report Wednesday in the National Post, citing anonymous Conservative sources, said there is some debate about increasing the age of eligibility for OAS from 65 to 67 in the 2012 budget.

The Prime Minister’s Office neither confirmed nor denied the report. “This is speculation,” Ms. McIntyre said.

Unlike the Canada Pension Plan – in which contributions are kept and managed in a standalone account – there is no pool of money set aside to pay for OAS benefits. The expenses are simply paid from general revenues.

Susan Eng, vice-president of the seniors advocacy group CARP, said her organization’s polling shows that limiting OAS benefits would be hugely controversial.

“I think it would be political suicide,” she said.

Published on Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011 7:43PM EST

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RIM needs to give corporate governance a chance

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 4:27AM EST

A Blackberry shows the company's third quarter results Thursday, December 15, 2011, in Montreal. (THE CANADIAN PRESS)

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Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis, the onetime billionaire leaders of Research In Motion, have cut their salaries to a symbolic $1 in a sign of their commitment to turning around the struggling Canadian tech icon. But it’s not enough. While many irate investors and analysts are calling for the co-resignation of the co-CEOs, at the very least, the duo needs to hang up their conflicted co-chairmanship of RIM’s board of directors and give corporate governance a chance.

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It has truly been an annus horribilis for RIM. Its stock price, at a lofty $148 in 2008, now hovers around $14, tracking a series of ever larger gaffes, from the disappointing launch of RIM’s PlayBook tablet, now selling at half price, to a three-day global outage of the firm’s secure servers. Perhaps most critically, the launch of its new BB10 operating system has been delayed until the end of 2012 at a time when RIM’s share of the North American market is in freefall.

What is perplexing is how RIM’s situation was allowed to deteriorate so dramatically. And the answer, in part, lies in poor corporate governance. In 2007, Jim Balsillie was forced to resign as chair over the backdating of stock options. High-profile directors Roger Martin, the dean of the Rotman School of Management, and Barbara Stymiest, of TSX and Royal Bank fame, were added to the board to buff up governance. But a new chair to challenge the CEOs and hold them to account was never named. Instead, a “lead director” was appointed and Mr. Balsillie was reinstated in 2010.

When investors began clamouring for a board shake-up last spring, the board struck up a committee that will not present its findings until the end of January, an eternity in tech time. In the interim, Goldman Sachs began evaluating the company as a takeover target.

Mr. Balsillie and Mr. Lazaridis have built RIM into a world-class company. With 70 million subscribers worldwide, no debt and the most secure mobile technology around, RIM has been an industry leader and it surely still has a fighting chance. But it is time for them both to step down as chairs. After Nortel, Canada can’t afford to lose another tech giant.

Published on Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011 7:30PM EST

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Officer’s death raises questions about equipment in Arctic rescue

KIM MACKRAEL

OTTAWA - Globe and Mail Update

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 1:38AM EST

Sergeant Janick Gilbert, who was involved in the rescue of two people stranded on a boat in Nunavut, has died. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Department of National Defence)

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Moments after Sergeant Janick Gilbert landed in the slush-covered waters off the coast of Igloolik, Nunavut, the search and rescue technician began a calm radio dispatch to the crew of the Hercules aircraft he had just jumped from.

He inflated his life preserver, took off his helmet and pulled a neoprene hood over his head to help keep him warm.

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Sgt. Gilbert was found unresponsive five hours later.

A raft that was supposed to be attached to his life preserver by a tether was missing, with the stitches that had tied the tether to the preserver ripped away. That apparently left the 34-year-old stranded in the water wearing a dry suit investigators say may not have been suitable for the High Arctic environment.

His death raises questions about the equipment he was using and the military’s ability to provide timely rescue services in the North.

An initial flight safety report says the investigation into the incident is focused on Sgt. Gilbert’s “personal life support equipment and the regulations governing rescue activities” and offers new insight into the last hours of his life.

Sgt. Gilbert flew with a team of search and rescue technicians out of Trenton, Ont., on the morning of Oct. 27, to help a pair of hunters from Igloolik whose boat had become stuck in pack-ice while they were out walrus hunting.

The hunters had activated a personal locater beacon the day before, and an aircraft from Winnipeg had been dispatched to drop a life raft and other supplies.

The Trenton group arrived shortly after 3 p.m. that day, and began to communicate with the hunters by radio.

“The men were distressed and too cold to use the provided supplies,” the initial report states, noting that weather conditions were worsening. “Radio contact was lost and the pair appeared unresponsive.”

As darkness began to set in, the rescue technicians decided to parachute out of their airplane and into the freezing water to help the hunters, who they believed were dehydrated and hypothermic.

One rescuer managed to swim to the hunters’ life raft, while another, who landed farther away, deployed a personal raft and waited for more help to arrive, bailing the water out of the boat with his helmet.

Sgt. Gilbert landed farthest from the hunters. Without his life raft, he was stuck in the frigid water, waiting to be rescued himself. When a Cormorant helicopter arrived four hours later from Gander, Nfld., everyone was evacuated. Both hunters survived, but Sgt. Gilbert could not be revived.

Reached by telephone at her home in Trenton, Sgt. Gilbert’s wife said he became a search and rescue technician about eight years ago because he wanted to help people.

“He just wanted to save their lives, that was what he had in mind,” Mélisa Lesquir said of her husband’s decision to parachute into the water. “He had a big heart.”

Major Bill Canham, who is heading the investigation for the Director of Flight Safety, said it’s too early to say whether faulty equipment caused Sgt. Gilbert’s death.

“We know the individuals left the aircraft in good shape, we have a good idea of what they were wearing, and now we want to know how the equipment performed and if it was suitable,” he said.

Major Canham said Sgt. Gilbert’s dry suit was a “slightly different variation” from those worn by his teammates.

The Canadian Forces operates three search and rescue co-ordination centres. Rescuers at the Trenton base are responsible for a vast region that stretches from Alberta to Quebec, and north to the High Arctic.

Major Canham said he expects to release a final report on the incident, including recommendations, in October of 2012.

Published on Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011 3:12PM EST

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Video: Editor fired over Rihanna racial slur

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 10:36AM EST

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Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 8:43AM EST

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Baby, it’s warm inside as Justin Bieber comes home for the holidays

Brad Wheeler

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 9:22AM EST

Justin Bieber and his sister Jazmyn perform during a special acoustic Christmas show at Massey Hall in Toronto. (George Pimentel/Getty Images)

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Dreams were realized, fantasies were fulfilled and yet more wishes are still to be granted. After his 105-minute concert at Massey Hall, the toque-wearing teen-idol Justin Bieber presented a giant cardboard cheque to The Children’s Wish Foundation of Canada, to the amount of $500,000.

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He had already thanked his over-the-moon audience, saying that it was his dream – as well as the dream of his accompanist, Toronto’s Dan Kanter – to play at the venerable hall.

And as for fantasies? The screams, squeals and sobs were proof enough that most reasonable desires were satisfied.

The benefit concert, 60 minutes late in starting at its appointed hour, was taped for broadcast today (Dec. 22) on MuchMusic (6 p.m.) and CTV (7:30 p.m.). Encore presentations of Justin Bieber: Home for the Holidays will follow.

The stage setting was a sort of Victorian street scene, with Christmas trees aplenty and stars and a moon overhead. The acoustic evening got off to a bumpy start: The hit single Baby endured a false start, and there was confusion as to whether Christmas Eve or Christmas Love would come next. (It was the latter.) The set list, as would be expected, drew chiefly from the Bieber’s latest album (the big-selling Under the Mistletoe) as well as 2010’s My Worlds Acoustic, a package of stripped down hits. The material was emotive and simply arranged for guitar and voice – Stratford, Ont.’s favourite son supplying the latter. A candy-apple red piano was used for a couple of numbers, including the poignant finale, Silent Night.

For a medley of Never Let You Go, a cover of the hip hop superstar Drake’s Trust Issues and Favourite Girl, the former street-corner singer strummed a left-handed Gibson Hummingbird. “I’m gonna get my guitar, if that’s cool,” he had politely asked, as he left his stool to get his instrument.

A boyish, innocent-looking 17-year-old superstar, Bieber is a slight fellow – his red-and-black checked lumberjack shirt and jeans hung from him if as if he were an undernourished scarecrow.

A small Canadian flag hung limply from his back pocket. Twelve-year-old girls paid that no mind, but others might have found his patriotism flip.

The “home for the holidays” conceit played out adorably: family members in the crowd included Bieber’s three-year-old stepsister, who was brought on stage late to help sing a second snippet of Baby. It was too cute for words, unless that word was mawkish.

“Are you guys ready for my next album?” Bieber asked at one point. We learned that he is writing material, including the song Be Alright, which may or may not be on his next album. It was an impassioned ballad, set to a mid-tempo tempo and built around a percussive guitar riff. “I’ll always be there for you,” Bieber crooned, his voice supple but with a slightly harder timbre than he possessed 18 months ago.

Bieber brought one young girl on stage, having her help with the vocals on Never Say Never. Her parting gift was a signed acoustic guitar.

Later he told his adoring throng of girlies and small children that he was a “normal person.” He said he wasn’t perfect, but that we all should be the best we can be. To strive for new goals and trust your parents was his advice. Corny, coming from a kid? Sure. But Bieber’s mother, who was in the crowd, would have never dreamed of the way her son has turned out.

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 12:59AM EST

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Video: Toronto catches Bieber fever

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 11:12AM EST

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Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 12:34AM EST

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HBO wrings out a few series as it prepares to ring in the new

ANDREW RYAN

Last updated Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011 4:47PM EST

Jason Schwartzman in a scene from an episode of "Bored to Death" (Jessica Miglio/HBO)

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It’s the most wonderful time of the year? Don’t believe the hype.

This holiday season, the Grinch honours go to the U.S. cable channel HBO, which chose to cancel the programs Hung, Bored to Death and How to Make It in America five days before Christmas. Sure, broadcasting is a business, but the bad news couldn’t have waited until the new year?

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HBO’s decision to clean house came late Tuesday and caught most TV-industry watchers by surprise. The three series were being axed, claimed HBO programming president Michael Lombardo, in order to make room for new shows to roll out in 2012.

According to the trade publication Variety, Lombardo was waiting for all three shows to wrap their current seasons before making the decision to cancel them. For the record, Hung and Bored to Death ran for three abbreviated campaigns apiece, while How to Make It in America lasted two seasons.

The series that survived HBO’s Bloody Tuesday was the new Laura Dern comedy Enlightened, which recently earned Golden Globe nods for both Dern and the show. At the same time the other three shows were being chopped, HBO announced the renewal of Enlightened for a second season. Programs routinely live fast and die young in the cable-TV realm, but the peculiar aspect of these most recent cancellations is that at least two of the three shows had respectable viewing audiences.

Hung, starring Thomas Jane as a schoolteacher driven to male prostitution by hard economic times (yes, it’s a comedy), enjoyed the largest viewership, with nearly four million U.S. viewers per broadcast. Not any more.

The dark comedy Bored to Death, with an A-list cast that included Jason Schwartzman, Ted Danson and hot indie-film oddball Zack Galifianakis, was pulling a healthy 2.3 million U.S. viewers each episode for its third season.

The only HBO show that probably deserved its walking papers was How to Make It in America, about young hipsters trying to break into the New York fashion scene, which closed its second season with a woefully low audience of slightly more than a half-million U.S. viewers. Apparently America was not ready for an East Coast version of Entourage.

Here in the Great White North, the cancelled shows aired regularly on HBO Canada, which chooses not to release ratings, but it’s pretty safe to say all three programs had earned commensurate viewer followings.

And with all that new space suddenly available on the schedule, what to expect from HBO in 2012? The cable giant is rolling the dice on Luck, a new drama set in the world of horse racing and starring Dustin Hoffman.

Last week’s sneak-preview episode of Luck drew barely more than a million American viewers, which does not exactly bode well for the show’s debut on Jan. 29.

Starting Feb. 19 on HBO and HBO Canada, we have Life’s Too Short, a sitcom about “the life of a showbiz dwarf,” according to creator Ricky Gervais. In, fact the show focuses on the life of tiny actor Warwick Davis. The seven-episode series has already aired in Britain, where one reviewer pronounced it “tripe.”

In April, expect the new HBO comedy Veep, which takes place in the office of a fictional U.S. vice-president and stars Julia Louis-Dreyfus, formerly of Seinfeld and The New Adventures of Old Christine. It’s not an encouraging sign that this show has been in development for five years and was originally supposed to air on ABC.

There you have it: Three up, three down. Such is life in cable television, where show concept is key and the seasons are short – never more than eight or 10 episodes. The next stop for Hung, Bored to Death and How To Make It in America will be on DVD box set.

But what about those viewers who faithfully followed those three programs the past few years? Tough cookies. Santa skipped your house this year.

John Doyle will return.

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 12:00AM EST

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TV: Five shows worth watching tonight: Dec. 22

Andrew Ryan

Last updated Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011 4:46PM EST

William Powell and Myrna Loy in "Another Thin Man"

A select viewing guide for Thursday, Dec. 22

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Cirque du Soleil’s Quidam is mesmerizing

J. KELLY NESTRUCK

Last updated Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011 6:04PM EST

A scene from "Quidam" (Matt Beard)

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O brave new world, that has such people in it!

’Tis only new to me, however: Circus spectacular Quidam has been around, in one form or another, for 15 years. Perhaps this is the holiday spirit speaking, but on my first viewing, I left thinking this Cirque du Soleil touring show is one of their very best.

It begins in domestic drama. A young girl named Zoé (Alessandra Gonzalez) is playing in the living room, ignored by her parents. Father (Patrick McGuire) has his face buried in the newspaper, catching up on world events while ignoring the world around him; Mother (Denise Wal) sits in a chair next to a bird-cage, sporting perfectly straightened hair and a Valium stare.

Into this sterile environment enters a headless man in a long parka and carrying a bowler, to shake things up. This character is apparently the Quidam of the title, but I'd prefer to refer to him as The Coat in the Hat.

Zoé follows The Coat in the Hat out through the front door and into a bizarre borderland between childhood and adulthood where acrobats turn innocent activities like swinging and jumping rope into extreme sports.

The design's frequent flashes of blood-red – balloons floating up to the roof; curtains falling to the floor – only cements the impression that the world of Quidam is one giant metaphysical metaphor for the thrills and chills of puberty.

I certainly was transported back to that mind-space. Watching contortionists is perhaps the closest we can come as adults to returning to that unsettling wonder we once felt when hearing about sex for the first time. Our bodies can do what exactly? You put what, where? How does that even work?

Quidam may be moody in concept – and I'm not really sure the tumblers in hazmat suits fit into my reading, truthfully – but the circus acts are also among the most mesmerizing I've seen and all the more enjoyable due to director Franco Dragone's dedication to blending art and athleticism at every turn.

The jump-rope section is jaw-dropping, while the banquine routine is simply breathtaking. In that climactic act, what looks like a 10-year-old girl is thrown two storeys in the air to be caught by a man standing on the shoulders of a man standing on the shoulders of a man. At that point, I muttered a certain well-known phrase aloud and it sure wasn't Shakespeare.

Perhaps the most stunning act is called “Statue” and features a strongman and strong-woman balancing on one another in symmetrical and seemingly impossible configurations. From the back of the stage, Zoé's parents wistfully watch this marriage of movement, this ideal partnership of two people leaning on one another. The combination is sad and almost unbearably beautiful.

After more than a decade of touring in the Grand Chapiteau tent, Quidam was reconfigured to fit into arenas – and the Cirque experience does, inevitably, lose some of its charm in this setting.

That said, Toronto's Ricoh Coliseum is a surprisingly intimate arena, as oxymoronic as that sounds. Also, stadium washrooms are much more pleasant than porta-potties and I got a big spicy sausage for five bucks.

The retooling of Quidam also means it can visit cities it couldn't before. After Toronto, it's off to the Ontario cities of Oshawa and Windsor, and next summer it resurfaces out West in Winnipeg, Regina, Edmonton, Kamloops, Kelowna, Abbotsford and Victoria.

It'd be unfair to end without mentioning that, in its current incarnation, Quidam has a truly top-notch clown in Voki Kalfayan, a skilled improviser who is a speed-reader of audience and atmosphere. His mime routines are among the oldest in the book – take a cute blonde from the front row on a date in an imaginary car! – but they were perfectly executed.

People often mock Cirque du Soleil for their clowns. I suspect it's because their clowns so skillfully mock people – what ridiculous creatures we are, they teach us over and over.

Quidam runs in Toronto until Dec. 30 (cirquedusoleil.com).

Quidam

- Written and directed by Franco Dragone

- Music by Benoît Jutras

- A Cirque du Soleil production

- At the Ricoh Coliseum in Toronto

- 4 STARS

Published on Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011 6:03PM EST

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New in crime fiction: The latest thrillers and mysteries

Margaret Cannon

Last updated Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011 4:36PM EST

Gruesome detail from the cover of "A Killer's Christmas in Wales"

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A Killer’s Christmas in Wales

By Elizabeth J. Duncan, St. Martin’s, 274 pages, $28.99

The Christmas cozy is as much a tradition as carols and plum pudding. This year’s best Yule murder is by Torontonian Elizabeth Duncan. It’s the third book in her very fine series set in Llanelen, Wales, and featuring Penny Brannigan, local amateur sleuth.

Past books fill in Penny’s current state. She’s the owner of a pretty Welsh cottage that she’s now turning into a modern spa. Regrettably, there’s a body in the foundation, a woman buried with her cat. But that’s not the only mystery in Llanelen.

It’s the snowiest winter in 25 years and the local postmistress, a well-off widow, has been fleeced of her life’s savings by a clever con man. When he turns up dead outside Conway Castle, the postmistress is the suspect and Penny is called into action. It all adds up to a very vexing Christmas season, but, in the best tradition of the cozy, the village returns to order in time for some jolly holly.

A Christmas Homecoming

By Anne Perry, Ballantine, 212 pages, $20

This is Anne Perry’s ninth Victorian Christmas confection and, surprisingly, it’s the best of the bunch. Perry likes to bring odd characters into her holiday tales, and this one, rooted in the theatre and with Dracula as an extra, is simply delightful.

The central character is Charlotte Pitt’s mother, Caroline, and her younger and much sexier husband Joshua Fielding. Fielding, an actor, has his own theatrical troupe and they are off to the wilds of Yorkshire, where they intend to put on an original play based on the novel Dracula in the mansion of a Yorkshire millionaire. Naturally, things go awry.

Perry can be the smoothest of plotsters, and this time she’s right on scene. There’s loads of atmosphere, plenty of Gothic steam and a clever trick ending. This is a must for Perry fans.

The Forgotten Affairs of Youth

By Alexander McCall Smith, Knopf Canada, 261 pages, $29.95

The smart tartan plaid cover of this delightful book needs no wrapping paper. Just put a bow on it and any mystery fan will be happy to find it in the stocking. McCall Smith’s Isabel Dalhousie series, set in Edinburgh, is every bit as charming as his No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. It has better plots, too.

Isabel, the editor of an ethics journal, doesn’t get about much, but does occasionally “help out” at her niece’s deli. There she meets a young Australian philosopher in search of her roots. Seems she was adopted as an infant and taken to Oz. She’s in Scotland in search of her father. Can Isabel help? Sometimes it’s best not to know. As always, McCall Smith tucks in bits of local colour, and we learn more about Isabel’s somewhat fraught personal life.

The Hanging Shed

By Gordon Ferris, McArthur & Company, 314 pages, $24.95

Tired of those visions of sugar plums? Dilute the sweet with a stiff dose of gritty, hard-edged Glasgow Noir. Gordon Ferris has turned up a stunning historical novel set in 1946 with an ex-cop-turned-crime-reporter as sleuth.

Douglas Brodie is in Glasgow at the request of a convicted murderer. Once he and Hugh Donovan were friends, but a teenaged romance came between them. Years later, Brodie is still fuming at the betrayal. But the Donovan he sees isn’t the lucky laddie he remembers. Donovan has been horribly mutilated by wartime injuries. The evidence of his crime was in his room and he was too drunk to know how it got there. The victim was the son of the woman he stole from Brodie. He is on the way to the gallows.

Brodie isn’t sure Donovan didn’t kill the boy, but he finds himself sifting the clues and, as the days tick down relentlessly, he knows only that his chase is truly life or death.

Continue Reading

Midwinter Sacrifice

By Mons Kallentoft, translated by Neil Smith, Hodder & Stoughton, 440 pages, $24.99

Not grim or cold enough for you? This story is set in the middle of Sweden’s coldest winter in generations. Linkoping police detective Malin Fors is summoned at dawn to a grim sight. A man has been hanged from a tree branch in the forest. Before his death he was tortured and beaten. He was killed elsewhere and his body brought to this isolated spot. Who would kill a pathetic loner, a man so isolated that he has not a single mourner? Fors believes she must hear the dead to find the killer, and the dead man “speaks,” although Malin cannot hear him.

This is a dark novel, full of awful people and desperate loneliness. Fors herself is in a sad space, separated from her husband, working long hours away from her only child, trapped in the cold and dark of a Swedish winter. Kallentoft is ruthless in his descriptions, but there is a great story here with solid police work leading Fors to the tale of the dead man in the tree. A must for the fans of Swedish crime novels.

As the Pig Turns

By M.C. Beaton, Minotaur, 292 pages, $28.99

No writer goes better with a cuddly throw and a day on the sofa than M.C. Beaton. The Agatha Raisin novels are great for taking the edge off holiday shopping or too much Christmas partying. This time, Agatha is in Winter Parva, an ideal Cotswold village perfectly suited to Christmas sales. But this year was a bust. The tourists didn’t come and the locals didn’t buy at the Christmas shop. So the town council has voted for a January Fête. There are costumed Morris-Dancers and a pig roast on the village green. It’s all destined to make those pesky people loosen their purse strings, but fans know the charm will curdle into murder when Agatha is about. This is a witty, smart novel by one of the British mystery’s best.

Missing Daughter, Shattered Family

By Liz Strange, MLR Press, 285 pages, $15.50

Liz Strange’s previous novels have been in the horror/vampire genre, so it’s a bit of a jump to crime. This is a debut for David Lloyd Investigations, set in Toronto. Lloyd is a cop whose career ended after he was hurt in a vicious homophobic attack. Now, he’s running private investigations for very private people, when a case comes along that opens up his personal history. There are some problems, not least that the message gets in the way of the mystery. The gold standard for gay PI novels is still Joseph Hansen’s Dave Brandstetter series, and Strange is a long way from there, but there is some solid writing here; also, David Lloyd has style and seems destined to return.

Margaret Cannon is The Globe and Mail's crime-fiction reviewer.

Published on Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011 6:00PM EST

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Video: Brian Dietzen sets up return of NCIS

Last updated Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011 5:26PM EST

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Published on Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011 5:26PM EST

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The true meaning of Christmas? It’s bad art

RUSSELL SMITH

Last updated Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011 5:30PM EST

A cheesy stock photo of Santa Claus singing a song. (Getty Images/Ingram Publishing)

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You are probably right this second within earshot of a radio playing the song Happy Christmas (War Is Over) by John Lennon (the one with the chorus, “And so this is Christmas”). And so let me say for you what we all secretly know: This is the worst song ever written, recorded or imagined by John Lennon, or, for that matter, by anyone else in the history of the world.

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I’ll tell you the true meaning of Christmas: It’s bad art. Bad art seems to be its primary function. Every seasonal ritual has its specific role, usually cathartic, and corresponding to one of the seven deadly sins: Halloween is for the temporary suspension of sexual inhibition, for example; Thanksgiving is for a brief societal sanction of gluttony. Christmas, strangely, serves a non-Christian sin: It is a temporary rupture in the fabric of civilization through which the worst music hisses out like a great blast of sweetened steam from the dark core of the Earth.

Why do we require this sudden relaxation? Why is it that Christmas music must, as if by statute, be bad? Why do we turn down our taste meters toward the end of December, dully accepting that we now tolerate a daily soundtrack of Lobby Jazz and Soul Carols, of ever-softer, ever more saxophone-heavy, vocal-trilling, R&B versions of Santa Baby? I’ll tell you who is the Grinch here, who is the Great Satan in this nefarious and insidious attack on your temperament – it’s the C Bloody C.

The CBC believes that Christmas demands such fanatical innocuousness, such a passionate national drive for inoffensiveness that every radio program must be punctuated with a kind of elevator music with words sung in the international deep-south voice of the U.S. blues singer. When my local CBC Radio drive-home show did its annual fundraising drive for a food bank, live from the lobby of its national headquarters, they broadcast such a queasy fanfare of melismatic Muzak I couldn’t listen, much as I supported their cause.

Why jazz music specifically is thought to be somehow representative of this season is something the most sophisticated of sociologists have yet to decipher, and yet here it is, everywhere, jazz trios in giant supermarket lobbies, jazz pianists in every hotel bar, all of them wearing red Santa caps as a uniform of the genre itself, a white-fur-trimmed consumer universe of jazz: jazz as Christmas.

The jazz thing might I suppose be explained by the popularity of A Charlie Brown Christmas cartoon that has been broadcast on TV every year since 1965 and famously featured unbad music by the Vince Guaraldi Trio. But please don’t try to tell me that all the new schlock is for kids. I have a kid, and he likes Jingle Bells as much as the next two-year-old, but he’s really not interested in a hip-hop version of it.

No, this is not the infantilizing of grown-up entertainment, it’s the inverse: It’s the adultizing of infants’ entertainment. We seem to want all our songs to have a rap break in them, so we apparently want our Christmas songs to have that as well.

Are all the Christmas movies – the Home Alones and the Miracles – that play on all the channels round the clock also aimed at children? They can’t be: They’re playing in the middle of the night as well as after school. The Top-40 dance-music radio stations that generally pump out the Auto-Tuned Katy Perry all day are aimed at grown-ups too, but since the beginning of December they’ve been playing the John Lennon song that you are probably hearing now for a second time since beginning this column.

And the groovy hairy downtown people who are hosting “ugly Christmas sweater” parties are adults too, just that particular sort of adult who has lost all track of what’s ironic and what’s deadly earnest.

It’s grown-ups who crave ugliness at this time of year, in the darkness and stress, as they crave sugar and fat. I told you it had a cathartic role: The ritual of bad art is a winter solstice emesis, a hysterical expression of our yellowest innards. Bad art is cultural eggnog: an instant but very short-lived sugar high with a nasty mouth-feel. I very much hope it makes us all feel happier while it is so dark, or at least relieved once it is out of us.

Published on Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011 5:17PM EST

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Screenwriter delivers straight from the War Horse's mouth

KATE TAYLOR

Last updated Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011 5:33PM EST

Director Richard Curtis in 2009 (Getty Images)

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When a movie executive first asked Richard Curtis to meet Steven Spielberg, the British screenwriter agreed with some trepidation, hoping the Hollywood director wasn’t one to bear grudges.

Back in 1994, not only had his hit movie Four Weddings and a Funeral beat out Schindler’s List for best foreign film at the César Awards, the French equivalent of the Oscars, but also the presenter had announced before the envelope was even opened that if Spielberg did not win it would be a disgrace to France that would last a lifetime.

“I was very relieved he did not hate me,” Curtis said of that meeting two years ago, when he was first asked if he would take a look at the script for War Horse.

Spielberg’s proposed movie was an adaptation the 1982 Michael Morpurgo children’s novel that had become a hit play on London’s West End, and it’s not hard to see why crafting a script was causing Hollywood some headaches.

The book, about a Devon farm boy and his beloved horse separated by the First World War, is told from the point of view of the horse as it witnesses the terrible cruelty of war first as a cavalry officer’s steed and then as a pack animal. The play, meanwhile, relied on large puppets to create the story’s powerful connections between people and animals.

Curtis, the pen behind such British hits as Notting Hill and Love Actually, agreed he would look at the script and see if he had 10 things he thought he could bring to the project. He did, Spielberg liked eight of them, and Curtis agreed to the job.

He had three different sources at his disposal – the book, the play and the existing draft of the script – but before he had drafted his 10 suggestions he had begun by reading the book out loud to his 14-year-old daughter.

“I had three pots of gold, but the most intense experience was ... the book,” he said. “My children always laugh at me because I cry easily. I remember as we got to the last two chapters, it was clearly going to be a real problem. She was likewise very moved by it.”

Curtis says the book is typical of Morpurgo, a writer who is willing to tell children sad stories. When it came time to write the movie script, which includes both a sentimental story about a young person’s relationship with an animal and violent if not gruesome depictions of trench war, Curtis said he never had a specific audience in mind, although the film has received a PG rating in Ontario and the stronger PG-13 rating in the United States.

“Steven never mentioned children or rating while we working on it. ... I was just telling the story,” he said. “I wasn’t writing for children and I don’t think Steven was directing for them.”

Because the book is told from the horse’s point of view, Curtis’s chief piece of advice to Spielberg was to cut the farm boy Albert out of the middle of the movie. Instead, the script would focus on the horse as it passes from the Devon lad to a dashing British cavalry officer to a pair of underage German recruits who use it to desert to a French girl who hides it in a windmill and finally back to the Germans as a pack animal. Curtis calls it a baton structure: The horse is passed from hand to hand.

“The structure of the book, which was this curious episodic structure, had worked very well and paid enormous dividends ... at the end,” he said. “I thought the film could be more daring in its structure and more daring than the [first] script or the play had been. ... We decided it would be exciting to give an audience half an hour of one story and then just leave it.... The broken nature of the story would actually be an exciting narrative thing, not a worrying thing.”

That decision made, Curtis’s job was to flesh out each of the settings in which the animal finds itself – and to think like a horse.

“I remember Steven phoning me up one day and saying, ‘Which bit are you working on,’ and I said, ‘I am the horse.’ He said, ‘What do you mean?’ and I said, ‘Well, unless we are clear what the horse is thinking all the time, it is going to be tougher for you.’ I remember thinking very hard about what the horses would feel when they were first taken away by German soldiers and first saw dead horses by the roadside and how frightening that would be.”

Curtis, who is in the habit of saying characters’ lines out loud to himself as he writes, will admit he neighed and whinnied while writing.

War Horse opens in theatres on Dec. 25.

Published on Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011 5:00PM EST

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How the jingle went out of advertising

ROBERT EVERETT-GREEN

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 10:28AM EST

Britney Spears sings the "Joy of Pepsi" song in a Super Bowl ad from 2002. (Reuters)

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It’s that time again, when we’re inundated by familiar songs that have become inseparably linked with the year’s biggest consumer binge. The link between music and shopping is never more Pavlovian than when we’re in the mall hearing about Santa Baby having a Holly Jolly Christmas in his Winter Wonderland.

- The alternative sound of Christmas: 10 songs that definitely aren't 'Jingle Bells'

- His Christmas chestnuts are CDs

Of course, music helps sell things all year round. It’s the best mnemonic device there is, though the most potent of all sales ditties – the jingle – has been in decline for decades.

It’s still active in radio, but TV largely long ago gave up on the kind of jingle that directly hypes the product in its lyrics. And yet many people can instantly recall the tune behind such venerable catch-phrases as “things go better with Coke,” “you deserve a break today,” or “double your pleasure, double your fun.”

What happened to the jingle? How did such a successful tool, whose mnemonic punch has been confirmed by the latest brain research, end up in the trash?

“If you write a jingle now, it’s mostly meant to be ironic,” says Chris Tait, a composer and partner at Pirate Toronto, which provides music and “sound design” for advertising. “Nobody buys that naive, innocent style any more” – the style of classic jingles for Rice Krispies or Green Giant.

That style worked through the postwar economic boom to the mid-sixties, when advertisers began to shift away from the direct pitch, and toward ads that offered membership in a desirable consuming community.

“Instead of extolling the virtues of the product, the idea was to celebrate the lifestyle of the consumers of the product,” Roger Enrico, the former PepsiCo CEO, told The New York Times. That goal led to the Pepsi Generation campaign, spearheaded in 1963 by PepsiCo ad maven Alan Pottasch. The ads spun from that thesis idealized the young, attractive, fun-loving people who were supposedly the soft-drink’s natural clientele. But the campaign’s defining music was a jingle – a 1969 soft-rock song that claimed “It’s the Pepsi Generation, comin’ at you, goin’ strong… you’ve got a lot to live, and Pepsi’s got a lot to give.” Pepsi got Three Dog Night to record it, at a time when that band was charting hit after hit.

Pepsi hung onto its jingles, getting Michael Jackson, Faith Hill and Britney Spears to record versions of its 1999 Joy of Cola song. But many companies dropped the product-specific ditties in favour of shrewdly chosen radio hits, or music that sounded like them.

“The advantage is that people know the song, so they already have a good feeling about it,” says Judy John, CEO and chief creative officer at the Canadian arm of Leo Burnett, maker of ads for Bell’s Fibe TV. Leo Burnett created the Jolly Green Giant and still keeps his “ho-ho-ho” alive in Green Giant commercials. But now it’s a tag at the end of the spot, not the climax of a jingle chorus.

“The jingle hasn’t gone away, it’s just been condensed,” says Andrew Simon, chief creative officer of Toronto’s Blammo Worldwide, the agency behind a batch of recent Fallsview Casino ads. “The mnemonic intent is still there, even if it’s just in a little clip” – like McDonald’s “I’m lovin’ it,” or the “moo” and cowbell in those five-second milk ads.

The drift toward using established songs was reinforced by Hollywood, which signalled the new direction with films such as 1983’s The Big Chill. The music industry now sees song-licensing for ads as a core business, and a chance at a sales jackpot like the one Feist hit when her 1234 was used in an iPod campaign.

“The irony is that the same people who are writing the music we’re licensing are also often writing for the industry,” says Pirate Toronto’s Tait. Case in point: Todor Kobakov, who records with Metric and K-os, co-wrote a catchy 30-second tune for a Maynards candy ad that stirred so much interest (including nearly 80,000 hits on YouTube), that Kobakov’s band Major Maker later released it as a full-length pop song, called Rollercoaster.

Licensing, and the advent of one-man, in-house computer bands, have made the jingle sideman an endangered species, says Toronto musician Roberto Occhipinti, who no longer gets many of the royalty cheques that made jingle sessions such sweet gigs. And many ads that lean heavily on established music and lifestyle depiction, with the product slipped in at the last moment, run the risk that the consumer remembers the tune and the scenario but not the reason they were brought together.

“More and more, consumers cannot identify the product in their recall of the commercial,” writes jingle-writer Steve Karmen in his disgruntled history, Who Killed the Jingle? “That’s because nobody is singing about the product.”

You could say the same about Frosty the Snowman. But boy, does that snowman know how to sell.

Published on Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011 4:55PM EST

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Justin Bieber skates with the Leafs

Toronto - The Canadian Press

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 12:37AM EST

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First Michael Bublé, now Justin Bieber.

One day after Bublé took the ice with the Vancouver Canucks, Bieber did the same with the Toronto Maple Leafs Wednesday at the Air Canada Centre.

The 17-year-old Canadian pop phenom skated with Leafs players Dion Phaneuf, Jake Gardiner, Jonas Gustavsson and Tyler Bozak before taping his Christmas special at Massey Hall.

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Unlike Bublé, Bieber didn't wear full equipment. He sported a tuque and Leafs track suit and took shots on Gustavsson.

Bieber has spent time around a number of sports teams during his travels. He joined a training session with Spanish football club Barcelona in April.

CTV said the skate was part of Bieber's Christmas special, and added that the singer had also stopped at a local food bank.

Published on Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011 4:54PM EST

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Video: Justin Bieber, Michael Buble in holiday head-to-head

Last updated Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011 4:58PM EST

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Published on Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011 3:57PM EST

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Video: Justin Bieber arrives in T.O.

Last updated Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011 3:37PM EST

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Published on Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011 3:37PM EST

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If the Who went Wrestlemania, this band's name would aptly describe the outcome

BRAD WHEELER

Last updated Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011 3:31PM EST

Lead singer Damian Abraham of Fucked Up performs at the Leeds Festival in Leeds, Britain on Aug. 26, 2011 (Rex Features)

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F***ed Up

At the Great Hall in Toronto on Tuesday

Thirty minutes into an orderly riot, the sweat marks on the front man’s underpants began to show. Damian Abraham, a load of a man, had discarded his shirt and was down to long, sagging shorts. He is bearded and balding, with a gut and man-breasts that are almost freestanding from the rest of his hairy body. He’s a B-cupped Bluto, if that helps.

At one point Abraham stopped singing/barking/yelling long enough to hoist himself onto the low balcony that collared the small hall, as the Toronto band with the coarse, unmentionable name pounded away on the burly chord progressions of its hard-rock opera David Comes to Life. He hollered lyrics pugilistically as he circled the second storey, eventually making his way down the back stairs onto the stage, where the three guitarists, one drummer and bespectacled female bassist went about their churning business.

Imagine the Who going WrestleMania.

“This is my favourite Toronto show ever,” Abraham proclaimed, not far into the set. “Or is it too early to say that?,” he added. Words from my mouth. Like the crowd-surfers and self-conscious stage divers in the room, the likable Abraham seemed determined to establish a blockbuster mood and to will a wild momentum unto this concert – a benefit show (for the legal defence fund of the Algonquins of Barriere Lake) that featured strong opening acts the Sadies, PS I Love You and Quest for Fire and the front-to-back playing of the quintet’s acclaimed conceptual album of this year, the aforementioned David Comes to Life.

The brilliant, anthemic record, judged disc of the year by the U.S. music magazine Spin, is a four-part, 18-song, 78-minute conceptual piece. The narrative involves a love tragedy, anarchy, hopelessness, labour misery and redemption. Abraham’s microphone wasn’t working for the first few songs, but even when the problem was fixed his guttural shouts were indecipherable.

Are surtitles an option, or do we assume the audience knows the words? Or does the music –  sublimely punk and fierce, with affecting ebbs, flows and counter melodies – carry the plot enough: “All we need is for something to give, the dam bursts open, we suddenly live. The boot off my throat, life is returning; the boot off my throat, let’s all emote.”

The crunchy piece The Other Shoe offered a chanted refrain that was at once disheartening and euphoric: “Dying on the inside, dying on the inside, dying on the inside.…”

At one point, Abraham declared that this was the band’s peak, and that years later we’d all look back at this moment in the group’s career and see nothing but slow decline after the first 10 years.

I would suggest that if Abraham and company were contemplating it, the demise is probably already happening. The group’s Chemistry of Common Life won the 2009 Polaris Prize; if anything, David Comes to Life is a step up in game. Perhaps this is what culmination looks like.

And so, it probably wasn’t too early when Abraham said this was his favourite Toronto show ever, but too late. It’s hard to imagine the group eclipsing itself at this point. But, as Abraham shouted at the end of Truth I Know: “What survives is what’s passed down – I have my legacy, and I am proud.” Rightly so.

Published on Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011 2:47PM EST

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Life

- Five bidders battle for Cabbagetown home

- Condo boasts trendy Junction location

- Condo comes with downtown Toronto view

- Teens who stand up against mom are better at resisting peer pressure: study

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Five bidders battle for Cabbagetown home

Sydnia Yu

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 10:59AM EST

Done Deal, 25 Naismith Ave., Toronto

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25 NASMITH AVE., TORONTO

ASKING PRICE $589,000

SELLING PRICE $660,000

PREVIOUS SELLING PRICE $342,000 (2003); $264,000 (2001)

TAXES $3,376 (2011)

DAYS ON THE MARKET seven

LISTING AGENT Carly Gaston, HomeLife/Realty One Ltd.

The Action: Agent Carly Gaston was adamant about getting a week of exposure for this semi-detached residence on a quiet street just a few blocks from Riverdale Park in Cabbagetown.

So a pre-emptive offer was rejected to accommodate about 15 buyers with showings and more than 100 open house visitors. On the day bids could be presented, the best out of five proposals came from a couple previously defeated in competition for other East Toronto properties.

What They Got: In a neighbourhood with a high concentration of historic Victorians, this Arts and Crafts-style house was built in the 1920s on the former site of the Toronto General Hospital.

Within the first three years of ownership, the sellers installed new roofing, windows and skylights, updated the heating and cooling systems, and remodelled the two bathrooms and an eat-in kitchen with access to a lower level office and recreation room, as well as a back deck and secluded patio with gardens, a pond and cabana.

Custom shelving was built around the gas fireplace in the living room, which also features hardwood floors that flow into the adjacent dining area and three bedrooms upstairs.

For parking, there is a spot on the mutual driveway.

The Agent’s Take: “Cabbagetown is such a prestigious area with higher prices generally than what we were listing at and sold for,” says agent Carly Gaston, who expects values will only increase with the revitalization of Regent Park nearby.

“It’s a great street that even has its own website and Doors Open Nasmith [event].”

The property’s mass appeal also lies in its recent makeover. “It’s open concept, but the wall to the kitchen was left up, which is good for a mix of formal and open spaces,” says Ms. Gaston.

“It had a good balance between the modern conveniences of the quartz counters, glass backsplashes and stainless steel appliances, and then you had the original floors, which were in good condition, and the high baseboards.”

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 10:59AM EST

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Condo boasts trendy Junction location

Sydnia Yu

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 10:53AM EST

Done Deal, 61 Heintzman St., No. 808, Toronto

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61 HEINTZMAN ST. NO. 808

ASKING PRICE $299,900

SELLING PRICE $296,000

TAXES not available

DAYS ON THE MARKET 21

LISTING AGENTS Holly Chandler, Jennifer Palacios and Julie Kinnear, Royal LePage Real Estate Services Ltd.

The Action: About 10 house hunters toured this two-bedroom suite in a one-year-old high-rise in the Junction.

What They Got: This eighth floor suite has a 750-square-foot plan designed and decorated with two bedrooms on opposite sides of an open living and dining area, as well as a mix of broadloom carpeting, tile and dark wood laminate flooring.

Off the foyer, there is a four-piece bathroom with stacked laundry facilities and a kitchen with stainless steel appliances and a breakfast bar.

External assets include a locker and parking spot.

The monthly fee of $290 covers heating costs and maintenance of a gym, party room and rooftop deck in the building, which is also eco-friendly with gas and solar heating systems, a green roof and a car-share vehicle.

The Agent’s Take: “It’s in a prime Junction area, close to everything,” says agent Holly Chandler. “The building is increasing in popularity because the Junction is changing every day with amazing new stores.”

Equally astounding are the unit’s appointments. “The owners opted for updates, so it showed really well,” Ms. Chandler states. “It was a split layout, so it was perfect, especially for having guests because it has the optimum amount of privacy.”

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 10:53AM EST

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Condo comes with downtown Toronto view

Sydnia Yu

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 10:50AM EST

Done Deal, 38 Elm St., Toronto

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38 ELM ST., NO. 3401, TORONTO

ASKING PRICE $349,900

SELLING PRICE $340,000

PREVIOUS SELLING PRICE $310,000 (2009); $185,000 (2000); $186,064 (1991)

TAXES $1,873 (2011)

DAYS ON THE MARKET 26

LISTING AGENT Boris Kholodov, Royal LePage Real Estate Services Ltd., Johnston and Daniel Division

The Action: Roughly 20 buyers signed up for a personal tour of this one-bedroom penthouse in a high-rise built more than 20 years ago.

What They Got: Windows facing northwest allow natural light to flood this 697-square-foot suite, which features marble flooring in the kitchen and hardwood floors in the living room and open dining area.

Practical components include a four-piece bathroom, appliances for cooking and cleaning, in addition to a locker and underground parking.

The monthly fee is $433 including utilities.

The Agent’s Take: “This unit is on the top floor of 38 Elm – formerly known as the Minto Plaza – so it offers unobstructed, panoramic views of the city,” says agent Boris Kholodov.

“It’s a very well-built building. In the lobby, you see generous-sized slabs of granite, which were there since it was built. Unfortunately, finishes like that are not available any more in newer buildings.”

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 10:50AM EST

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Teens who stand up against mom are better at resisting peer pressure: study

Anne-Marie Tobin

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 10:53AM EST

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Frustrated parents who are frequently at odds with an argumentative adolescent might take heart from the findings of new research on teens, their moms and their friends.

It seems that not all disagreements are bad. In fact, teens who express their own views in discussions with mom – even if they disagree – are more likely to resist peer pressure to use drugs or alcohol, the study discovered.

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“What we find is the right kind of argument is one where a teen and the parent are trying to persuade each other with calm reasoning,” explained lead author Joseph Allen, the Hugh P. Kelly Professor of Psychology at the University of Virginia.

“This is very different from bullying or shouting or pressuring or whining, or just withdrawing, which are all kind of other approaches teens sometimes use to get their way.”

Essentially, the kids who express their own points of view in the right way are practising an important life skill.

Dr. Allen said teens need to learn to stand up for themselves somewhere, and those who learn to do so in the right way with their parents are actually much better suited to do it well with their peers.

The study is published Thursday in the journal Child Development.

Dr. Allen’s team began following more than 150 teens at the age of 13. The group is now aged 24, but the data for this particular paper is derived from a period when they were aged 15 and 16.

The researchers videotaped the teens and their parents discussing a disagreement, and then observed and coded the information to understand what was happening.

“And what we found was that what teens learn at home in terms of handling disagreements, they largely take into their interactions with their peers,” Dr. Allen said in an interview from Charlottesville, Va.

“So if they learn to be calm and confident and persuasive at home, they’ll do the same thing with their peers.”

On the other hand, if they use bullying, whining and pressure – or just withdraw – when there’s a disagreement, they’ll do the same thing with their friends.

But, Dr. Allen noted, teenaged friends don’t usually put up with as much bad behaviour as parents do.

By interviewing the teens’ friends, the researchers found that the calm, reasoned arguers were more successful with their peers.

The study was only done with moms because there were more families with mothers, due to divorces and the rates of single-parent families, but Dr. Allen said it’s possible the same process applies to interactions with dads.

Dr. Allen said it makes sense that the teens who can disagree with their parents can disagree with their peers and don’t get influenced as much.

“A teen who is successful at standing up for themselves might have a friend who’s abusing substances, but is able to stand apart from that behaviour,” he said.

“Whereas a teen who, for example, with their parents just says ‘yes sir,’ ‘yes ma’am,’ even when they really don’t agree or really don’t understand, it looks like they maybe do the same thing with their peers – and they just say ‘OK, I’ll do it,’ whether or not it makes sense for them.”

He said the challenge for parents who disagree with their kids is to work toward having the right kind of disagreements that are handled in a reasonable way.

Parents need to stay calm and model the behaviour they want their teens to use, and they need to teach their teens how to be persuasive, he advised.

Karen Skinulis of the Ontario Parenting Education Centre in Richmond Hill, Ont., welcomed the research. She said it can be hard to convince parents that having discussions with their children will be a good thing – sometimes they’re afraid to do it.

“Being able to talk safely with your parents about your viewpoint, and have it respectfully acknowledged and listened to, gives children a confidence that helps them feel that their ideas are sound and logical,” she said.

“Then they feel that they really start developing that confidence in themselves as a result of being listened to by their parents, a feeling of ‘I’m valued and I have worth.”‘ When a teen argues by bullying and shouting, it could be because he or she feels there isn’t another option open to them. Parents need to stop that kind of dynamic and find a different way of making decisions together, Ms. Skinulis said.

“If there’s a forum in place, then there’s a better chance that they’re going to have respectful communication. Then it’s not going to be the kind of showdown that you’re talking about, where the communication is really at a roadblock,” Ms. Skinulis said.

She suggested having a family meeting on a regular ongoing basis, not just when there is a crisis. That’s where the family can make decisions, solve problems, come up with rules, limits and the routines the family is going to live by.

“When parents do this kind of approach regularly, then the children really develop those great skills ... they learn how to persuade, they learn how to have a logical argument, they learn how to look at both sides of a problem.”

Toronto youth counsellor Karyn Gordon, author of Dr. Karyn’s Guide to the Teen Years, said parents have to teach children how to debate, and shouldn’t spoon-feed a value system because otherwise teens will go off into the real world without formulating their own thoughts.

“So in families where parents actually encourage that (two-way conversation), I think that’s actually really healthy,” she said.

“It totally does not surprise me that when they’re actually facing peer pressure, that they have a stronger sense of what their values are, and are able to stand up for it.”

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 10:49AM EST

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Careful bidding wins Mimico house

Sydnia Yu

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 10:44AM EST

Done Deal, 88 Albert Ave., Toronto

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88 ALBERT AVE., TORONTO

ASKING PRICE $469,000

SELLING PRICE $492,000

PREVIOUS SELLING PRICES $325,000 (2006); $178,000 (1991)

TAXES $3,339 (2011)

DAYS ON THE MARKET seven

CO-OP AGENT Nutan Brown, Royal LePage West Realty Group Ltd.

The Action: In the Mimico community by the lake, it’s not unusual for several buyers to bid on properties priced between $400,000 and $600,000. So agent Nutan Brown helped her clients assemble a winning offer that beat out a handful of other buyers vying for this renovated two-storey house.

What They Got: A 44- by 132-foot piece of land easily accommodates this detached brick house with a two-bedroom plan, a secluded southwest-facing backyard and a private driveway out front.

Inside the 1950s residence, there are pot lights and wood floors throughout the open concept living room, dining area and kitchen, which also features stainless steel appliances, butcher block counters and a walkout to a deck.

The second floor houses the bedrooms, the larger of two bathrooms and stacked laundry facilities.

The Agent’s Take: “[The buyers] wanted a solid brick house, and the other thing that they loved about the house was the lot size,” says Ms. Brown. “Although the house is a decent size, they do have plans to put an addition on the back to add living space, and they will still have – literally – a park for a backyard.”

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 10:44AM EST

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It’s not easy going green, but it can spark creativity

JOHN BENTLEY MAYS

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 10:38AM EST

Storefront, South Korea. From My Green City: Back to Nature with Attitude and Style (242 pages, $42.90). Edited by Sven Ehmann, Kitty Bolhöfer and Gestalten publisher Robert Klanten. (Gestalten)

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For many Toronto homeowners, I suspect, the prospect of going green can summon up daunting visions.

One thinks of costly conversions to geo-thermal heating and cooling, extensive insulation upgrades, major alterations in lifestyle and such, all designed to reduce the carbon footprints that our houses and apartments, and ourselves, stamp on the environment.

There’s certainly nothing wrong with any of these moves. Indeed, it seems clear to just about everybody nowadays that the ways buildings are constructed, and the ways we inhabit our homes and cities, must become ever more green-conscious if the earth is to be liveable a hundred years from now.

Now, having made this weighty (and, to most people, obvious) point, I want to talk about the more playful, and less widely celebrated, dimensions of being green. Artists, architects, designers and other creative folk around the world have been learning a lot from the popular mindfulness about ecology and nature. And as they’ve learned, many of them have been pushing their practices beyond the utilitarian plane at which too much green thinking is stuck, and creating products that embody a very fresh contemporary aesthetic of greenness.

The evidence for what I am talking about has been usefully packaged in the new portfolio from Gestalten called My Green City: Back to Nature with Attitude and Style (242 pages, $42.90). Edited by Sven Ehmann, Kitty Bolhöfer and Gestalten publisher Robert Klanten, this book showcases colourful sculptures and performances, window gardens and urban beehives, garden tools and rooftop gardens, moss walls, high-rise farms and numerous other interesting objects fashioned under green influence by 161 individuals or studios.

Among the loveliest projects illustrated here are the vertical gardens raised in Madrid and Paris by French botanist Patrick Blanc. These aren’t your ordinary walls blanketed by Boston ivy. Putting to work his knowledge of both architectural technology and growing, Mr. Blanc has engineered a system of plastic panels sheathed in felt that gives sturdy support to lush, abounding cascades of vines and other plants. The exuberance of these exterior walls stands at one end of the emotional spectrum charted in this book. At the other limit – on the cool, contemplative end, that is – one finds the serene sculptural bundles and back-to-the-land personal adornments made of dried wheat stalks by Studio Toogood, a UK-based design collective.

But as the reader quickly finds by browsing through this volume, Mr. Klanten and his colleagues at Gestalten have a definite preference for works with drama and a sense of fun. They like, for example, the Italian design firm Arabeschi di Latte, which, in 2008, got carried away by the vogue for recycling and staged a lavish banquet where everything was fully compostable. And I do mean everything: tableware, décor, even the cardboard dining table. At the end of the performance, the whole kit and caboodle was sent off to a farm for use as fertilizer. (Until I saw this, I thought I was a pretty good recycler. No more.)

The buildings featured here tend to be similarly flamboyant and off the map, but they occasionally deliver a surprising intellectual punch.

Take, for instance, the 45-storey structure called Plug Out, proposed by New York’s WORK Architectural Company in response to a recent call for ideas about what to do with a neglected part of lower Manhattan. Instead of being tidily stacked one on top of another, in the manner of ordinary high-rises, the various rectangular levels of Plug Out rotate laterally from a vertical hinge. A couple of these multi-storey slabs swing out over West Street, a 10-lane highway running alongside the Hudson River.

Plug Out’s striking, highly unusual form exploits the hitherto unusable corridor of light and air opened in the dense street grid by West Street. But the inventive habitation of wasted big-city space is not the only green aspect of this mixed-use (unbuilt) skyscraper. It has been hard-wired to perform as an immense therapeutic machine offering what the authors call “urban dialysis: filtering and cleaning water and providing energy, which is then fed back into the surrounding district.”

Of the really-built architectural efforts presented here, none is more thoughtful than the garden of the Native Child and Family Services facility, located atop an office tower in downtown Toronto. This little open-air ensemble of flower patches, a healing lodge and fire circle, handsomely crafted by Levitt Goodman Architects, was intended to be “a place that would reconnect urban aboriginals with nature in the heart of the city…” If photographs are to be believed, this beautiful refuge may well meet that welcome objective.

Levitt Goodman’s garden, of course, is serious art. Many other treatments in My Green City are light-hearted. If you are looking for an inspirational and entertaining picturebook about the often solemn topic of being green, this album is for you.

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 10:38AM EST

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More columns from John Bentley Mays

- Subtle surgery yields a modern mid-town Toronto home

- A refuge that politely blends in with its rural setting

- Joint venture on Toronto condo cuts a new path for development

- River City's second act changes tack - and tone

- French architect a fresh breeze amid convention

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Leaf through pictures form a green book

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 10:38AM EST

Storefront, South Korea. From My Green City: Back to Nature with Attitude and Style (242 pages, $42.90). Edited by Sven Ehmann, Kitty Bolhöfer and Gestalten publisher Robert Klanten. - Gestalten

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A plan to turn a former jail into rental housing

Kerry Gold

Vancouver - Globe and Mail Update

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 10:26AM EST

Plan by architect Gregory Henriquez for the former remand centre at 211 Gore into 95 units of rental housing in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. (Henriquez Architects)

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Gregory Henriquez believes that transforming a former city jail into affordable rental housing is poetry.

He is the architect behind the transformation of the former remand centre at 211 Gore into 95 units of rental housing in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.

The poetic metaphor of transforming a jail into housing is really a healthy message for any society,” says Mr. Henriquez, seated inside his upstairs office in the old B.C. Securities heritage building at Homer and Pender. The office is grand with plaster cornices, tall windows and marble floors.

“Incarcerating people isn’t the answer,” says Mr. Henriquez. “Housing them is.”

He has become known as the Vancouver architect with the vision towards equitable housing. He is the designer behind the Woodward’s Building, lauded as a successful merger of low-income housing and market housing, as well as the affordable Downtown Eastside condo project at 60 W. Cordova.

Mr. Henriquez is often confused with his famous architect father Richard, well known for Eugenia Place in English Bay, with the tree rising from the rooftop, a tribute to the forest that stood there before it.

The remand centre is a passing of the baton from father to son because Richard designed the original building, and Gregory has re-designed and will soon re-purpose it for social and affordable housing. While Richard is the true poet of the family, son Gregory has carved out his own niche as the social issues-minded architect.

“He is the architect with the ethical pen,” says condo marketer Bob Rennie, who worked with Mr. Henriquez on Woodward’s as well as numerous other projects.

Mr. Henriquez’s decision to focus on the remand centre was driven as much by personal necessity as it was to supply essential rental stock.

It was 2008, when the market had bottomed out, and Mr. Henriquez thought that he could either take a long break, or put his architects to work on a housing project he’d considered for awhile. His father’s 1973 remand centre had been sitting unused since it closed in 2002, and was an ideal and obvious source of rental housing for low-income tenants in the area.

It was, in fact, an empty shell awaiting a new purpose. It had already been gutted before the basement became home to a community courtroom.

“I thought, we can either give up or look for projects that are really meaningful and put some people to work drawing up things that would be very exciting around issues of social justice and affordability and housing and inclusivity, and things we hold near and dear to our hearts,” he says.

A remand centre is a detention centre for people who have not yet been found guilty and are awaiting their appearance in court. The Vancouver remand centre at 211 Gore is striking because of the rows of concrete bays that jut out the side of the building. Inside, the bays are used as alcoves for beds. The feature is a Richard Henriquez metaphor.

“They are obviously in prison but still in society, and they are not yet guilty, so the metaphor of them sleeping on the outside of the building was an interesting thing,” says Mr. Henriquez.

He made a pitch to the province’s housing ministry, and after three years of back and forth, the idea became a reality last spring. The remand centre is set for a makeover to be completed by mid 2013.

The 95 rental units built, to be managed by the St. James Community Service Society, will include 34 rental units for low-income tenants. Tenants who qualify for a studio apartment can earn around $32,500, while one-bedroom units will be rented to tenants who make $36,300, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. housing income levels. The maximum rents would be about $800 to $900 a month. Studios will be up to 485 square feet in size, and one bedrooms up to 590 square feet.

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The remainder of the units will be for at-risk youth who work in the BladeRunners construction-training program, as well as those who are on a shelter allowance. The 34 rental units will generate enough revenue so that the project won’t require subsidies. Rents will cover the $1.6-million mortgage.

Housing Minister Rich Coleman has said that the $13-million project is also possible because of the already existing building, which drastically offsets construction costs.

As for the concrete bays, Mr. Henriquez will replace them with larger glass bays, allowing light into the units.

The project provides much-needed affordable rental housing in an area where rental and condo prices have skyrocketed in the last couple of years. Some of his own architects, says Mr. Henriquez, cannot afford to live in Vancouver.

“Which is sad and wrong.”

While an effort has been made to provide affordable condo housing, such as Mr. Henriquez’s project at 60 W. Cordova, many people still can’t afford the down payment. About 50 per cent of Vancouverites rent, and in the Downtown Eastside in particular, rental stock is essential.

Mr. Henriquez doesn’t expect the new housing to transform the gritty block, but he figures it will, for what it’s worth, help fill the massive gap that is rental housing. He can’t think of another new rental building in the neighbourhood, which isn’t surprising considering land values.

“Vancouver hasn’t produced rental because most land trades at market housing rates,” he says.

“But straight market housing by itself in the neighbourhood isn’t going to work. Every project has to bring some level of affordability and some statement about caring about the neighbourhood … You don’t want people to feel you are bulldozing their neighbourhood.”

Mr. Henriquez says speculative condo buyers push prices up, and creative methods must be used to keep them from purchasing units that are intended to be affordable. Those methods include making the project a no-rent building, not including parking, and banning the practice of flipping.

Condo owners usually don’t provide affordable rentals, either. Condo marketer Bob Rennie says those speculative condo investors who need to rent their units to cover their mortgages are currently providing much of the rental stock.

“These passive condo buyers that everybody hates are the rental supplier,” he says.

They price their rents on average around $1,600 a month, which is too high for many people. And because the number of condo units being developed in the last few years downtown has drastically dropped, there will be less of those rental condos available.

“To find rental under $1,250 or under $1,000 is a rare commodity, given our land costs and construction costs,” says Mr. Rennie. “So building small suites and providing affordable rental fills a need.”

The city has recognized the need for rental stock with its STIR program, which stands for Short Term Incentives for Rental Housing, and includes breaks on property taxes, development cost levies, and parking, and allowances for greater density, in exchange for development of rental housing.

Vancouver property prices, however, are expensive, and condominiums remain more lucrative to the average developer.

“You just have to look at really creative models, and looking at smaller sizes,” says Mr. Rennie. “So whether it’s condos or affordable rental, you have to try different models. We can’t keep hanging onto yesterday’s model, because land has become so expensive.”

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 10:26AM EST

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Video: Would you eat 70-year-old fruitcake?

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 10:34AM EST

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Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 10:17AM EST

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France investigating link between bad breast implants and cancer

Kate Kelland and Daniel Flynn

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 10:13AM EST

A defective silicone gel breast implant manufactured by French company Poly Implant Prothese (PIP) is seen near surgical instruments after being removed from a patient by plastic surgeon Denis Boucq (L) in a clinic in Nice December 21, 2011. French medical device regulatory authority (AFSSAPS) recalled PIP breast implants in March 2010 after it concluded that their performance and safety were not in accordance with current standards. (Eric Gaillard / Reuters)

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Fears over the safety of silicone breast implants made by a now defunct French firm spread to Australia, South America and across Europe on Thursday as French officials prepared to decide if thousands of women should have their implants surgically removed.

The silicone gel implants, made by a company called Poly Implant Prosthese (PIP), appear to have an unusually high rupture rate and have sparked an investigation in France into possible links to cancer.

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Some 300,000 PIP implants, which are used in cosmetic surgery to enhance breast size or replace lost breast tissue, were sold worldwide before PIP went bust last year, after it was liquidated in March 2010 with losses of 9 million euros after AFSSAPS recalled its implants when surgeons reported abnormally high rupture rates.

“It’s not just France that’s concerned. We’re looking at 300,000 to 400,000 potential victims in the world,” said Alexandra Blachere, the leader of a French PIP implant patient group.

She said women from Italy and Spain had been in touch with her with worries about their implants, and she’d seen reports of problems in Venezuela, Brazil and elsewhere.

Britain’s drugs watchdog the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said, however, that there was no reason for patients to be alarmed and stressed there is as yet no scientific evidence to suggest increased health risks.

MHRA officials said they had talked to other health or regulatory experts from France, the Netherlands, Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Hungary, Austria, Denmark and Malta.

“They all agreed that there was no evidence of any increase in incidents of cancer associated with PIP breast implants and no evidence of any disproportionate rupture rates other than in France,” the agency said in a statement.

Founded in 1991, Poly Implants Prothese was based in southern France and for a while ranked as the world’s number three maker of implants, supplying around 100,000 a year.

Some 80 per cent were exported abroad, and health authorities around the world said they were watching closely for the results on Friday of an inquiry by France’s National Cancer Institute into whether the implants can be linked to cancer.

France has had reports of eight cases of cancer in women with breast implants made by PIP, which is accused of using industrial-grade silicone normally used in anything from computers to cookware.

MHRA said there were also French reports of a woman with PIP implants who died from anaplastic large cell lymphoma, or ALCL – a rare form of cancer which affects cells from the immune system.

France’s drug and medical device regulatory authority, AFSSAPS, ruled last year that the state would pay for the removal of all the PIP implants but only fund replacements for victims of breast cancer, not those who used them for aesthetic purposes.

A French victims association is pushing for the state to pay for replacements for all women with PIP implants.

France’s Health Ministry is expected to make an announcement on Friday following the National Cancer Institute’s findings.

Meanwhile, a solicitor acting for at least 250 British women taking legal action over their PIP implants said the liquidation of the French company had limited the scope for patients’ legal action.

“We’re suing about half a dozen clinics that have been involved in implanting the PIP breast implants,” Mark Harvey, a partner at legal firm Hugh James, told Reuters.

“We would have preferred to sue PIP, obviously, but they are bankrupt so they have no money and no assets.”

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 10:15AM EST

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Man wins Lamborghini, crashes it same day

Wency Leung

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 10:53AM EST

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Easy come, easy go? Take the bitter with the sweet?

Chances are there isn’t an aphorism out there that can soothe David Dopp’s pain. But thankfully, auto insurance can.

The Utah resident was ecstatic when he won a $380,000 (U.S.) Lamborghini Murcielago in a contest over the weekend – only to crash it a mere six hours later, according to broadcaster KSL.

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“Yeah, I got it on Saturday and I wrecked it on Saturday,” Mr. Dopp told KSL, with a forced half smile.

Mr. Dopp won the neon green car on Nov. 12 in a “Joe Schmo to Lambo” contest, sponsored by the U.S. convenience store chain Maverik. KSL says he took plenty of photos and gave rides to family and friends after receiving the keys to the car. The celebration, however, was short-lived.

“We were coming up a hill, going around a corner; and as soon as we came up the hill, we either hit some black ice or loose gravel or something, and all of a sudden we just started spinning,” Mr. Dopp said. “We ended up in a field, and I back-ended a couple of fence posts.”

“My heart pretty much fell out,” his wife Annette Dopp added, recalling her reaction when she heard about the collision.

Besides damage to the rear, the car also has some damage to the front, a puncture in the wheel and scratches along the side.

Fortunately, Mr. Dopp was required to get insurance for the car before he was given the keys, and the car is now being fixed. He also won driving lessons at a road racing facility.

Have you ever experienced such sudden disappointment after a windfall?

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 9:40AM EST

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December 22: Your daily horoscope

SallY Brompton

Last updated Monday, Dec. 05, 2011 5:33PM EST

Capricorn

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IF TODAY IS YOUR BIRTHDAY:

It seems you are under divine protection. It seems you can do no wrong. Take a few risks over the coming 12 months. Do things other people would not dare to try. You’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain.

ARIES (March 21 - April 20):

The sun crosses the angle of your chart that governs your social and professional status today. Over the next four weeks or so you will get numerous opportunities to better yourself – and you must take them.

TAURUS (April 21 - May 21):

Something that was an issue before won’t be an issue as from today, most likely because you no longer take it seriously. As the sun changes signs so your awareness will deepen and many “problems” will cease to exist.

GEMINI (May 22 - June 21):

Over the past few weeks the emphasis has been on relationships, but as from today the emphasis will shift to business and financial issues. Tread carefully when dealing with other people’s money: the potential for trouble is huge.

CANCER (June 22 - July 23):

You are now halfway through your solar year – the ideal time to take stock of how far you have come and how far you have still to go. If you have not achieved as much as you hoped there’s still time to make changes.

LEO (July 24 - Aug. 23):

You need to do more in some areas but less in others. It’s important that you get the balance right because too much focused activity could lead to burnout. Make sure you get plenty of rest over the next few days.

VIRGO (Aug. 24 - Sept. 23):

As the sun moves into the most dynamic area of your chart today your confidence will soar and you will start to believe that anything is possible. One of the best times of the year is about to begin. Make every minute count.

LIBRA (Sept. 24 - Oct. 23):

There is no such thing as coincidence. If you feel drawn to a certain person it is because your fates are connected. This is also a good day to spend some quality time with loved ones and other relations.

SCORPIO (Oct. 24 - Nov. 22):

You may not be the most outgoing member of the zodiac but now the sun is moving into the most sociable area of your chart you’ll be more open than usual. It doesn’t have to be all work and no play.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 23 - Dec. 21):

It’s time to get serious about your dreams and ambitions. It’s also time to get serious about improving your cash flow situation. Are the two things related? Of course they are. Follow your dream – and make it pay.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22 - Jan. 20):

The sun enters your birth sign today and a new solar year begins. Think big, act big and expect big things of yourself over the coming 12 months. Don’t try to be perfect though – not even a Capricorn can manage that.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 21 - Feb. 19):

By all means stick up for yourself today but don’t say too much and risk making an enemy of someone who could just as easily be a friend. Sometimes you can be a little too sensitive to criticism.

PISCES (Feb. 20 - Mar. 20):

The problem you are confronted with has a simple solution, so stop making things difficult for yourself and listen to what your inner voice tells you. The answers you seek are all there waiting – all you have to do is look.

Visit Sally at www.sallybrompton.com

Call 1-900-783-8333 for your extended forecast.

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 12:01AM EST

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I'm just going to say it: I hate Christmas gifts

Dr. Joti Samra

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 8:42AM EST

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The question

I hate giving and receiving gifts. It seems so materialistic to me - but everyone around me seems to just love it at this time of year. Is there something wrong with me? How can I mentally get behind the idea of gift giving?

The answer

Christmas has become an increasingly commercialized holiday: you are not alone in your feelings about gifts.

- My parents killed Santa (and nobody cared)

- Help: My 12-year-old still believes in Santa

I would challenge your perception that everyone around you seems to love it at this time of year – although many people outwardly may seem to love the holiday season and all the associated traditions. I think if you were to ask people, you'd be surprised at how many share your sentiments.

The Christmas holiday itself is religious - but more broadly is viewed by even those with non-religious views as being a time of celebration, love, and giving. The gift component can take away from the true spirit and intent of Christmas, particularly when an emphasis is placed on what one “wants” and is “getting”.

The reality is that the holiday season can also become a hugely taxing time of year from a financial perspective. Unfortunately, the focus on gift giving adds to the social pressure that many feel to “keep up with the Joneses”.

The net effect is that individuals often get in real financial debt, which is one of the biggest reasons why the Christmas holidays (and the January aftermath) become the most stressful time of year for many.

Instead of trying to accept something that is inconsistent with your beliefs, speak openly with your loved ones and others that you exchange gifts with about how you feel. I think you may be surprised at the reaction that you get.

Do not be shy about expressing your underlying reasons, which stem from the values you hold. Indicate that you feel that the holiday season and gift-giving is becoming overly materialistic, and that you would like to think of adding some new traditions this year.

Propose setting a monetary limit or gifts, or only giving hand-made gifts. Suggest keeping the gift giving for children only.

Think about having a Secret Santa gift exchange (where everyone brings one gift, and each person receives only one). Or, propose adopting a family in need and providing gifts to that family.

Send psychologist Joti Samra your questions at psychologist@globeandmail.com. She will answer select questions, which could appear in The Globe and Mail and/or on The Globe and Mail web site. Your name will not be published if your question is chosen.

Read more Q&As from Dr. Samra.

Click here to see Q&As from all of our health experts.

The content provided in The Globe and Mail's Ask a Health Expert centre is for information purposes only and is neither intended to be relied upon nor to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 12:01AM EST

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Canadians dreaming of a white Christmas can keep dreaming

CARYS MILLS

Last updated Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011 9:22PM EST

Pedestrians bring their umbrellas as a rain storm washes over Ottawa on Wednesday. The city is not expecting a white Christmas. (Dave Chan for The Globe and Mail)

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Most Canadians will go without a white Christmas this year, the largest number to make merry minus snow on Dec. 25 since the nation began measuring its holiday accumulation.

In a land where everything from Christmas cards to movies and TV shows are traditionally cloaked in white, such famously snowy places as Winnipeg and Saskatoon are expected to be bereft this year.

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“Most Canadians will see a green Christmas,” said Dave Phillips, senior climatologist at Environment Canada. “Who would have thought in the Great White North, the land of ice and snow, that we would be denied something that we hold close to our hearts?”

It was in 1955 that Environment Canada began keeping track of white Christmases – defined as having at least two centimetres of snow on the ground by 7 a.m. The difference this year is that, while about 85 per cent of the country will get snow as usual, the affected areas won’t be those with large populations.

Some Canadians say they’re glad for the warmer weather and don’t mind a snowless holiday.

“Personally I wouldn’t care if I ever saw a flake of snow ever again,” said Corina Chippett in Gander, Nfld.

Gander, actually, is likely to have a snowy Christmas, although Ms. Chippett said the weather wouldn’t change her celebration in any case. “I still put up the Christmas tree, I still put up decorations, whether there’s snow on the ground or not,” she said. “I still started to play Christmas music Dec. 1st.”

In fact, remote areas will be blanketed. There will be snow in Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, Yukon, the Northern Prairies, Northern British Columbia, Northern Ontario and most of Quebec. (Quebec City is expected to be one sizable city boasting the winter-wonderland look.)

But not so in Winnipeg, which normally has a 98-per-cent chance of Yuletide snow. There, 66-year-old Art Abesamis said the warm weather means he doesn’t have to be concerned about his son’s flight from Toronto for the holiday. And, he said, “I can go out with light clothing and I can go shopping without worrying about the cold.”

He admits there’s part of him that wouldn’t mind some flurries. “It feels like Christmas, like on the Christmas card,” he said.

As it happens, there’s only a chance of flurries on Friday, and temperatures could be as warm as 1C on Sunday. For Winnipeg, a typical Christmas high is around -11C.

Mr. Phillips said temperatures across the country during December have been an average of 6 or 7C higher than usual, which has quickly melted any white stuff. Over the next few days, cities in the east like St. John’s will have some snow on the ground – but rain may wash it all away.

Even where snow accumulates, there will be less than average, Mr. Phillips said. Whitehorse, for example, has 16 cm of snow this year compared to an average of 28 cm.

With the roads clear, the warm weather might boost last-minute Christmas shopping, according to Richard Woolley, vice-president of operations at Weather Trends International, which advises businesses including Loblaws and Wal-Mart on weather trends.

“When you don’t have a lot of snowstorm activity … that tends to be helpful,” he said, noting the downside is a decrease in sales of winter apparel.

Near Collingwood, Ont., Paul Russell, who works at a winter-gear store, said he and other retailers are hoping the cold and snow return to normal soon. Thursday’s temperatures were expected to be about six degrees higher than usual.

“Some people who don’t go skiing or boarding are probably happy with plus [temperatures],” he said, “but this whole Collingwood area, we depend on tourism.”

Published on Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011 9:20PM EST

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Fire, walk with me: Toronto's solstice festival

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 11:01AM EST

The annual Winter Solstice celebration started with the annual parade featuring costumes, stilt walkers, lanterns, drums and music, from the Kensington Market to Alexandria Park where a celebration took place which included fire handlers and a ceremonial lighting of a fire in Toronto December 21, 2011. - Deborah Baic/The Globe and Mail

Annual celebration starts with parade, continues with costumes and music and ends with a ceremonial fire

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Real Estate

- Five bidders battle for Cabbagetown home

- Condo boasts trendy Junction location

- Condo comes with downtown Toronto view

- Careful bidding wins Mimico house

Five bidders battle for Cabbagetown home

Sydnia Yu

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 10:59AM EST

Done Deal, 25 Naismith Ave., Toronto

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25 NASMITH AVE., TORONTO

ASKING PRICE $589,000

SELLING PRICE $660,000

PREVIOUS SELLING PRICE $342,000 (2003); $264,000 (2001)

TAXES $3,376 (2011)

DAYS ON THE MARKET seven

LISTING AGENT Carly Gaston, HomeLife/Realty One Ltd.

The Action: Agent Carly Gaston was adamant about getting a week of exposure for this semi-detached residence on a quiet street just a few blocks from Riverdale Park in Cabbagetown.

So a pre-emptive offer was rejected to accommodate about 15 buyers with showings and more than 100 open house visitors. On the day bids could be presented, the best out of five proposals came from a couple previously defeated in competition for other East Toronto properties.

What They Got: In a neighbourhood with a high concentration of historic Victorians, this Arts and Crafts-style house was built in the 1920s on the former site of the Toronto General Hospital.

Within the first three years of ownership, the sellers installed new roofing, windows and skylights, updated the heating and cooling systems, and remodelled the two bathrooms and an eat-in kitchen with access to a lower level office and recreation room, as well as a back deck and secluded patio with gardens, a pond and cabana.

Custom shelving was built around the gas fireplace in the living room, which also features hardwood floors that flow into the adjacent dining area and three bedrooms upstairs.

For parking, there is a spot on the mutual driveway.

The Agent’s Take: “Cabbagetown is such a prestigious area with higher prices generally than what we were listing at and sold for,” says agent Carly Gaston, who expects values will only increase with the revitalization of Regent Park nearby.

“It’s a great street that even has its own website and Doors Open Nasmith [event].”

The property’s mass appeal also lies in its recent makeover. “It’s open concept, but the wall to the kitchen was left up, which is good for a mix of formal and open spaces,” says Ms. Gaston.

“It had a good balance between the modern conveniences of the quartz counters, glass backsplashes and stainless steel appliances, and then you had the original floors, which were in good condition, and the high baseboards.”

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 10:59AM EST

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Condo boasts trendy Junction location

Sydnia Yu

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 10:53AM EST

Done Deal, 61 Heintzman St., No. 808, Toronto

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61 HEINTZMAN ST. NO. 808

ASKING PRICE $299,900

SELLING PRICE $296,000

TAXES not available

DAYS ON THE MARKET 21

LISTING AGENTS Holly Chandler, Jennifer Palacios and Julie Kinnear, Royal LePage Real Estate Services Ltd.

The Action: About 10 house hunters toured this two-bedroom suite in a one-year-old high-rise in the Junction.

What They Got: This eighth floor suite has a 750-square-foot plan designed and decorated with two bedrooms on opposite sides of an open living and dining area, as well as a mix of broadloom carpeting, tile and dark wood laminate flooring.

Off the foyer, there is a four-piece bathroom with stacked laundry facilities and a kitchen with stainless steel appliances and a breakfast bar.

External assets include a locker and parking spot.

The monthly fee of $290 covers heating costs and maintenance of a gym, party room and rooftop deck in the building, which is also eco-friendly with gas and solar heating systems, a green roof and a car-share vehicle.

The Agent’s Take: “It’s in a prime Junction area, close to everything,” says agent Holly Chandler. “The building is increasing in popularity because the Junction is changing every day with amazing new stores.”

Equally astounding are the unit’s appointments. “The owners opted for updates, so it showed really well,” Ms. Chandler states. “It was a split layout, so it was perfect, especially for having guests because it has the optimum amount of privacy.”

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 10:53AM EST

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Condo comes with downtown Toronto view

Sydnia Yu

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 10:50AM EST

Done Deal, 38 Elm St., Toronto

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38 ELM ST., NO. 3401, TORONTO

ASKING PRICE $349,900

SELLING PRICE $340,000

PREVIOUS SELLING PRICE $310,000 (2009); $185,000 (2000); $186,064 (1991)

TAXES $1,873 (2011)

DAYS ON THE MARKET 26

LISTING AGENT Boris Kholodov, Royal LePage Real Estate Services Ltd., Johnston and Daniel Division

The Action: Roughly 20 buyers signed up for a personal tour of this one-bedroom penthouse in a high-rise built more than 20 years ago.

What They Got: Windows facing northwest allow natural light to flood this 697-square-foot suite, which features marble flooring in the kitchen and hardwood floors in the living room and open dining area.

Practical components include a four-piece bathroom, appliances for cooking and cleaning, in addition to a locker and underground parking.

The monthly fee is $433 including utilities.

The Agent’s Take: “This unit is on the top floor of 38 Elm – formerly known as the Minto Plaza – so it offers unobstructed, panoramic views of the city,” says agent Boris Kholodov.

“It’s a very well-built building. In the lobby, you see generous-sized slabs of granite, which were there since it was built. Unfortunately, finishes like that are not available any more in newer buildings.”

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 10:50AM EST

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Careful bidding wins Mimico house

Sydnia Yu

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 10:44AM EST

Done Deal, 88 Albert Ave., Toronto

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88 ALBERT AVE., TORONTO

ASKING PRICE $469,000

SELLING PRICE $492,000

PREVIOUS SELLING PRICES $325,000 (2006); $178,000 (1991)

TAXES $3,339 (2011)

DAYS ON THE MARKET seven

CO-OP AGENT Nutan Brown, Royal LePage West Realty Group Ltd.

The Action: In the Mimico community by the lake, it’s not unusual for several buyers to bid on properties priced between $400,000 and $600,000. So agent Nutan Brown helped her clients assemble a winning offer that beat out a handful of other buyers vying for this renovated two-storey house.

What They Got: A 44- by 132-foot piece of land easily accommodates this detached brick house with a two-bedroom plan, a secluded southwest-facing backyard and a private driveway out front.

Inside the 1950s residence, there are pot lights and wood floors throughout the open concept living room, dining area and kitchen, which also features stainless steel appliances, butcher block counters and a walkout to a deck.

The second floor houses the bedrooms, the larger of two bathrooms and stacked laundry facilities.

The Agent’s Take: “[The buyers] wanted a solid brick house, and the other thing that they loved about the house was the lot size,” says Ms. Brown. “Although the house is a decent size, they do have plans to put an addition on the back to add living space, and they will still have – literally – a park for a backyard.”

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 10:44AM EST

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Sports

- Australia’s Brad Drewett named new ATP head

- Transit strike postpones Arsenal-Wolves game

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- Broncos castaway Kyle Orton has Chiefs fighting for playoffs

- Eusebio hospitalized with double pneumonia

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- Waiting in the wings, Nazem Kadri ready for Leafs’ return

- Ferrari to unveil 2012 car in early February

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Australia’s Brad Drewett named new ATP head

London The Associated Press

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 11:05AM EST

(Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images) (Getty Images)

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Former Australian tennis player Brad Drewett is the new head of the ATP.

The ATP said Thursday the 53-year-old Drewett has been hired on a three-year contract as executive chairman and president of the men's tennis tour.

He succeeds American Adam Helfant. Helfant announced in June that he was stepping down at the end of the year. Drewett takes over on Jan. 1.

The ATP says Drewett is “ideally qualified to take on the multifaceted role with his extensive experience at the ATP.”

Drewett currently serves as CEO of the ATP International Group, overseeing operations in the Middle East, Asia and Pacific since 1999.

Drewett previously served as a member of the player council. He has also been tournament director of the ATP World Tour Finals in London.

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 11:03AM EST

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Transit strike postpones Arsenal-Wolves game

MIKE COLLETT

London - Reuters

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 11:07AM EST

Arsenal's match against Wolverhampton Wanderers has been postponed by a day due to an ongoing London transit labour dispute. (AP File Photo/Matt Dunham) (AP)

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Arsenal have postponed Monday’s home Premier League match against Wolverhampton Wanderers for 24 hours because of a strike by London Underground train drivers which threatens to plunge the capital into chaos.

The match at the Emirates Stadium will now be played on Tuesday at 1500 GMT, but Chelsea’s fixture against neighbours Fulham at Stamford Bridge on the Dec. 26 Boxing Day bank holiday is going ahead despite the travel shutdown.

Arsenal took the decision to delay the match just hours before the High Court rejected a legal attempt to stop the strike.

London Underground had asked the court to outlaw the strike by members of the Aslef union who are demanding more pay, but Mr Justice Eder ruled the stoppage could go ahead, the Press Association reported.

In a statement explaining why they were putting the match back 24 hours, Arsenal said:

“This decision has had to be made now, before the result of the legal challenge to the proposed industrial action is finally known, due to the preparation period needed to safely operate Emirates Stadium by all the relevant agencies.”

The statement on their website (www.arsenal.com) added: “The paramount concern was always the duty of care towards the Arsenal supporters, Wolverhampton Wanderers supporters, matchday employees, workers and indeed everyone who was planning to attend the match on Boxing Day.”

The club said that as there were no services operating on mainline train services into London on the day, there was likely to have been “severe disruption, or at worst, inability for supporters or matchday employees and workers” to get to the match.

Lower league matches in and around London will also be going ahead with the Championship (second division) matches between Watford and Cardiff City and Millwall and Portsmouth taking place.

Leyton Orient’s match with MK Dons and Brentford’s clash against Bournemouth in League One (third division), as well as the League Two (fourth division) fixtures between Wimbledon and Oxford United and Dagenham & Redbridge and Barnet will also be played.

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 10:59AM EST

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Japan’s untouchable gymnast looking past 2012 qualifiers

NANCY ARMOUR

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 10:42AM EST

Kohei Uchimura of Japan competes in the Horizontal Bar final during day ten of the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships Tokyo 2011 at Tokyo metropolitan Gymnasium on October 16, 2011 in Tokyo, Japan. (Photo by Adam Pretty/Getty Images) (Getty Images)

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Three-time world gymnastics champion Kohei Uchimura can relax, he's going to the London Olympics.

As if there was any doubt.

The Japanese Gymnastics Association decided it didn't need to wait for the results of the Olympic trials in the spring, announcing earlier this month that Uchimura already has a spot on the team for the London Games. Hardly a surprise, considering Uchimura has been untouchable since winning the silver medal at the Beijing Olympics. He became the first man to win three world titles this fall, and was so dominant that two-time silver medalist Philipp Boy joked that he was born in the wrong age.

- Royal garden to be hired out for Olympic parties

Uchimura also won gold on floor exercise, led Japan to the silver in the team competition and completed his medal set with a bronze on high bar.

———

RUGYB PAY FOR PLAY

Playing rugby is about to become a full-time job.

With rugby returning to the Olympic program in 2016, USA Rugby and the U.S. Olympic Committee will begin offering player contracts in January. The contracts will provide monthly stipends, meals and full-time coaching at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, Calif., as well as access to the OTC's high-performance center, to 15 men and eight women competing in rugby sevens.

Eventually, USA Rugby would like to have 20 players on both the men's and women's teams in full-time residency.

“We think it's game-changing for us,” USA Rugby CEO Nigel Melville said. “Most of our teams are playing against teams globally who are all full-time rugby players. We had to move toward that to be competitive and compete and move up the world rankings.”

The U.S. currently does the best it can with part-time players, relying on athletes to train on their own and gathering as a team for camps before big tournaments. Now that rugby is going to be an Olympic sport, however, the stakes are higher and the Americans risked falling even further behind if they didn't make some changes.

Results at the Dubai Sevens earlier this month reinforced that perspective.

In years past, the American women would have been competitive with Canada. But Melville said the Canadians upgraded their training program last year, and they routed the U.S. in the semifinals on the way to winning the tournament title.

“The initial impact will be in the fitness of players. They'll be stronger and fitter,” Melville said. “The other thing is skill development and that will be really important. And training together gives us more consistency. It's a combination of things. ... It will make a big difference for us.”

Melville declined to say how much the contracts will be worth, saying only that “it's not very much.”

“It wouldn't compare favourably to a lot of nations around the world,” he said. “But it will be an opportunity for our players to be more competitive and, hopefully, we can raise more money from sponsors.”

With athletes beginning full-time residency in January, Melville said it will probably take about a year to see results. But the goal is the Rio Olympics, still more than four years away.

“It's a step forward,” Melville said.

FAMILY MAN

There's a lot more to Olympic decathlon champion Bryan Clay than his medals.

Clay is one of the few decathletes to win two Olympic medals, claiming gold in 2008 after winning the silver in 2004. But the 31-year-old Clay and wife, Sarah, also have three kids under the age of 7: Jacob, Kate and Ellie. Ralph Lauren picked him as one of 12 athletes for its Olympic campaign. And he earned USA Track and Field's Humanitarian Award earlier this month for his work with his Bryan Clay Foundation, which helps empower kids physically, emotionally and intellectually.

Balancing all that and Olympic-level training can be tough, but Clay wouldn't have it any other way.

Continue Reading

“The Olympics is great, we love doing it. But it's not who I am,” he said. “If I put life on hold for the Olympics, at the end of this all, if it doesn't work out, I run the risk of being pretty disappointed and maybe even having some regrets. ... I've been able to accomplish one of the hardest things in the world, which is to win the gold medal in decathlon, but I was able to do it with no regrets. I didn't sacrifice who I was, I didn't sacrifice what I believed or my values or any of those things to get where I wanted to be.”

Clay missed this year's world championships after a calf injury forced him out of the U.S. championships.

“Some of my friends are telling me that they've already bought tickets for the decathlon and I'm like, `I hope I'm there,”’ Clay said. “If I go out and execute my game plan, I think we should be OK and at least we'll get there.”

LOOKING AHEAD

With two Olympic gold medals already, Mariel Zagunis is looking for more — in London and Rio de Janeiro.

“It really just depends on people's personal situations, if they're monetarily able to continue or physically able to continue. Some people are just ready to move on,” said the 26-year-old, who is the world's top-ranked sabre fencer. “I fully intend on being present in 2016. ... I'm so fortunate to be able to be doing it at this level for so long. I absolutely love what I do. I'm so thankful every day I can wake up and go to train to try and become a better fencer.”

Zagunis' gold medal at the 2004 Olympics in Athens was the first by a U.S. fencer in 100 years, and she followed it with another in Beijing in 2008. She's been almost unbeatable since then, winning the world title in both 2009 and 2010.

But Zagunis had a rare loss at this year's worlds, finishing second to Russia's Sophia Velikaia by a mere point.

“First, I have to remind myself that a silver medal at the world championships is still an amazing result,” said Zagunis, whose parents were both rowers on the 1976 U.S. Olympic team. “With my track record, I want nothing less than No. 1. But it's totally fine with me because it kind of helped. It definitely motivates me.

“I'm not worried at all,” she added. “I'm just going to be ready to defend that gold next summer, and that's really what matters in the long run.”

IN THE RING

Britain's Olympic team has five new members after world boxing silver medalists Anthony Joshua, Luke Campbell and Andrew Selby and two teammates were nominated.

Joshua, Campbell, Selby, Tom Stalker and Fred Evans qualified for next summer's London Olympics based on their results at the world boxing championships in Baku, Azerbaijan, in October. They had to finish in the top 10 in their weight class, or top six for heavyweight and super heavyweight. Selby, who finished second in the flyweight division at the world championships, had to go one step further because Khalid Yafai also finished in the top 10, advancing to the quarterfinals before losing to eventual bronze medalist Rau'shee Warren of the United States.

Selby beat Yafai 2-0 in a best-of-three boxoff last month after Yafai failed to make weight before their second bout.

“To secure five Olympic qualifiers at our first opportunity was very satisfying and a great achievement,” said Rob McCracken, performance director for the British Amateur Boxing Association. “If they box to their full potential then every one of them has the talent and ability to do well and secure a medal.”

British boxers have won 49 medals at the Olympics, including a gold by middleweight James DeGale at the Beijing Games.

LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON

Family bragging rights, and Olympic medals, are at stake for Guatemalan modern pentathlete Andrei Gheorghe next summer.

Gheorghe will compete at the London Olympics 20 years after his father, Marian, finished seventh at the 1992 Games in Barcelona. Marian Gheorghe, who represented Romania, now coaches his son.

“The child must overcome the father,” Andrei Gheorghe said after winning a silver medal at the Pan American Games to qualify for London. “I hope to be above (seventh) to beat my dad.”

Gheorghe, 24, was born in Romania but moved to Guatemala when he was 13.

FIVE RINGS

The U.S. women's field hockey team was winless in a five-game series against Britain, the No. 4 team in the world. ... With the first portion of the U.S. Olympic shooting trials complete, Daryl Szarenski and Sandra Uptagrafft have solid leads in 10-meter air pistol, while Matt Rawlings holds a slim edge in the 10-meter air rifle. Sarah Scherer and Emily Caruso are tied atop the standings in the women's 10-meter air rifle. The second part of the Olympic trials will be Feb. 23-26 at Camp Perry, Ohio. ... Bruno Grandi, president of the International Gymnastics Federation since 1996, plans to run for a fifth — and he says final — four-year term next year. ... Moscow was chosen over Rome as host of the 2016 modern pentathlon world championships. ... David Hemery, vice chairman of the British Olympic Association and 1968 Olympic champion in the 400-meter hurdles, was one of three recipients of the European Olympic Committees' Laurel Award this year. The award is given to Europeans who achieved remarkable athletic success and performed outstanding services for sport in their country. ... World figure skating champion Patrick Chan won the 2011 Lou Marsh Award, given to Canada's top athlete.

———

AP Sports Writer Beth Harris contributed to this report.

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 10:40AM EST

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Broncos castaway Kyle Orton has Chiefs fighting for playoffs

DAVE SKRETTA

Kansas City, Mo. - The Associated Press

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 10:28AM EST

Kyle Orton #8 of the Kansas City Chiefs is hit after throwing a pass by Morgan Burnett #42 of the Green Bay Packers at Arrowhead Stadium on December 18, 2011 in Kansas CIty, Missouri. The Chiefs defeated the Packers 19-14. (Photo by Wesley Hitt/Getty Images) (Getty Images)

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It's common practice across the NFL to bring the starting quarterback to the podium for a weekly news conference. It often beats the alternative: A bunch of reporters and cameramen crowded around his locker.

Kyle Orton's never been a podium-type guy.

The Kansas City quarterback would rather hang out in the locker room while someone else gets the spotlight, which turns out to be an awfully good metaphor for the way he approaches the game.

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“The quarterback gets so much of the credit and so much of the blame,” Orton said. “You play long enough at this position, it's tough to play well really good unless the guys around you are playing good, and they're not getting the credit, the quarterback is, and that's hard to see.”

Orton has had a hard time avoiding the spotlight this week.

In his first game as the Chiefs' starting quarterback, Orton set a career high by completing 74.2 per cent of his passes (23 of 31) for 299 yards in a 19-14 upset victory over previously unbeaten Green Bay. He averaged 9.65 yards per attempt, his most in more than two years.

It was the kind of performance that caught everybody by surprise, considering Orton arrived in Kansas City shortly before Thanksgiving after he was cast aside by Denver and picked up off waivers following a season-ending injury to Chiefs starter Matt Cassel.

Orton had only played one snap for the Chiefs, a few weeks back at Chicago, when he was hit throwing a pass and dislocated the pointer finger on his throwing hand. Part of that was because former coach Todd Haley stuck by Tyler Palko, despite his inability to lead the team to touchdowns.

But when Haley was fired and defensive co-ordinator Romeo Crennel elevated to interim coach, one of the first things he did was declare Orton his starter. He came through against the Packers with one of his finest performances in recent years, his yardage total trailing only a 304-yard effort in the Broncos' season opener and his 104.1 quarterback rating his second best of the season.

“The thing I knew about him was he was a pro quarterback, and has played in games in the NFL before, and had a good arm, and those things we knew about him,” Crennel said. “But we didn't know how it would play out on game day, and it played out very well.”

Orton hardly looked like someone who hadn't started a game since Week 5, helping the Chiefs set a season-high for total yardage in one of the biggest upsets of the season.

He spread the ball around to 10 receivers, proved calm in the pocket and displayed a boyish enthusiasm when he would complete long passes down the seam, proclaiming after the game that it was “about the most fun I've had on a football field.”

“I came out of the game feeling pretty good, and the good thing is we did some good things on offence,” Orton said. “Hopefully last week was just kind of the starting point and we go from there.”

The starting point may have come in the nick of time.

The Chiefs' playoff condition has gone from critical to serious with their victory over the Packers. They still need to beat Oakland on Saturday and Denver in their season finale, and have the Broncos beat Buffalo this weekend and San Diego lose one of its last two games.

If all that transpires, though, Kansas City will win another surprising AFC West title.

Orton refuses to look too far down the road, though. He knows that there's a chance a lot will be on the line when the Chiefs play Denver in the final week of the season. He also knows that he'll become a major part of the storyline, along with Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow, the guy who supplanted him as the starter and ultimately led to his release from the team.

But for now his focus is squarely on the Raiders, who went through their own quarterback shuffle earlier this season when Jason Campbell went down and Carson Palmer came aboard. Raiders coach Hue Jackson said he's been impressed by the job the Chiefs have done integrating Orton into the offence, though he wasn't necessarily surprised by his success.

“They've simplified their offence to give him a chance,” Jackson said. “Kyle has a big arm, he can throw it. And they have some big targets to throw it to.”

Orton has been saddled with a polarizing reputation, the guy everybody loves or loves to hate, with little ground in between. He doesn't understand that, and said that teammates in Chicago, Denver and now Kansas City would probably have a different opinion.

One thing is clear: If he can somehow keep winning, fans in Kansas City will only love him.

“I'm a pretty quiet guy, love to play football, love to spend time with my teammates and my family and that's pretty much it,” he said. “Just never been about the media aspect of the game.”

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 10:26AM EST

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Eusebio hospitalized with double pneumonia

Lisbon, Portugal - The Associated Press

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 10:22AM EST

This file photo taken on June 11, 2008 shows Eusebio da Silva Ferreira, more commonly known as Eusebio, a former Portugese football star, before the Euro 2008 Championships Group A football match Czech Republic vs. Portugal in Geneva. Portuguese football club Benfica said in a statement on its website on December 21, 2011 that former Portugal and Benfica star Eusebio has been hospitalized after displaying early symptoms of pneumonia. Getty Images/PAUL ELLIS (Getty Images)

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Former Portugal and Benfica star Eusebio is likely to stay in a hospital over Christmas after being diagnosed with double pneumonia, doctors said Thursday.

Jose Roquette, a clinical director at Lisbon's Hospital da Luz, said Eusebio was in stable condition despite being admitted Wednesday with an infection in both lungs.

“He's eating well,” Roquette told reporters. “He had a good night.”

Doctors treating Eusebio said they are optimistic about his chances of a full recovery, though the illness requires close monitoring and he will undergo treatment for several more days.

Eusebio da Silva Ferreira, who turns 70 next month, became a national icon after his standout performances in the 1960s for Benfica and the Portuguese national team.

He was named one of the 10 best football players of all time by FIFA in 1998.

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 10:19AM EST

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Royal garden to be hired out for Olympic parties

London - The Associated Press

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 10:42AM EST

2012 Olympic fans have the opportunity to rent property at the home of Britain's Prince William. Getty Images /CARL COURT (Getty Images)

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It's an Olympic party venue fit for a king. Royal officials say part of the garden at Prince William's new home is being rented out during the London 2012 Olympics.

Buckingham Palace confirmed Thursday that Perks Field, used by royals as a soccer field and a helicopter landing pad, had been made available for those seeking to wow their guests.

- Japan’s untouchable gymnast looking past 2012 qualifiers

It follows a decision to hire out rooms at St. James's Palace — where William and Prince Harry have offices — as party venues. It also comes after Britain cut public funding to the royal family about 9 percent by 2015 under a deficit-reduction program.

London's Evening Standard newspaper reported that a Russian businessman will rent Perks Field — adjacent to Kensington Palace, the residence that will be William's home from 2013.

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 10:15AM EST

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Goalkeeper attacked by fan during Dutch Cup match

TOBY STERLING

Amsterdam, Netherlands - The Associated Press

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 9:57AM EST

AZ Alkmaar goalkeeper Esteban from Costa Rica reacts as he is attacked on the pitch by an Ajax Amsterdam supporter during the soccer match at the Amsterdam Arena December 21, 2011. The last 16 Dutch Cup tie between Ajax Amsterdam and AZ Alkmaar was abandoned on Wednesday after Alkmaar's goalkeeper Esteban was sent off for kicking a fan who had run on to the pitch. Picture taken December 21, 2011. REUTERS/Ajax/Louis Van De Vuurst (Reuters)

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The Dutch football federation said Thursday it has yet to decide whether to replay a cup match between Ajax and AZ Alkmaar that was halted after a supporter ran onto the field and tried to attack Alkmaar's goalkeeper.

The alert Costa Rican goalkeeper Esteban Alvarado deflected the attack by a 19-year-old fan, tripping him with a karate-like kick. But Alvarado was given a red card for kicking the supporter again in anger twice immediately afterward before the intruder was dragged off by security guards.

Alkmaar coach Gertjan Verbeek ordered his side to walk out in protest rather than play with 10 men and the game was halted in the 36th minute. Ajax was leading 1-0 on a goal by Gregory van der Wiel.

Ajax director Jeroen Slop said the supporter had already been banned from the stadium for a year due to a previous run-in with security guards, but managed to sneak into the cup match with a ticket purchased by a friend. He has now received a lifetime ban from all Ajax matches.

Opinions were divided about whether Alvarado deserved to be sent off.

Referee Bas Nijhuis defended the decision, saying that once the supporter was on the ground, he no longer posed a threat.

But Ajax coach Frank de Boer noted that for all Alvarado knew, the supporter could have been carrying a weapon or gotten up to attack again.

“Maybe I would have done the same thing, maybe not,” said De Boer, a renowned former defender for Netherlands' national team, of Alvarado's reaction. “But emotionally I do understand it.”

The Dutch players' union has demanded that the red card be retracted.

“This cannot lead to a suspension” for Alvarado, said union chief Danny Hesp, arguing that Alvarado's reaction was in self-defence after an unexpected, unprovoked attack. The union “will do everything it can to fight this” decision, he said.

The federation said Thursday it will decide “soon” whether Wednesday's match should be replayed, resumed, or have Ajax declared the winner.

Police are holding the 19-year-old supporter, whose name was not released, on assault charges. Police are also holding 25 other supporters arrested during and after the match. After the early end to the round-of-16 match, Ajax supporters clashed with riot police outside Amsterdam's ArenA stadium.

Alkmaar defended its decision not to continue playing. The team's players “didn't feel safe anymore in this situation,” said club director Toon Gerbrands.

In a highly unusual move, the country's justice minister Ivo Opstelten got involved in the debate, saying the attack was “beastly” and that “jerks and nuts don't belong on the field.” He added that he thought AZ's Verbeek was right to walk out under the circumstances.

“I have a lot of respect for how he acted,” Opstelten said. “Intervene immediately, that warms my heart.”

Slop, the Ajax director, apologized for the security lapse, and he said AZ had accepted the apology.

“An incident with one half-wit in a stadium of 40,000 people, you don't have control over that,” he said. He said the supporter had “in all likelihood been drinking.”

He added that the fan “had made it known that he detests the AZ keeper and that's why he attacked him.”

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 9:51AM EST

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After racist abuse charges, Chelsea’s Terry ready for Spurs’ bearpit

MIKE COLLETT

London - Reuters

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 11:06AM EST

Chelsea soccer captain John Terry walks off the pitch following their Champions League quarter-final second leg soccer match against Manchester United at Old Trafford in Manchester, northern England in an April 12, 2011 file photo. Terry will be prosecuted over allleged racial abuse made during a Premier League soccer match in October, British authorities said on December 21, 2011. REUTERS/Darren Staples (Reuters)

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John Terry will come face to face with a largely hostile soccer public for the first time since being charged with alleged racist abuse when he skippers Chelsea at Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League on Thursday (2000 GMT).

The 31-year-old England captain was charged with a racially aggravated public order offence by the Crown Prosecution Service on Wednesday following an altercation with Queens Park Rangers defender Anton Ferdinand during a Premier League match at Loftus Road in October.

- John Terry to face criminal charge over alleged racial abuse

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He has been ordered to appear at West London magistrates’ court on Feb. 1 and will plead not guilty after strenuously denying the allegations over the last two months.

He is sure of an extremely hostile reception in a highly-charged atmosphere at White Hart Lane, where he has been sent off for Chelsea twice in the last five seasons.

Terry’s case made the front and back pages of most of Thursday’s papers, with some supporters’ groups calling for him to be stripped of the England captaincy and the Kick It Out anti-racist campaign “saddened” by Chelsea’s “blanket support” for their player.

Chelsea boss Andre Villas-Boas, however, said he believed Terry had the mental strength to cope with the stress of the case which is why he will be playing against Spurs in Thursday’s bearpit atmosphere.

“John has told me he is in the right frame of mind to play and has shown fantastic commitment to the team,” said Villas-Boas.

“His performances have been good and I don’t doubt his integrity as a person.

“He represents this club to a maximum level and we’re very grateful to have a player of his quality in our team, in what he represents in terms of history and achievements at the club.

“We know exactly his human values and personality, so we will support him whatever happens.”

Terry responded to Wednesday’s charge by saying: “I am disappointed with the decision to charge me and hope to be given the chance to clear my name as quickly as possible.

“I have never aimed a racist remark at anyone and count people from all races and creeds among my closest friends.

“I will fight tooth and nail to prove my innocence. I have campaigned against racism and believe there is no place for it in society.”

Tottenham have warned fans that stewards will adopt a “zero tolerance” policy towards abuse of Terry and will be wearing headcams to record the crowd.

Matches between Spurs and Chelsea are often played against a backdrop of seething ill-feeling from both sets of fans, with the stakes even higher than usual on Thursday as Spurs start the game in third place in the table, one position and two points better off than Chelsea with a match in hand.

Chelsea enjoyed a 32-match unbeaten league run against Spurs home or away for 16 years from December 1990 to March 2006, but Spurs are now unbeaten at home by Chelsea for five league matches since November 2006. (Editing by Clare Fallon)

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 9:44AM EST

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Thursday’s NHL previews

Reuters

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 9:38AM EST

Winnipeg Jets forward Andrew Ladd (16) celebrates after scoring a goal against the New York Islanders during the second period at MTS Center. Bruce Fedyck-US PRESSWIRE (Bruce Fedyck)

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CANADIENS AT JETS

A home-heavy December may actually be working against the Winnipeg Jets, who have lost two of three as they prepare to entertain the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday night. Winnipeg plays 12 of its 14 December games at the MTS Centre, but has lacked focus over the last week. Speculation that some guys may be thinking ahead to the holiday break doesn’t sit well with forward Blake Wheeler. “If we’re losing focus because we’re worried about getting our Christmas gifts done or worried about cooking our ham or whatever it is, that’s unacceptable,” he said. “This is a great time of the year to be a hockey player. That should be our mindset.” Montreal dropped a 5-1 decision to the Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday to fall to 0-3-0 under new head coach Randy Cunneyworth. The Canadiens have dropped four in a row overall, leaving them at the bottom of a competitive Northeast Division.

- Waiting in the wings, Nazem Kadri ready for Leafs’ return

- Where have all the Quebec goalies gone?

- Hoping to make designer goalie pads hot again

TV: 8:30 p.m. ET, RDS, TSN Canadiens, TSN Jets

ABOUT THE CANADIENS (13-15-7): Some fans and media members questioned the club’s sanity after it dealt defenseman Jaroslav Spacek to Carolina for high-priced blue-liner Tomas Kaberle. So far, he has managed to keep the critics at bay. The one-time power-play quarterback for the Toronto Maple Leafs has five assists through his first six games. To boot, his even rating is significantly better than the minus-12 mark he posted with the Hurricanes.

ABOUT THE JETS (15-13-5): Evander Kane’s roller-coaster season has taken another rough twist. The 20-year-old has just two assists in his last five games after catching fire with seven goals in his previous eight contests. Kane’s month has included a minus-four effort in a one-sided loss to Detroit and a one-shot performance in a narrow defeat at the hands of the Washington Capitals. He was strong in defeat last time out against the New York Islanders, held pointless but registering six shots on goal.

OVERTIME:

1. Montreal has won the last three meetings between the clubs, outscoring the Jets franchise 11-3 in the process.

2. Winnipeg has struggled mightily against the Northeast Division, winning just three of its last 17 encounters.

3. The Jets have just one power-play goal in their last five games. That includes a goose egg in a loss to the Islanders on Tuesday, a game in which Winnipeg didn’t earn a single man-advantage chance.

PREDICTION: Jets 4, Canadiens 2.

SABRES AT MAPLE LEAFS

A good divisional showing has served the Buffalo Sabres well of late. Extending their good fortune Thursday will mean a bump in the standings as they pay their first visit of the season to the Air Canada Centre for a date with the rival Toronto Maple Leafs. The Sabres trail the Maple Leafs and Ottawa Senators by a single point in the race for third place in the Northeast Division, and can leapfrog both teams with a victory and an Ottawa home loss to Florida. Buffalo has been outscored 12-4 in consecutive losses to the Pittsburgh Penguins and Senators, but has won 16 of its last 23 games against Northwest Division opponents. On Thursday, the Sabres will face a Toronto club that has just two victories in its last 10 home contests. The Maple Leafs come into Thursday with defeats in seven of their last nine games, including a 3-2 shootout loss to the Los Angeles Kings on Monday night.

TV: 7 p.m. ET, MSG-B, Leafs TV

ABOUT THE SABRES (16-14-3): Buffalo has been decimated by injuries in the early going, a development that has prevented the Sabres from meeting lofty preseason expectations. Among those on injured reserve are forwards Ville Leino (lower body), Nathan Gerbe (concussion) and Brad Boyes (right knee) as well as defenseman Tyler Myers (wrist). Keeping the Sabres afloat has been the solid play of Thomas Vanek, who is averaging better than a point per game and leads the club with 17 goals.

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ABOUT THE MAPLE LEAFS (16-3-4): The injury bug has also landed in Toronto, leading to another chance for Nazem Kadri to impress. The 21-year-old forward was recalled from the Maple Leafs’ American Hockey League affiliate after recording 22 points in as many games with the Marlies. Toronto’s first-round pick in 2009, Kadri has played just 33 games in the NHL as he continues to develop. A strong showing during his latest recall could result in a longer stay this time around.

OVERTIME:

1. The Sabres won the first game of the season series with a 5-4 triumph in Buffalo on Friday night. Toronto had won the previous three meetings going into that one.

2. Toronto’s Phil Kessel remains among the league scoring leaders but has slowed in December, recording just seven points through eight games.

3. Vanek, who torched Toronto for four points in the last meeting, has 22 goals and 19 assists in 39 career games against the Maple Leafs.

PREDICTION: Sabres 5, Maple Leafs 3.

PANTHERS AT SENATORS

The Florida Panthers have been playing an awful lot of close games recently, with three of their last four spanning past regulation. In Tuesday’s 2-1 home loss to the Phoenix Coyotes, Florida came within a missed penalty shot with 24.5 seconds left in the third period of forcing another extra session. The Panthers came out on the winning end of two of those overtime games and are 5-2-2 over the last nine. The next challenge is stopping the Ottawa Senators, who have defeated Florida in each of the last seven meetings. The host Senators were scuffling along for much of December before turning it on over the last 10 days with wins in three of their last four games. Ottawa has broken out offensively in its last two contests, totaling 10 goals in wins over the Pittsburgh Penguins and Buffalo Sabres.

TV: 7:30 p.m. ET, FSFL (Florida), RSNO (Ottawa)

ABOUT THE PANTHERS (18-10-6): Stephen Weiss was stopped on his penalty shot attempt by Phoenix’s Jason LaBarbera, robbing Florida of a chance at three straight wins. The Panthers have built a large lead in the Southeast Division thanks to strong play on the blue line and hot goaltending from Jose Theodore, who is carrying a strong 2.31 goals-against average. The statistic is his best since he was with the Montreal Canadiens in 2003-04.

ABOUT THE SENATORS (16-14-4): Kyle Turris made his Ottawa debut on Tuesday after being acquired from the Coyotes and assisted on one of Erik Condra’s two third-period goals. Turris won’t do much to help the Senators defense, which is allowing an NHL-worst 3.4 goals. G Craig Anderson made 22 saves in Tuesday’s win - the first time he had allowed less than two goals since Nov. 15.

OVERTIME:

1. Anderson played for Florida from 2006-09 and is 5-0-1 with a 2.13 goals-against average in seven games against his former team.

2. Theodore sat out the first meeting this season and in 8-14-2-2 with a 3.17 goals-against average in 27 career games against the Senators.

3. Florida’s Brian Campbell is second among NHL defensemen with 26 points - three goals.

PREDICTION: Panthers 4, Senators 2.

WILD AT OILERS

There may be 14 points between them in the Western Conference standings, but the Minnesota Wild and Edmonton Oilers are going through similar mid-season pains as they meet Thursday night at Rexall Place. The Wild have dropped a season-high five consecutive games, scoring just six goals over that span as they their grasp is slipping on the Northwest Division lead. Edmonton is at the bottom of the division ledger thanks to a 20-game stretch that ranks among the worst of any team in the league so far the season. The two teams have already seen plenty of each other in 2011; this marks the fifth meeting between the clubs. Minnesota has won three of the first four - all of those victories coming via shutout - and has beaten Edmonton in nine of the last 10 encounters. Edmonton comes in having lost four in a row and nine of its last 11.

TV: 9:30 p.m. ET, Fox Sports North, Fox Sports Wisconsin, Rogers Sportsnet Edmonton

ABOUT THE WILD (20-10-5): Minnesota head coach Mike Yeo isn’t overly worried about his team’s recent funk. “You go around the league and there’s some pretty good teams that have had some (stretches) like this,” he said. “Detroit’s had it, San Jose had it. Boston had it. We’re having it, too, now.” The Wild should receive a major boost up front with the expected return of forward Mikko Koivu, who missed the club’s previous three games with a leg injury.

ABOUT THE OILERS (14-16-3): Edmonton has won just six of its last 20 games - equaling the number of victories it racked up during its longest winning streak of the year - and the road to recovery isn’t going to get any easier. With the World Junior Hockey Championship set to begin Monday in Edmonton, the Oilers will embark on a grueling seven-game road trip that could determine whether the club remains in playoff contention or begins looking toward next season.

OVERTIME:

1. The teams meet for the final time Tuesday night in Minnesota, becoming the first division rivals to finish off their six-game head-to-head series this season.

2. Minnesota is a perfect 3-0 in extra-time games against Edmonton this season - and just 2-5 against the rest of the league.

PREDICTION: Oilers 3, Wild 1.

RED WINGS AT FLAMES

The Calgary Flames snapped a four-game losing streak on Tuesday with a victory over the Minnesota Wild, who are one of the top teams in the Western Conference. Their reward for the win? A date with another top team, the Detroit Red Wings. The Flames have finally begun to come around offensively, thanks mainly to star Jarome Iginla hitting his stride. The veteran captain scored the game winner on Tuesday and assisted on the first goal, pushing his points streak to four straight games. The Red Wings are making their way through western Canada and have split the first two games of their trip. Detroit was doubled up by Vancouver on Wednesday.

TV: 9:30 p.m. ET, TSN (Calgary), FSD (Detroit)

ABOUT THE RED WINGS (21-11-1): Wednesday marked the first time in seven games that Detroit failed to score at least three goals. The Red Wings put 40 shots on Roberto Luongo and failed to convert four power-play opportunities before dropping a 4-2 decision. Detroit continues to get offensive contributions from all of its lines, with LW Drew Miller breaking out for four goals in the last three games from the third line. Miller has joined with Danny Cleary and Darren Helm to total 13 points in the last three contests.

ABOUT THE FLAMES (15-15-4): Iginla had two multi-point games in October and November combined, but has shaken off the rust in December with four multi-point efforts. His current stretch marks the first time this season that Iginla has recorded points in four straight contests. He needs three goals to reach 500 for his career. Iginla will be gunning for the hat trick in front of the home crowd on Thursday because the Flames hit the road for seven straight after hosting Detroit.

OVERTIME:

1. Iginla has 54 points - 20 goals - in 58 career games against the Red Wings.

2. The teams have split two meetings this season, with Calgary earning a 4-1 win at Detroit on Nov. 3 and the Red Wings posting a 5-3 win at home on Nov. 23.

3. Detroit will likely turn to backup goaltender Ty Conklin, who has only made four starts this season, on the second night of a back-to-back Thursday.

PREDICTION: Red Wings 4, Flames 2.

ISLANDERS AT RANGERS

The New York Islanders are showing some mettle on the road. Coach Jack Capuano’s club will look to complete a sweep of a three-game road trip on Thursday when they visit Madison Square Garden to face the rival New York Rangers. Victories over the Northwest Division-leading Minnesota Wild and Winnipeg Jets have boosted the Islanders’ mark to 5-1-1 in their last seven road tilts. “We’ve got to keep playing like that on the road,” Islanders right wing P.A. Parenteau said. “(Winnipeg) was a tough building to play in. We have a lot of young players and I think we showed a lot of character (on Tuesday).” For what it’s worth, the Rangers have made Madison Square Garden a tough place to play this season. Coach John Tortorella’s club is 8-3-2 at home this campaign. Henrik Lundqvist continues to be the backbone of the Rangers’ success, and he has handled the Islanders during his career. The 29-year-old Swede has posted a 22-11-5 mark versus the Long Island residents.

TV: 7 p.m. ET, MSG, MSG+

ABOUT THE ISLANDERS (11-14-6): G Evgeni Nabokov stepped in for an injured Al Montoya and turned aside all 19 shots he faced in regulation and overtime on Tuesday. Montoya was run over by Winnipeg’s Evander Kane, who drew a penalty on the play. Capuano has not divulged the identity of Thursday’s starting netminder. Frans Nielsen converted his chances in the shootout against both the Wild and Jets to improve to 18-for-31 in his career. The 58.1 percent total is the best in NHL history with a minimum of 10 attempts.

ABOUT THE RANGERS (19-8-4): Marian Gaborik secured one milestone in his last game - and he’s on the verge of another. Gaborik collected a pair of goals and added an assist to record his 600th career NHL point during Tuesday’s 4-1 triumph over the Atlantic Division rival New Jersey Devils. “It’s a pretty nice milestone,” Gaborik said. “The most important thing is it helped us win.” With his next assist, he’ll hit 300 for his career.

OVERTIME:

1. Islanders D David Ullstrom left Tuesday’s game after crashing back-first into the boards in overtime. His status for Thursday is uncertain.

2. Making his NHL debut, Rangers D Stu Bickel recorded his first career point after assisting on Gaborik’s shorthanded goal.

PREDICTION: Rangers 3, Islanders 1

BLUE JACKETS AT PREDATORS

Trips to the Music City have routinely resulted in sour notes for the Columbus Blue Jackets. The Nashville Predators had dominated their Central Division rival at home, winning 17 straight games before the Blue Jackets scratched for a 4-3 overtime victory on Nov. 19. Columbus will attempt to make it two in a row when the clubs reconvene at Bridgestone Arena on Thursday. Like the majority of their season, the Blue Jackets haven’t been faring well of late - losing three in a row and eight of their last 11 (3-7-1). Making their task all the more difficult will be the return of Pekka Rinne, who sat out Tuesday’s 4-1 loss to the Washington Capitals. The NHL’s second star of the week, Rinne has won five straight overall - and is 4-0-1 in his last five versus the Blue Jackets. All told, the 29-year-old Finn boasts an impressive 11-4-1 career mark versus Columbus.

TV: 8 p.m. ET, FSOH

ABOUT THE BLUE JACKETS (9-20-4): Columbus has squandered third-period leads in its last two games. This season, that precise scenario has played itself out on five occasions, tops in the NHL. “The ghost keeps haunting us. I wish I had an answer, a way to fix it,” LW R.J. Umberger said. “We have to be better. I don’t know what it is, to be honest with you.” D James Wisniewski’s nightmarish season continued on Sunday when he was a minus-3 against the division rival St. Louis Blues. All told, he sits at minus-17 for the season.

ABOUT THE PREDATORS (17-12-4): Nashville saw its five-game winning streak come to an end on Tuesday. The margin of the final score is noteworthy, considering that it marked the first time in 11 games that it was more than one goal. Sergei Kostitsyn broke the shutout bid late in the third period, but that was all the offense that the Predators could muster. Kostitsyn’s tally was his first since Dec. 8 - ironically, also against Columbus.

OVERTIME:

1. Columbus G Curtis Sanford is dealing with back spasms, thus putting his availability in jeopardy for Thursday’s game. Steve Mason would get the call should Sanford continue to be hampered by the ailment.

2. Nashville captain Shea Weber has collected 17 points in his last 18 games.

PREDICTION: Predators 3, Blue Jackets 1.

DUCKS AT KINGS

The Los Angeles Kings are hoping a change in coaches will provide better results for them than it has for their southern Californian rivals. The Kings begin the Darryl Sutter era when they host the Anaheim Ducks on Thursday. Los Angeles is the fourth Western Conference team to employ Sutter, who also has coached Chicago, San Jose and Calgary. After a 2-2-0 road trip under interim coach John Stevens, the Kings return home, where they have lost three games in a row and five of seven. Anaheim, which is in the midst of a franchise-record 12-game road losing streak, has gone 2-6-1 since Bruce Boudreau took over behind the bench for Randy Carlyle. The Ducks, who are 0-3-0 on their five-game trek, have dropped 23 of their last 28 overall.

TV: 10 p.m. ET, FSN West

ABOUT THE DUCKS (9-19-5): Teemu Selanne continues to win the battle against Father Time as he leads Anaheim in scoring with 35 points. He enters Thursday’s contest against Los Angeles with a nine-game points streak, which is tied for the longest run in the league this season. With a point against the Kings, Selanne will eclipse the nine-game streak Chicago’s Patrick Sharp recorded from Nov. 29-Dec. 20. Jonas Hiller has surrendered four or more goals in seven of his last 11 contests.

ABOUT THE KINGS (15-14-4): Mike Richards continues to make progress in his return from a head injury suffered Dec. 1 against Florida. The 26-year-old has been participating in practice while wearing a no-contact jersey and also has taken part in shooting and passing drills. “It’s just a matter more or less of getting myself back in shape and feeling comfortable on the ice,” Richards said. “Obviously, I don’t want to come back too soon. You want to be sure about yourself. It’s a tough thing because you’re always thinking about it, so you never know. You want to be ready and when you do come back, you don’t want to be cautious when you step in there feeling confident.”

OVERTIME:

1. Anaheim is 2-0-1 in its last three visits to the Staples Center and has won four of six overall meetings with Los Angeles.

2. The Kings have won two of the three matchups with the Ducks this season.

PREDICTION: Kings 3, Ducks 1.

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 9:36AM EST

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Waiting in the wings, Nazem Kadri ready for Leafs’ return

JEFF BLAIR

Toronto - Globe and Mail Update

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 9:39AM EST

Nazem Kadri will make his return to the ice for the Toronto Maple Leafs in Thursday night's game against the Buffalo Sabres. (Photo by Claus Andersen/Getty Images) (Getty Images)

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This time, it feels different. When Nazem Kadri takes the ice with the Toronto Maple Leafs Thursday night against the Buffalo Sabres it will mark his fifth recall and it is surely time to let the former first-round draft pick have at it.

Enough tugging on his chain. Enough tough-love. Let’s see if Kadri, who has shown signs in the American Hockey League of figuring out how to use his elite offensive skills against men instead of juniors, can help supply the secondary scoring that the Leafs so dearly lack. If he can’t? Then it’s time to cut bait. The sports world is full of athletes who have needed a change of scenery – sports-writing and punditry is full of cliché nonsense, but the “change of scenery” line isn’t one of them – and it is time to make a call on Kadri.

- Thursday’s NHL previews

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The Leafs relationship with the seventh choice overall in 2009 has been bizarre, to say the least. Kadri’s first shot at the NHL was the classic example of spirit willing/body failing. He was simply too under-sized for the hurly-burly. No harm or surprise, there. Yet Kadri seemed to get under the skin of the organization, partly because of a tendency toward making grand pronouncements – exacerbated, frankly, by over-exposure of his father Sam in the media - partly because in some quarters his ethnic background was played up to the point where he was taken into “is this the new face of the NHL?” territory. Considering all the effort teams put into getting to know players ahead of the draft, it was almost as if the Leafs acquired Kadri, looked at each other and said: “Ok. Now what?”

It was hard to tell whether Kadri arrived with a true sense of entitlement or whether his personality was simply magnified because of the vacuum created by a dressing room and team in transition. Frankly, there was just so much to do and so much clearing out needed that it cannot have been the perfect environment for a young guy playing in his hometown. Head coach Ron Wilson was still very much in his “weeding out” phase; he didn’t know what to make of Kadri.

Those who followed him in the American Hockey League say Kadri’s elite offensive skills revealed themselves on a nightly basis this season, and Wilson is promising him “a good, long look.” The Leafs have a crying need for secondary scoring and have been on fumes in recent games after a surprising flirtation with first place. Kadri at least brings energy, a necessary first step toward finding that secondary scoring at a time when Nikolai Kulemin has lost the plot offensively and has a narrow focus on keeping up his defensive game until the goals come back. Wilson had Kadri playing on right wing alongside Tim Connolly and Clarke McArthur – Kadri was a centre in the AHL – but Wilson has also been quick to say that placing isn’t carved in stone, that Kadri could find himself playing centre or left wing.

Matching Kadri with Connolly is a good move. People still talk about the concept of “lines” in the NHL but in some ways it is the discovering and nurturing of forward pairings that is at least as important. It is not difficult to see Connolly and Kadri playing well off other – and if Connolly has a spare minute or two, he could certainly give his younger teammate a few pointers on the fickle nature of the NHL and the difficulty that awaits a player who defies expectations in a negative sense. He has first hand experience.

Are the Leafs show-casing Kadri with an eye toward a move after the Christmas trade freeze? Of course they are, in that if the playoff picture remains crowded and clouded it stands to reason that general manager Brian Burke will need to make a move, and it’s hard to imagine there are many untouchables on this team. But first and foremost, they are show-casing Kadri for themselves. It is time to see what they have in Nazem Kadri. No more up and down. Give the kid the keys to the car, and see what shape it’s in when he brings it home.

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 9:21AM EST

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More columns from Jeff Blair

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Ferrari to unveil 2012 car in early February

Fiorano, Italy - The Associated Press

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 9:22AM EST

Ferrari Formula One driver Fernando Alonso of Spain drives his new F150 car during the first test session of the year at the Ricardo Tormo racetrack in Cheste in this February 1, 2011 file photo. FILE:REUTERS/Sergio Perez/Files (REUTERS)

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Ferrari plans to introduce its completely revised 2012 car in early February.

Coming off a miserable season in which it won only one race, Ferrari President Luca Cordero di Montezemolo announced the team's plans late Wednesday at the automaker's Christmas party.

Fernando Alonso took Ferrari's only victory this year at the British Grand Prix in July. In the drivers' standings, Alonso placed fourth and teammate Felipe Massa was sixth.

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Montezemolo says that “this year we showed we know how to lose, but now that's enough. It's time to start winning again.”

In a September interview with The Associated Press, team principal Stefano Domenicali said Ferrari has been working “100 per cent” on next year's car since July.

“It's an innovative project in which you can note the detail,” Montezemolo said.

The first testing session of the new season is slated for the week of Feb. 6 in Jerez, Spain, while the opening race of 2012 is in Melbourne, Australia on March 18.

Ferrari finished third in this season's constructors' standings, trailing Red Bull and McLaren.

Montezemolo, meanwhile, did little to quell speculation that Massa will be replaced when his contract expires at the end of 2012.

The Brazilian hasn't won a race since a life-threatening accident at the Hungarian GP in 2009.

“He could continue,” Montezemolo said, then added that Ferrari “always looks around.

“We were not happy with him and he wasn't happy with himself,” Montezemolo said, according to the Gazzetta dello Sport. “But I'm confident that with a new car he'll be able to warm up the tires faster and be competitive again.”

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 9:10AM EST

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Griffin leads Clippers past Lakers

Los Angeles - The Associated Press

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 9:05AM EST

Los Angeles Clippers center DeAndre Jordan (6) pats Los Angeles Clippers power forward Blake Griffin (32) on the head during the fourth quarter of the game against the Los Angeles Lakers at the Staples Center. Clippers won 108-103. Jayne Kamin-Oncea-US PRESSWIRE (US PRESSWIRE)

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Blake Griffin scored nine of his 30 points in the final 5:18, and the Los Angeles Clippers wrapped up their two-game pre-season sweep of the Lakers with a 108-103 victory on Wednesday night.

Kobe Bryant did not dress for the Lakers because of a torn ligament in his right wrist. A MRI revealed the injury, which occurred Monday night when he was sent crashing to the floor by Clippers centre DeAndre Jordan on a layup early in the third quarter of a 114-95 loss.

- Lakers’ Bryant day-to-day with torn wrist ligament

Caron Butler and reserve guard Mo Williams each scored 16 points, and Jordan added 14 for the Clippers, who open their season Christmas night at Golden State. Chris Paul finished with 10 assists and seven points.

Andrew Bynum had 26 points and 11 rebounds for the Lakers, who also begin their schedule on Sunday against Chicago. Reserve Steve Blake had 20 points against his former team.

Bryant is wearing a soft cast on his shooting wrist, and his status for the season opener is up in the air. One thing is certain: The Lakers will start the regular season without Bynum, who had 41 points and 23 rebounds in the two preseason games.

Bynum was suspended without pay for the first five games because of a flagrant foul against Dallas' J.J. Barea in Game 4 of the Western Conference semifinals.

Derek Fisher had seven points and eight assists in 24 minutes.

The Clippers, who trailed by as many as 11 points, didn't take their first lead until Jordan converted an alley-oop pass from Paul on a fast break to put them ahead 59-58 with 8:54 left in the third quarter. By game's end, they had converted 20 Lakers turnovers into 30 points — while committing only six turnovers themselves.

The Clippers were leading 64-62 when Griffin was shoved to the floor from behind by former Clipper Matt Barnes as he tried to receive a pass from Paul with his back to the basket.

Barnes was assessed a flagrant foul, and the Clippers followed with an 11-0 run that extended their lead to 74-62 with 3:12 minutes left in the third.

The Lakers trailed by 13 early in the fourth before Troy Murphy capped a 14-4 run with a three-pointer that sliced the margin to 90-87 with 6:07 to play.

But Griffin responded with nine points in a 1:44 span to help put the game out of reach.

With the regular season reduced to 66 games, Staples Center's co-tenants will face each other three times instead of the usual four.

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 9:00AM EST

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Canucks eke one out against Wings

DAVID EBNER

VANCOUVER - Globe and Mail Update

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 10:30AM EST

Vancouver Canucks Chris Higgins (R) celebrates his goal against the Detroit Red Wings during the first period of their NHL game in Vancouver, British Columbia December 21, 2011. (REUTERS)

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Pure hockey. Detroit at Vancouver, Wednesday night, two of the league’s highest-scoring teams, two of the best goaltenders, fast moving, scrappy, fore-checking, teams that “play the right way,” to evoke the words of Canucks coach Alain Vigneault from earlier in the day.

There were even some near fights, including an aborted scrap between Detroit goaltender Jimmy Howard and Vancouver winger Jannik Hansen after defenceman Alex Edler scored short-handed early in the third to give Vancouver a 4-2 win.

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Howard was angry that Hansen’s push to score, unfairly shoved the goaltender back into the net, freeing Edler to crack the key goal. The goal stood, quick and decisive retribution for a roughing call on Ryan Kesler that was provoked by some thuggery from Detroit’s Niklas Kronwall. The Kronwall-Kesler confrontation itself nearly became a full-on fight, before the refs snuffed it and put Kesler in the box.

Vigneault thought Detroit pushed Hansen into Howard. Howard, who is feeling generally aggrieved of late, insisted it was at least half-purposeful by Hansen, who he said “steamrolled me.”

“Them’s the breaks,” Howard said, sitting in the Wings dressing room, surrounded by reporters, wearing a Wings toque, his very-soft voice a dissonance to his angered tone, a lingering upset after he nearly dropped the gloves for fisticuffs.

“I’m just sick and tired of being run over. It’s every single game. You know, some times you can’t help it, your D battles in front, things do happen, but I’m getting sick of it.”

While a physical game, it was mostly free of penalties as the Canucks extended their relentless ascent back toward the top of the NHL, topping the Red Wings in speedy scrap between two Stanley Cup contenders.

“It was hard fought,” Vigneault said after the game.

He noted that Detroit snatched some momentum with about five minutes left in the second, and kept it up in the third, but couldn’t catch the Canucks, largely due to fine play by Luongo.

The Wings, Vigneault said, “took it to us pretty hard [but] the goaltender stood his ground, as a great goaltender does.”

In the past month, the Canucks have gone on a 12-2-1 run, and with each win, the streak more closely echoes the 18-1-3 stretch from the same time in 2010-11, a glorious run that launched Vancouver to a Presidents’ Trophy.

The Wednesday night victory vaulted Vancouver to within one point of Northwest Division-leading Minnesota, and the Canucks have a game in hand on the Wild.

Vancouver will play host to Calgary Friday night and then Edmonton Monday, two lower-ranked teams the Canucks usually beat up on, two Alberta sides that need every point as the season’s halfway mark approaches.

The first frame The two teams spent the start of the first feeling each other out, like two prize fighters prodding and poking to suss out small openings to exploit. As the offences attempted to find their gear, both teams’ defences gave no quarter.

Kevin Bieksa popped a solid open-ice check on pesky Detroit left winger Tomas Holmstrom near centre ice a couple of minutes into the game, preventing Holmstrom from joining a rush, the type of disruption that hampered both high-scoring sides until …

Bang, bang. Vancouver popped two quick ones, 21 seconds apart. The first popper started when Bieksa neatly sprang a rushing Mason Raymond to a clear run at Detroit’s Howard. Raymond deked right, and as defender Ian White clambered in, pulled it back left and snapped a shot, the rebound bouncing right back to Chris Higgins, who buried the puck for his 10th of the year.

The agile Canucks second line wasted no time piling on. Hansen, on the boards in the neutral zone after the draw at centre, slid a perfect pass to a bolting Cody Hodgson, who flew in with a clear look at Howard. Hodgson ripped a slapper past Howard’s right side, barely a centimetre to spare.

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Detroit responded less than four minutes later, as former Canuck Todd Bertuzzi bashed one in on Roberto Luongo, but Vancouver blasted back when Alex Burrows deftly, barely looking, tipped a Daniel Sedin shot past Howard.

The middle 20 Vancouver was outshot 16-11 in the second, with most of Detroit’s peppering coming later in the frame, but the shot count belies the fact the Canucks controlled the period, even if the team yielded the only goal, a notch that closed the two-goal lead to one.

The Canucks, never heralded for any physicality, had a banging good time to control the play, fore-checking, keeping the pressure on at most times, with everyone involved, from Henrik Sedin on the first line to strong efforts by the fourth line. The hustling fourth-liners on Wednesday night included 5-foot-9 Andrew Ebbett, a 28-year-old from Vernon, B.C., signed as a free agent in the summer. Playing in only his sixth game of the year, he had a team-high three shots after two.

The Detroit goal, coming near the end of the second, was the first time the Wings were really able to lay it on Vancouver, an effort almost singlehandedly due to centre Darren Helm’s push. His eventual one-timer on a pass from Danny Cleary was tipped in by Drew Miller, to Luongo’s high glove side, Miller’s seventh of the year.

The third period Detroit came out with far more game than it showed in the second, carrying some momentum from the end of the middle frame. It looked as if the Wings had an ideal chance to tie it, with the power play on Kesler’s questionable roughing penalty, but it was Vancouver that turned the tide by making it 4-2 on Edler’s sixth of the year, a big one to push the 25-year-old back into the NHL’s top quartet of scoring defencemen.

Detroit piled on particularly hard as the minutes ticked away towards 60 and urgency increased. With less than five minutes to go, Luongo made a series of big, big snatches, including his right pads down on the ice for a near goal from Helm, and then a high glove save on a zinger of a backhander centre and Wings leading scorer Pavel Datsyuk.

Though Vancouver was on the whole stronger on Wednesday night, Detroit did outshoot the home team 40-25. In the third it was 16-4 Detroit on shots.

Raymond, who has hit the ice with ferocity after his broken back from the June Cup final healed, paid tribute after the game to Luongo: “He makes those saves look easy.”

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 12:36AM EST

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Sharks' Havlat to miss up to 8 weeks with a partial tendon tear

San Jose, Calif. - The Canadian Press

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 10:20AM EST

Minnesota Wild right wing Martin Havlat, of the Czech Repulbic, celebrates a goal against the Vancouver Canucks in the second period of an NHL hockey game in St. Paul, Minn., Sunday, Jan. 16, 2011. The Wild won 4-0. (AP Photo/Andy King)

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The San Jose Sharks haven’t suffered nearly the rash of injuries that have hit other teams early on, but the news that Martin Havlat will be out for an extended period after needing surgery for a partially torn hamstring has given the team pause for thought.

Havlat joins defencemen Douglas Murray and Jim Vandermeer on injured reserve, the first time this season San Jose has had multiple regulars out of action for an extended period. The Sharks responded well on Wednesday -- setting a franchise record for the five fastest goals at the outset of a game (14:47) in a 7-2 victory over Tampa Bay -- but that’s only a snapshot in what figures to be a test for the next stretch of the season. The Sharks’ next game is at home Friday against Los Angeles.

“You take a look at teams like Pittsburgh and Minnesota and what they have done,” Sharks general manager Doug Wilson said in reference to teams who have been hit hard by injuries but have won nonetheless. “Other players get opportunities -- Benn Ferriero comes up -- and we’ve got some other players in Worcester who have played well. That’s what you deal with.”

While Havlat would appear to be a big loss on paper, the fact is he has hardly been a factor on the ice, so the Sharks can’t whine too much. Havlat got a late start when offseason shoulder surgery prevented him from appearing in the preseason or in any of the team’s first four games. Once in the lineup, Havlat contributed eight points in his first eight games on the strength of seven assists, but he tailed off badly to score only four points (all assists) over his next 16 games.

Havlat had only his second goal of the season and two more assists in his last two games before falling over the boards on Saturday and injuring himself in bizarre fashion.

“I think the good news is, unlike injuries to other top-plight players in this league, their players are out for a long time not knowing when they will come back,” Wilson said. “This is definitive, we know what it is. We know he will be back to help during the stretch run, so that’s how we’ll deal with it.”

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 12:29AM EST

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Magic best Heat in preseason finale

Kyle Hightower

ORLANDO, Fla. - The Associated Press

Last updated Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 12:27AM EST

Dwight Howard of the Orlando Magic argues a call during a preseason game against the Miami Heat at Amway Center on December 21, 2011 in Orlando, Florida. (Getty Images)

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The countdown to the NBA regular season is now in its final stages for the Miami Heat and Orlando Magic.

Though it's clear after their final pre-season matchup Wednesday night that both teams could use a few extra days to prepare for their Christmas Day openers.

The Magic showed some late-game toughness to secure a 104-100 victory on Wednesday night, but needed a furious comeback to erase a 14-point halftime deficit. The Heat played well early before slowing in a forgettable second half.

“I don't think it was that we didn't show life (early), we didn't make shots,” Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said. “...I thought we had good life in the second half.”

Glen Davis, who had 13 points in the third quarter to ignite the comeback, finished with 18 points, and Dwight Howard and Jason Richardson each added 15 for the Magic.

“It felt good,” Davis said. “This is my new home, to come here and kind of show everybody what I can do — because there's a question mark.”

Orlando also got a late lift from its reserves to secure the win, including strong fourth-quarter efforts by veteran Larry Hughes and rookie Justin Harper.

LeBron James had 27 points and Dwyane Wade added 21 for the Heat. Reserve Norris Cole chipped in 11 points.

Both teams open the regular season as part of the NBA's five-game Christmas Day schedule. Miami travels to defending champion Dallas for a finals rematch and Oklahoma City hosts the Magic.

“It's upon us,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “We have about three days to get ready ... Now it's all about getting healthy and ready for Sunday.”

The Magic played without Hedo Turkoglu, who sat with a bruised left hip. The Heat also were tender, with Mike Miller (hernia), Shane Battier (quadriceps), Eddy Curry (hip) and Eddie House (knee) all resting.

Whether it was just the injury bug or something else, the rust definitely showed for both sides early on.

James badly missed on a pair of free throws in the opening minutes, including an air ball on one attempt.

Both James and his teammates were able to settle down, however, with James and Wade each scoring to push the lead to as many as 23 en route to the halftime advantage.

Orlando missed its first 12 shots from the field overall and its first 13 three-point attempts. The Magic regrouped to make 8 of its final 14 shots from beyond the arc.

The matchup of division rivals did have a small dustup late in the third quarter when Richardson was called for a technical after he was caught delivering a shoulder into James' chest. The contact came after the pair collided while running down the court.

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 12:27AM EST

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Drive

- Honda or Bimmer? Dull or dynamic?

- Which crossover does Canada love the most?

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Honda or Bimmer? Dull or dynamic?

JEREMY CATO AND MICHAEL VAUGHAN

Last updated Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011 2:59PM EST

2008 Honda Accord EX-L Sedan (Honda)

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Gentlemen: I’ve always owned a Honda and love the brand. I keep my vehicles long-term and I am having great difficulty deciding on a new car: 2008 Honda Accord EX-L V6 Navigation or 2008 BMW 323i Sport Package. The Accord will be a perfect size for the family, economical and reliable. On the other hand, the BMW will put a smile on my face every time I drive it as I have always wanted one and feel that I have worked hard for one. Friends have advised against the iDrive as it makes the car heavier and takes away from the BMW driving experience. – Asad in Calgary

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Cato: Work with me on this metaphor, Asad. The world is made up of two kinds of people: Hondas and BMWs.

That is, Hondas are practical people – sensible and reliable and hard-working and, sadly, a little dull.

BMWs? I am talking about people who are dynamic, aggressive, creative risk-takers. All this can be slightly off-putting – like that BMW driver who cut me off yesterday.

What are you, Asad? A Honda or a BMW?

Vaughan: Cato, you’re so full of Dr. Phil nonsense…

Cato: Look, Asad wants the BMW; you can feel it in his letter. He’s wanted that Bimmer all his life, just like he wishes he’d kissed Mary Lou at that high school dance. Mary Lou is long gone, but he’s hoping we’ll hit him with a stamp of approval for that German sedan he’s earned. Regardless of whether it’s perfect for the family, that’s what he wants.

Vaughan: You need therapy. If you weren’t so impressed with your own psycho-babble perhaps you would have thought of the Subaru Legacy.

Cato: Ah, ha. So you’ve found a middle ground, a place that straddles BMW and Honda – Subaru! I’ll buy that. The world has people we’ll call Subarus. They are those who perform and have substance, but who are also willing to break away from the pack, to shun the tried and true, the ordinary.

Vaughan: Enough!!!

But let me say this. I don’t like recommending used cars. There are good and bad ones and you can’t tell by looking at them. It could be some patched-up accident wreck. Who knows? I’ve bought lots of used cars, but I’ve inspected them carefully. We can’t do that in a letter.

Cato: For once I agree, but let’s make an exception for Asad. The one caveat: he must get a professional inspection before he signs on the dotted line.

And if he’s shopping for a slightly used car, he should compare apples to apples at least in terms of equipment levels.

These three were all priced about the same in 2008: $34,990 for the Accord, $35,900 for the 323i and $35,395 for the Legacy 2.5i Limited.

But to get them equipped to the same level, the BMW back then required $3,250 in optional equipment – from an auto-dimming mirror, to carpeted floor mats, heated seats and a power sunroof.

Plus, both the Legacy and the Accord came with a standard automatic transmission – four-speed in the Subaru, five-speed in the Honda – while the BMW had a six-speed manual as standard.

Vaughan: Do your due dilly, Asad.

Cato: Quality-wise, the Accord should be bullet-proof and it’s very safe, too. The 268-horsepower V-8 is powerful and smooth, and the ride quality is solid and quiet. Asad, this is a front-drive car, which means the Accord is the weakest dynamically of these three – the Bimmer being rear-drive, the Legacy all-wheel drive.

Vaughan: The 323’s legendary inline-six has 200 hp and that manual gearbox is a gem. They call them drivers’ cars for a reason – a Bimmer has a feel all of its own.

Cato: Then there’s the Legacy. Asad, this car might be even more reliable than the Honda, if you believe the research, and the crash test scores are brilliant.

The AWD system is something you’ll value during Calgary winters, Chinooks or otherwise. The 170-horsepower boxer or horizontally opposed four-banger is a bit anemic, but what the car lacks in raw oomph it makes up for in agility.

The trick will be to find one. The used-car market is not bursting at the seams with old Subarus, or even nearly new ones.

Vaughan: Which means you’ll pay a price. Canadian Black Books says the average asking price for a 2008 323i in Canada is $17,900 and, in a shocker, the average asking price for the sort of Honda Accord you want is $20,250.

Cato: And look what lands between them – Legacy Limited at $18,075. I am surprised by the resale value of the BMW. BMW Canada has been discounting the 3-Series for years and this is what comes of that sort of thing.

Asad, my advice is to get the Bimmer. It has the most affordable price and this is the car with which you’ve wanted to dance for years.

Vaughan: Put that smile on your face, Asad. Get a Bimmer – but please, please get it inspected by a BMW mechanic who you can trust. If there’s no inspection, there’s no deal.

*****

HOW THEY COMPARE

2008 Honda Accord EX-L V6

2008 BMW 323i

2008 Subaru Legacy 2.5i Limited

Wheelbase (mm)

2800

2645

2670

Length (mm)

4935

4415

4700

Width (mm)

1846

1740

1730

Height (mm)

1476

1465

1425

Engine

3.5-litre V-6

2.5-litre six-cylinder

2.5-litre H-4

Output (horsepower/torque)

268/248 lb-ft

200/180 lb-ft

170/170 lb-ft

Drive system

front-wheel drive

rear-wheel drive

all-wheel drive

Transmission

five-speed automatic

six-speed manual

four-speed automatic

Curb weight (kg)

1637

1485

1493

Fuel economy (litres/100 km)

11.0 city/6.7 highway

11.1 city/6.9 highway

10.4 city/7.5 highway

Cdn. Black Book average asking price

$20,250

$17,900

$18,075

Original Price

$34,900

$35,900

$35,395

Source: car manufacturers

Jeremy Cato and Michael Vaughan are co-hosts of Car/Business, which appears Fridays at 8 p.m. on Business News Network and Saturdays at 11:30 a.m. on CTV.

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 7:00AM EST

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Which crossover does Canada love the most?

JEREMY CATO

Last updated Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011 5:38PM EST

Globe Drive (Honda)

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Buyers have become smitten with compact crossover wagons and the love affair is steamiest of all with the Honda CR-V.

The CR-V has outsold every other SUV in North America since 2007; since 1997 more than 260,000 Canadians have bought into this romance with what is essentially a tall station wagon. The bigger picture? Honda has sold more than five million CR-Vs around the world, and today buyers can get one in 160 countries.

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Canadians will buy about 25,000 CR-Vs this year and that’s an astonishing achievement given the fierce competition. You’ll find more than a dozen completely capable compact SUVs for sale in Canada, with one starting for less than $18,000 (Jeep Patriot). Just about everyone has sells a compact SUV with all-wheel-drive and front-wheel-drive and eight are Top Safety Picks of the U.S. Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

“For us, the CR-V is very, very important,” says Honda Canada executive vice-president Jerry Chenkin. “The CR-V is our second-largest selling model after the Civic.”

Oh, the romance of it all. Since 2008, sales of compact SUVs are up 46 per cent and nearly one in three lights trucks sold in Canada is a compact SUV. That’s huge. Truth is, this sort of rig is steadily replacing the intermediate sedan and the minivan as the family and fleet vehicle of choice.

Sedan and minivan buyers, says auto analyst Dennis DesRosiers, “the ones seeking space and everyday capability – are now finding a good mix of their preferred qualities in crossovers of various stripes.” Only compact cars are more popular with Canadians.

It seems all of Honda’s rivals are envious of the CR-V’s success. In fairness, Toyota, with the RAV4, arrived on the scene about the same time as CR-V and has been about as successful, while others such as the Ford Escape have their own loyal and well-formed following of admirers.

CR-V owners have had that warm and fuzzy feeling for a number of reasons – fuel economy, the useful size, available AWD – but the qualities that are most attractive have been quality and safety. The CR-V is first among its kind in the latest J.D. Power and Associates long-term Vehicle Dependability Study and it’s a Top Safety Pick, too. (The RAV4 and Subaru Forester were runners-up in the VDS and the Forester is also a Top Pick, though not the RAV.)

Naturally, there is plenty of action in this corner of the market, too. The CR-V for 2012 is all-new and will go on sale in late January, as will Mazda’s all-new 2013 CX-5. Ford has a completely reinvented Escape coming in the springtime, as well.

Others? Well, the Kia Sportage and Hyundai Tucson are relatively new entries and between them offer quite a range of four-cylinder engines, including Kia’s monster turbocharged four in the sportiest version (260 horsepower).

General Motors’ GMC Terrain and Chevrolet Equinox have been huge successes and they’re made in Canada. That sort of thing gets noticed. Even BMW’s Mini brand has gotten into the act. The Mini Cooper Countryman has base pricing ($26,450-$32,400) in line with all the mainstream rides in play here.

In every case, the appeal is obvious enough. Compact crossovers are affordable, roomy enough to be highly useful for all sorts of owners – including families – the wide range of four-bangers assures decent fuel economy and AWD has strong appeal for those nervous about winter driving.

In terms of size, the 2012 Honda CR-V is closest to the RAV4 and the upcoming 2013 Mazda CX-5. The Hyundai Tucson, Countryman and Sportage are a little smaller, and the Equinox and Terrain are a little bigger. Only the RAV and the Escape (at present) are sold with an available V-6.

Honda officials say the V-6 engine is losing its appeal in this segment and Ford for one has said it will phase out the V-6 with the next Escape. Indeed, in 2006, V-6 engines accounted for 55 per cent of compact SUV sales; now it’s 33 per cent.

The best of them all? Is it the CR-V? The final verdict will come next year when the CX-5 and the new Escape hit showrooms. There’s no question though that the remade CR-V is an improvement, though.

Published on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011 6:00AM EST

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Drivers changing oil too often, California warns

MICHAEL BETTENCOURT

Last updated Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011 10:43PM EST

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The state of California has launched a publicity campaign against oil changes at about every 3,000 miles (5,000 km) as unnecessary, hoping to move consumers away from the old standard that many still follow.

The state is imploring owners to follow their manufacturer-recommended oil change intervals, which are most often closer to 7,500-10,000 miles (12,070-16,093 km), the Los Angeles Times reported recently.

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The state has just launched a handy website, checkyournumber.org, that lists the recommended oil change intervals for model year 2000 and newer vehicles. It should be noted that some auto makers recommend a more frequent “severe” maintenance schedule for Canadian vehicles, one that may not be the same as that listed for Californians.

The eco-conscious state argues that slashing oil change intervals would not only save consumers time and hassle without affecting the longevity or reliability of the vehicles, but it would also help the environment by preventing the disposal of millions of litres of oil before its useful life expired.

Mercedes unveils new SL roadster

Mercedes-Benz has revealed photos and details of its upcoming all-new SL roadster, which will publicly debut at January’s Detroit auto show; its main new innovations include wipers that don’t splash or obscure the driver’s view when spraying water, as well as front-mounted subwoofers integrated into the frame that promise a roomier interior and concert hall sound, top up or down.

The new SL also pulls from a variety of other technologies first seen on other Benz models, such as the hardtop folding roof that’s available on this luxurious two-seater in either body colour, permanent glass with sunshade, or Benz’s Magic Sky roof that turns from clear to darkened at the touch of a button.

There’s an automatic parking feature available, the wonderful AirScarf system of neck-height heat vents incorporated into the seats, as well as a system that opens the trunk when you wave your foot under the rear bumper. But unlike similar systems from other manufacturers, it can also close the trunk automatically.

All new-generation SLs will feature a body structure made up largely of lightweight aluminum, outside of safety components such as reinforced steel in the A-pillars for rollover protection. Even with the addition of more convenience items that Mercedes admits gives back some of the weight gains that its engineers had carved out of the structure, the SL 500 weighs 125 kg less than the current SL 550.

A smaller 4.7-litre V-8 also helps shave some weight and up to 22 per cent in fuel consumption, compared to its 5.5-litre predecessor, while making notably more horsepower (435 versus 382) and torque (516 lb-ft versus 391).

Wiper-based spray systems have been available before, but these high-tech wipers spray water directly from either side of the blade arm, depending on its direction of travel, which keeps the water down and out of the cockpit, even at high speeds, says Mercedes.

Saab officially pulls the plug

After 64 years of perpetually “quirky” products, Saab officially filed for bankruptcy this week, suspending warranty claims in both Canada and the United States.

The Dutch-owned Swedish Automobile company and its Swedish receiver will now attempt to liquidate the firm’s assets to sort out what its creditors will receive, after various attempts to restart its Trolhattan plant through Chinese investments in the company were vetoed by former owner GM, which still provides much of the technology for its vehicles to Saab.

One of the most vociferous boosters through Saab’s various financial trying times over the past few years has been Chris Budd of Budd’s Saab in Oakville, Ont., the brand’s first dealership in Canada. Like everyone involved in the matter, Budd is not quite sure what will transpire in the weeks and months ahead, outside of the suspended warranty claims. But even that he believes may yet become flexible.

Continue Reading

“My feeling is that warranties, although suspended at the moment, will find a solution, if not on all the cars, at least the cars that were built when GM owned the company – this is just my own conjecture, we will see what transpires.”

Versa sedan and Smart vie for cheapest car title

Nissan has added a discount on its recently introduced Versa sedan to keep an unlikely challenger to the least expensive new car title at bay: the Smart fortwo.

From now to the end of the year, Smart is offering a sizable $2,700 discount on the tiny city car, which brings the price down to $11,990 for 2011 models. (The 2012 base MSRP is $14,350.)

That discounted price would have been right at the door of the new-for-2012 Versa sedan’s $11,798 base asking price, and perhaps slightly under the Versa’s price after including the Nissan’s $1,467 freight cost. Since the Versa sedan’s launch this summer, Nissan has added a $500 factory sweetener to the car, which should keep it as the least expensive new vehicle sold in Canada for the rest of the year, and likely longer.

These prices may not have the same “wow factor” as Hyundai’s $9,995 stripper Accent three-door of a few years back, but considering that the fortwo is sold by Mercedes-Benz and built in France, it’s far from the usual bargain-basement battler. As always, dealers may sell for less, but even incentive-happy Chrysler only has $500 in factory cash off its outgoing Dodge Caliber hatchback.

About $100 for each hp

The hot 2012 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 will start at $58,000 in Canada, or about $100 for each of its 580 stampeding horses, when it arrives in the spring.

General Motors says its time in the benchmark 0-60 mile per hour (96 km/h) run is 3.9 seconds – entry into the three-second club is a rare feat for any vehicle that doesn’t cost six figures.

GM is obviously enjoying its supercar-ego-crushing numbers, comparing it to vehicles like the $228,000 Audi R8 GT’s 560 hp, with no mention of its crosstown Ford rival’s Mustang. That could be because Ford has already announced that its rival Shelby GT500 will crest the 650-hp mark when it hits the market later next year as a 2013 model.

Published on Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011 4:00PM EST

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- Old Age Security for baby boomers heads toward $100-billion a year

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- Mayor’s office destroys records of business card purchase

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Auto insurers in Europe may use black box technology to set rates

MYLES NELIGAN

LONDON - Reuters

Last updated Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011 10:22AM EST

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Motor insurers seeking to get around a European ban on charging male drivers more than women are turning to innovative black box technology that could trigger an upheaval in the way car insurance is sold.

Britain’s biggest motor insurer, Royal Bank of Scotland, is among those testing the technology, which allows insurers to monitor customers through devices in their cars, and charge according to how riskily they drive.

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Insurers, previously deterred by the high cost of so-called telematics insurance, now see it as their best hope for avoiding price hikes that could drive some customers away once the ban comes into force next year.

“There’s a renewed interest, not least because of the gender directive,” said James Rakow, insurance partner at consultants Deloitte.

“Most definitely, this second wave of interest seems to have got a foothold in the market.”

Women, who currently pay less for car insurance than men because they are statistically less likely to crash, face an 11 per cent price increase once the ban takes effect, according to research commissioned by Germany’s GDV insurers’ lobby.

Insurers fear that could price some women drivers out of the market altogether, sapping revenues. Using telematics to set premiums according to customers’ risk profiles allows the industry to keep offering lower prices to most women while staying on the right side of the law.

Insurers’ renewed interest in the technology also reflects a drop in its cost, said Richard King, chief executive of Ingenie, a British start-up backed by ex-England footballer Gary Lineker that uses telematics to offer affordable cover to young drivers.

“The technology has got an awful lot cheaper and a lot more sophisticated. I think it reached its tipping point last year,” King said.

High overheads forced Aviva, Britain’s second-biggest insurer, to abandon Europe’s first major trial with telematics insurance in 2009. But the experiment achieved a 27 per cent cut in premiums while reducing claims by almost a third, and Aviva said it “continues to evaluate the technology.”

Telematics is gaining ground worldwide, with insurers accounting for 60 per cent of the U.S. market offering some form of the technology, as are big European players including Allianz and Axa, according to risk management consultant Towers Watson.

SLOW DOWN

But analysts say British insurers are leading the way in using telematics to build up a complete picture of driver behaviour, in contrast to simpler applications elsewhere that seek to curb claims by enforcing limits on single risk factors such as speed.

The British insurance industry hopes this will over time allow it to actively persuade customers to drive more safely by offering lower premiums as a reward, triggering a virtuous circle of falling claims.

The European Union’s “eCall” initiative, which aims to ensure that by 2015 car makers fit vehicles with devices that automatically dial for help in the event of a crash, could give telematics insurance a decisive boost by allowing it to piggy-back on a ready-made technological infrastructure.

However, take-up of telematics technology by the mass insurance market could have profound consequences, analysts warn.

The disappearance of standardized pricing would likely challenge so-called aggregator websites such as Admiral’s Confused.com, which allow consumers to compare quotes across the market, and have become one of the biggest sales channels for motor insurance in the UK.

“Once you get to a situation where it’s difficult to compare tariffs simply, it’s going to be difficult for anybody doing like-for-like comparisons,” said Deloitte’s Rakow.

By making explicit the connection between safe driving and cheaper insurance, telematics could also encourage car makers to offer cheap coverage as an incentive to buy vehicles fitted with extra safety features, encroaching on insurers’ territory.

“In that circumstance the insurer is demoted to a wholesaler and the car maker becomes the broker,” said Tony Lovick, a Towers Watson consultant and former Aviva executive.

“If I was an insurer I’d be thinking about that and wondering how I could immunize myself against more market upheaval.”

Insurers must stop charging men and women different prices from December next year, the European Court of Justice said in March after ruling that the practice “constitutes discrimination.”

Published on Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2011 10:10PM EST

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Will a bottle of sealant help him avoid a $2000 truck repair?

ROB MACGREGOR

Last updated Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2011 4:30PM EST

Ford F-150's new 5.0-litre V8 for 2011 (Ford)

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Dear Rob:

I was told at the repair shop that my truck’s 4.6 litre V-8 engine has a blown head gasket and that it will cost well over $2,000 to fix it, as the cab has to be removed in order to get the heads off.

I saw an ad recently that claims a product known as Bar’s Leak will seal blown head gaskets. I suppose the size of the leak is a major consideration with respect to the efficacy of the product, but are you familiar with this product and is it worth trying?

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Thanks, Barry

Although it’s true that Bar’s Leak is a product designed to seal cooling system leaks, asking it to control coolant leaking across a combustion chamber is like trying use your hand to stop the fizzing from a two-litre bottle of soda. In other words, Bar’s Leak wasn’t created to seal combustion pressures – no matter how small the rupture in the head gasket.

The bad news is that you will have to have the offending gasket replaced and yes, Ford tucked the engine so far back in the chassis of their F-series trucks that the cab must be lifted off to gain access to the cylinder heads. But the good news is that most Ford dealer shops have this process down to an art so don’t be afraid of this job. As a matter of fact, removing the cab provides so much access that the quality of the repair is often better than a similar repair on a vehicle that does not have the ability to remove the body.

Speaking from experience, reaching over the fenders and radiator support to remove and replace V8 cylinder heads is an extremely awkward and frustrating job. Not having full and clear access to the block surfaces to clean the old baked on head gasket doesn’t guarantee a perfect repair.

Sometimes mechanics wish they were born with eyes at the ends of their fingers because with this type of job, the only way to “see” the work is to feel along with fingers.

Sorry it’s not the answer you were looking for Barry.

Send your automotive maintenance and repair questions to Globe Drive experts at globedrive@globeandmail.com

Published on Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2011 4:26PM EST

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Competitive market forces Honda to revamp new Civic

TOM KRISHER

ROMULUS, Mich. - The Associated Press

Last updated Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2011 4:31PM EST

2012 Honda Civic Si Sedan (Wieck)

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Honda is scrambling to revamp its Civic just eight months after a new version hit showrooms, and critics say it's an admission that the compact car fell short in quality and handling.

The revamp, to come by the end of next year, is unprecedented because new models aren't usually overhauled for at least three years. Honda executives say they’re simply trying to stay ahead in an increasingly competitive small-car market.

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The new version of the Civic started arriving at dealerships April 20 and was panned by critics. Consumer Reports magazine said it was less agile than its predecessor, and its interior quality was worse. The magazine refused to give the Civic its coveted “Recommended Buy” rating, saying that the braking distances were long and it suffered from a choppy ride.

The old Civic, which came out in 2005, was known for its sporty driving, high-quality interiors, lack of noise and excellent braking, says David Champion, senior director of auto testing for Consumer Reports.

“The new one seems to have fallen apart in those areas,” says Champion, who thinks that Honda cut costs with the 2012 version.

Honda has told dealers a reworked Civic will arrive before the end of 2012.

American Honda President Tetsuo Iwamura said Tuesday that the Civic is still the leader in compact cars. Honda will improve the Civic’s drivability, but Iwamura stopped short of saying exactly what the company will do to the rest of the car.

“It's about how do we get two or three laps ahead of the competition,” said American Honda Executive Vice President John Mendel.

In the past two years, the usual compact-car race between Honda and Toyota has become a free-for-all that includes high-quality entries from Chevrolet, Ford and Hyundai. Small cars from those companies threaten the Civic, a perennial top seller.

The Civic for years has battled with the Toyota Corolla as the top-selling compact in the U.S., but this year both cars were thrown off kilter by the March earthquake and tsunami that disrupted parts production in Japan. Honda production only recently returned to normal, and Mendel doesn't expect dealers to be fully restocked until March.

At the same time, the competition was rolling out new models like the Chevrolet Cruze, Hyundai Elantra and Ford Focus. During the summer months the Cruze was the top-seller.

All auto makers have been forced to improve their compacts because they need to sell more of them in order to meet stricter government fuel economy regulations, Mendel said. Car makers have agreed to double the average fuel economy of the fleets they sell to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025.

The competition will be good for consumers because car makers will offer better small cars and could discount them as the competition heats up, Mendel said. But he said Honda would continue to show restraint on discounts, selling its products based on their value rather than price.

Published on Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2011 3:12PM EST

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Table of Contents

Top National Stories

Video: Reward posted for brazen bank robber

Prairie flooding tops Environment Canada’s list for 2011’s wild weather stories

Convention exclusivity hinders Liberal rebuilding effort

Woman killed after truck tire smashes into her car on Ontario highway

Ontario student placed on in-school suspension over 'I Love Boobies' bracelet

Jack Layton named 2011's Newsmaker of the Year

Mayor’s office destroys records of business card purchase

Something for everyone on the list

Is Stephen Harper the Dear Leader in disguise?

Only radical change will rebuild trust in the RCMP

Ontario’s debt, Canada’s woes

Baby, it’s warm inside as Justin Bieber comes home for the holidays

Canucks eke one out against Wings

Mastermind in Rengel killing seeks to avoid adult prison

In Pictures: Justin Bieber takes T.O.

Business

Thomson Reuters pulls sale of health care unit

Italy’s austerity budget gets final approval

Strikes over austerity hit Europe holiday travel

Rob Carrick's Reader: The big year ahead

U.S. GDP: Good news, bad news

U.S. growth slower than thought

European belt tightening hits iPhone 4S sales

Consumer confidence hits 2 1/2 year low

Premarket: Smart rally in Europe

Ottawa’s health plan: When money misses the point

Japan cuts economic growth forecasts

U.K. economic growth revised up to 0.6%

Supreme Court rejects Ottawa's bid for national securities regulator

Be a leader Warren Buffett would invest in

Canada’s venture-capital taps slow to trickle

Commentary

Blogs

Facts & Arguments

It’s the shortest day of the year. Time to celebrate

Christmas is a battle of paddles at our house

From smiling to seaweed, tips for staying healthy

I have big shoes to fill this Hanukkah

Technology

Chinese microbloggers mock latest round of state controls

European belt tightening hits iPhone 4S sales

Elpida/Nanya: memory loss

Yahoo to weigh deals for Asian assets

Oracle’s glitch sinks tech shares

Video: Russia sends multinational crew to ISS

Later nerds: Microsoft to pull out of CES tech show after 2012

Video: Google celebrates 10 years in Canada

The top 25 video games of 2011

The top 25 video games of 2011 in pictures

RIM’s suitors wary of declining U.S. sales

EA’s big bet: Star Wars MMO builds high expectations

Video: More takeover speculation for RIM

China passes U.S. as top patent filer in 2011

Astronauts head for space station aboard the Soyuz

Investing

Thomson Reuters pulls sale of health care unit

Today’s small-cap stocks to watch

Italy’s austerity budget gets final approval

Strikes over austerity hit Europe holiday travel

Rob Carrick's Reader: The big year ahead

U.S. GDP: Good news, bad news

U.S. growth slower than thought

Three behaviors that can affect your investment performance

European belt tightening hits iPhone 4S sales

Consumer confidence hits 2 1/2 year low

Japan cuts economic growth forecasts

U.K. economic growth revised up to 0.6%

Supreme Court rejects Ottawa's bid for national securities regulator

Be a leader Warren Buffett would invest in

Top Polical Stories

Convention exclusivity hinders Liberal rebuilding effort

Ottawa’s health plan: When money misses the point

Harper's plans for federation hinge on securities-regulator ruling

Supreme Court rejects Ottawa's bid for national securities regulator

Jack Layton named 2011's Newsmaker of the Year

Something for everyone on the list

Is Stephen Harper the Dear Leader in disguise?

Only radical change will rebuild trust in the RCMP

Ontario’s debt, Canada’s woes

Finance Department presses for new powers to catch money launderers

Canada adding to pressure on ex-Tunisian leader’s family

Public’s appetite for efficient health care only goes so far

Old Age Security for baby boomers heads toward $100-billion a year

RIM needs to give corporate governance a chance

Officer’s death raises questions about equipment in Arctic rescue

Arts

Video: Editor fired over Rihanna racial slur

Baby, it’s warm inside as Justin Bieber comes home for the holidays

Video: Toronto catches Bieber fever

HBO wrings out a few series as it prepares to ring in the new

TV: Five shows worth watching tonight: Dec. 22

Cirque du Soleil’s Quidam is mesmerizing

New in crime fiction: The latest thrillers and mysteries

Video: Brian Dietzen sets up return of NCIS

The true meaning of Christmas? It’s bad art

Screenwriter delivers straight from the War Horse's mouth

How the jingle went out of advertising

Justin Bieber skates with the Leafs

Video: Justin Bieber, Michael Buble in holiday head-to-head

Video: Justin Bieber arrives in T.O.

If the Who went Wrestlemania, this band's name would aptly describe the outcome

Life

Five bidders battle for Cabbagetown home

Condo boasts trendy Junction location

Condo comes with downtown Toronto view

Teens who stand up against mom are better at resisting peer pressure: study

Careful bidding wins Mimico house

It’s not easy going green, but it can spark creativity

Leaf through pictures form a green book

A plan to turn a former jail into rental housing

Video: Would you eat 70-year-old fruitcake?

France investigating link between bad breast implants and cancer

Man wins Lamborghini, crashes it same day

December 22: Your daily horoscope

I'm just going to say it: I hate Christmas gifts

Canadians dreaming of a white Christmas can keep dreaming

Fire, walk with me: Toronto's solstice festival

Real Estate

Five bidders battle for Cabbagetown home

Condo boasts trendy Junction location

Condo comes with downtown Toronto view

Careful bidding wins Mimico house

Sports

Australia’s Brad Drewett named new ATP head

Transit strike postpones Arsenal-Wolves game

Japan’s untouchable gymnast looking past 2012 qualifiers

Broncos castaway Kyle Orton has Chiefs fighting for playoffs

Eusebio hospitalized with double pneumonia

Royal garden to be hired out for Olympic parties

Goalkeeper attacked by fan during Dutch Cup match

After racist abuse charges, Chelsea’s Terry ready for Spurs’ bearpit

Thursday’s NHL previews

Waiting in the wings, Nazem Kadri ready for Leafs’ return

Ferrari to unveil 2012 car in early February

Griffin leads Clippers past Lakers

Canucks eke one out against Wings

Sharks' Havlat to miss up to 8 weeks with a partial tendon tear

Magic best Heat in preseason finale

Drive

Honda or Bimmer? Dull or dynamic?

Which crossover does Canada love the most?

Drivers changing oil too often, California warns

Auto insurers in Europe may use black box technology to set rates

Will a bottle of sealant help him avoid a $2000 truck repair?

Competitive market forces Honda to revamp new Civic