If you are a citizen of Ontario, did you know that you will also voting on a referendum issue this October 10th? Do you know what MMP stands for? Make sure you do your research before you vote.
Just watching The Agenda to educate myself on the issue, and I must say I’m quite impressed.
I’ve always respected Steve Paikin. Great host, also very intelligent. But now I’m also impressed with the show. After 1 hour of air time, the show goes off the air… well sort of. It continues for another 30 min online with live video streaming, chat, and the ability to submit a question to the panel of guests. I wish all talk shows followed this format.
With the Canadian dollar at par with the US dollar, will this result in lower prices on goods in Canada? As you guessed, we likely won’t see prices drop too fast up here as a result.
But with online shopping malls like eBay.com and Amazon.com (notice I said .com not .ca), what would stop Canadian shoppers from online shopping across the boarder in order to take advantage of the exchange rate?
So I decided to test it out… Yup, the book Wikinomics is 15% cheaper on Amazon.com than Amazon.ca, taxes and shipping included! However, you would receive it a lot faster by ordering from the Canadian site. Time to invest in FedEx.
Though here is one example of an immediate price drop… Canadian price of a 2008 Porsche Carrera 4S Cab. down 8% from 2007!
What a steal! … My wife unfortunately wasn’t convinced.
As the Canadian dollar heads closer and closer to parity with the US dollar, the Canadian manufacturing industry is sweating buckets.
What are experts recommending? With the dollar so high, the recommendation is to take this as an opportunity to buy technology to streamline processes and reduce manufacturing costs, resulting in competitive products produced up north. Even more competitive if the dollar then drops.
Simply put, they are advising to buy machines to replace human labour… Leading us right into the hands of the machines’ evil plans! :)
Are you one of the growing many that spend the extra $ for organic food? But how can you be sure it truly is organic? Well Ottawa’s answer is to introduce the new Canada Organic label which will certify the product is organic.. or will it?
Though the stamp is said to assure:
Products that contain at least 95 per cent organic ingredients
Animals raised in conditions that mimic nature as much as possible; and
The use of natural fertilizers in production;
In reality the test only certifies the farm’s processes adhere to the criteria, but no actual testing of soil or product will be performed. So how can you be sure it truly is organic? Until random tests are instituted, I don’t believe you can be. As long as there is opportunity, someone will take advantage of the “honor system” put in place. For more on this, see the following CBC National news video
Back to the title of this post, given the certification criteria, I can then assure this blog is organic since:
Subtracting clothing, I’m about 95% organic material;
Thanks to my kids, my living environment often mimic the wild; and
The only fertilizer this blog deals with is B.S. :)
Heard this on Newstalk 1010 while driving into work…
With the provincial election lingering, Premier Dalton McGuinty in a news conference today was posed with the infamous question, “Will you raise taxes?”
Actually the question posed was more to the effect of, “Can you state on record that you will not raise taxes?” To which Dalton replied, “Yes.” The reporter request again, “Can you state that on the record?” Dalton confidently repeats, “Yes!”. Reporter clarifies once more, “No. Can you state, in your words, on record, ‘I will not raise taxes’?” Dalton this time stammers an, “Um… ah…”.
