And a direct link to Thomas Palley's blog can be found here.

Palley offers a short commentary on the perhaps unearned reputation central bankers have now obtained based on the observation of a few decades of 'moderation' (longer periods of economic growth, shorter periods of decline, and relatively low inflation).  Despite its length, it manages to touch on a number of important factors in this attribution including, in my opinion, the most important and often underlooked:  The beneficiaries of the past ~30 yrs of economic growth and the lack of growth in real wages among many despite productivity gains (as detailed here by the Wall Street Journal which is now behind a paywall, by way of Naked Capitalism).

Key quote from WSJ:

"Ms. Sawhill said several factors could explain the divergence: a growing share of income going to the highest-paid workers, or to profits..."

With the loss of consumer credit propping up a illusionary high standard of living (more about that can be found via Mish), I think we're about to see this stagnant wage inflation become apparent.  Working in mortgages, I was able to see firsthand (in a large volume, albeit in anecdotal accounts) how much the annual ~6% or so increase in real estate value in Canada was being treated as income through constant refinancings (RE/MAX offers a report that show homes in the top 5 appreciating regions in Toronto rising betwen 11% and 17% in value between 2006 and 2007).  To provide an example, a middle-class white-picket-fence detached suburban home away from Toronto's downtown core, in the suburbs and outside of any of the high crime areas, 2500 sq. ft., accomodating for a family of 4 to 5 or so, you would be spending about $450,000 right now.  With an increase of 6% annually, it would be the equivalent of $27,000 per year of income if you were to use lines of credit or refinancings to draw money from your home value annually while maintaining the equity dollar value of your home.  According to this link at Statistics Canada, the average Canadian family of 2 persons or more had a MEDIAN income of $54,100 after tax in 2004.  The increase in property value, if tapped annually, would account for perhaps one third of a family's total annual income.  If that is to disappear in Canada, as many (myself included) expect, we will be looking at a 33% salary cut for many working Canadians.  And there were MANY, from my experience, who used their home equity in this manner (once again, based on anecdotal firsthand evidence so I do not have any charts to post for you).  Most did not appear to be tapping their equity every year, but whenever the bills piled up, credit card debt grew to large, or a new car was needed, refinancing at the relatively low mortgage rates that have been available these past few years was often the first option.

The combination of masked wage stagflation and freefalling real estate prices is going to manifest itself in a sudden rise in statistical poverty, and an even greater rise in perceived poverty in the US.  And perhaps later in Canada as well.

ADD:  One thing I saw a lot of as well was "doubling down".  Those who benefited from highly appreciating property values would be, even as late as 2008, intrigued by the paper profits and would draw down their home equity to purchase an investment property (or an additional investment property) effectively doubling down on their exposure to the real estate appreciation bubble.  These people were often well into the middle/upper-middle class and with their extremely high exposure, could be wiped out entirely should a real estate decline occur anything like that in the US.  Especially as their properties are, obviously, usually located in the hottest growing Canadian markets.  Rather than have one drastically overvalued property they're still paying a mortgage on, now they may have two or more.

(I apologize that some of the stats and estimates were taken from different years, however I believe I kept them all within a 2004-2007 window, so they should be highly relevant still).

... and the cow goes moo

Organized labour needs infusion of youth

It was a dispute with an employer more than three years ago that thrust Anne Ouellette full-steam into the realm of organized labour.

It wasn't long after that she became chief shop steward at Nadeau Poultry Farm Ltd. in the rural community of St. Francois, 50 kilometres west of Edmundston.

She represents 360 unionized workers while pulling down double-duty as union chairperson for the United Food and Commercial Workers.

"I hold the two highest positions in my union," said Ouellette, who has fought against mass layoffs in recent months that could devastate the local economy.

"I have found my vocation and found my voice. I discovered my purpose in life. I can't sit back and watch as my community is destroyed."

Ouellette's rapid ascension through the union ranks is made more impressive by the fact that she is only 25 years old.

She is bucking a trend within the labour movement which has suffered a mass exodus of younger workers from its ranks.

According to Statistics Canada data, 40 per cent of New Brunswickers worked in a unionized environment in 1981.

That figure dwindled to 29 per cent by 2004 and continues to fall as jobs disappear in unionized sectors such as forestry.

Meanwhile, the report suggests fewer men and women between ages 17 and 34 are becoming members of labour unions.

Ouellette said many young people don't understand why unions are important.

"There was a time when people would gather to tackle a common problem," she said.

"Today, young people don't seem interested in doing that. They're not as interested in communicating with others. They're a bit spoiled by the good life. The battles fought by organized labour in the past have been forgotten."

Nicole Lang, a labour history professor at l'Université de Moncton in Edmundston, said organized labour in New Brunswick is trying to restore its lustre among workers.

"The labour movement is like any other," said Lang.

"You have to redefine yourself, be aware of what's going on, listen to members, and redefine your focus."

She said while many in the province's ageing unionized workforce contemplate retirement issues, younger workers remain concerned with job protection and securing work close to home.

The dichotomy of priorities has created a chasm among unionists, said Lang.

She said younger workers on the cusp of starting careers are often saddled with student loans and other debts, adding job protection and favourable work conditions remain top priorities.

She said organized labour needs to do a better job at representing the interest of young people if it hopes to bring them back to the fold.

"If we want the movement to be successful, everyone needs to be represented," she said.

It's important that unions provide young people space to get involved, said Buzz Hargrove, president of the Canadian Auto Workers.

"There has been some history in local unions where there is a group of senior people who have held the top offices at the local for years and don't want to concede much opportunity to young people," he said.

"But that's changing."

Hargrove said many CAW locals reserve positions for younger workers on executive boards as well as youth committees.

Meanwhile, Ouellette said organized labour has the potential to again become an important part of the province's employment landscape, adding it won't be an easy road to recovery.

"Success requires a lot of work and effort," she said.

"But there doesn't seem to be that many young people who are interested in putting in the effort to make it better."

Comment about this post

In and of itself, this news isn't good or bad. The kids are always going to have the sex, no matter what kinds of fire-and-brimstone-type videos they see in health class. The real good news is that, if the report is to be believed, the way they're going about it has improved: more consideration, more condoms.

Teenage girls, in particular, are holding off. In 1996/1997, over half (51 per cent) of Canadian girls 15 to 19 had had sex at least once. That number has sunk to 43 per cent. Which would seem to suggest that they're more informed about the consequences of rash decisions. For one thing (Jamie Lynn Spears and her gushy Ok! Magazine spread aside), they're figuring out that being a teen mom comes with a hefty price tag—and not everyone can pay it off with a few well-placed media snapshots.

So score one for Canada's liberal sex-ed stylings. But here's something to be concerned about: even though more teenagers are using condoms than they used to, it turns out it's teenage boys, not girls, who are leading the charge where love-and-glove are concerned. Eighty per cent of boys reported using a condom the last time they had sex, compared to only 70 per cent of girls (up from 65 per cent). In the U.S., where sex education doesn't tend to be as progressive (and in some areas, that's the understatement of the century), the same trend is happening. There, the overall rate of condom use among teens is lower than in Canada, but boys are still far more likely to use one (70 per cent) than girls (56 per cent). Maybe this accounts for all of the girls out there on Alesse who think STDs only happen on Degrassi The Next Generation (season 4). Or maybe parents and teachers need to revisit the basics with them, just one more time. Often.

A related question: does anyone know what's going on in Nova Scotia? The number of teenagers who are sexually active there spiked from 31 per cent in 1996/1997 to 49 per cent in 2005. No other province showed anything close to that sort of jump. Is it the salty air?

Seems we are $12K overdrawn on our USD bank account. The account is her responsibility to ensure that it is properly funded, by transferring funds from our CAD account to the USD. She hasn't done so, and I have been reminding her each week. I can't initiate the transfer as I am responsible for Bank Reconciliations, so I should not have the ability or the access to manipulate the bank balance.

Received notification from the Tax Authorities that the May08 VAT submitted was not done correctly, so we may have to pay a penalty. This particular VAT is also not officially my responsibility, but as my assistant reports to me I am ultimate responsible for all her errors.

Now the greatest highlight of my life for the past two weeks - filling out Statistics Canada Forms. Any self-respecting accountant understands the necessity of complying with the Statistics Act. But every accountant out  there will tell anyone willing to hear our cries of pain that the forms are a pain in the arse to fill out. It took me nearly 6 hours to compile the data and manipulate it into the reporting format that StatsCan wanted.

What I want to tell them, when they ring, is that I would appreciate them providing the funds to cover the costs of maintaining a staff person to spend their days filling out these forms.

I do occassionally get such helpful comments like "if you send us your P&L we can complete the forms for you". Problem with this is two-fold; first, as my company is a subsidiary of a larger company we do not report publicly, we are consolidated into the greater whole, therefore our information is confidential; two, if I do send them the P&L I know I will have to drop everything every time they rang to answer any questions for them.

Ah me.

According to Statistics Canada as reported in Academica's Top 10 today:

$10 billion in PSE research and development spending: Research and development spending in the PSE sector in the 2006/2007 fiscal year totalled over $9.6 billion, according to new Statistics Canada data. Natural sciences — excluding health sciences — and engineering accounted for 41% of the total. PSE institutions themselves were the most significant contributors, investing more than $4.4 billion. The federal government was the second largest contributor, funding $2.5 billion.

Statistics Canada gives a breakdown, and not surprisingly the social sciences and the humanities enjoy substantially lower rates of government R&D funding than other areas. In a nutshell, the Federal government contributes 26% to university research funding overall, while institutions themselves contribute 46%. Provincial governments contribute just under 10%, on average.

It might be argued that although the provinces fund little research, they contribute significantly more, on average, to the overall funding of universities. In 2008 the N.B. government contributed $189 million, or 38% of university revenues, from the provincial treasury, though that may overstate the case as some of those funds are in fact federal transfer monies. But the point about research money is a crucial one, as it is the direction of university research that the government is largely interested in controlling.

[Updated with info. from a strict but fair reader.]

This is pure electoral-geek heaven. Alice explains: "Stats Can released the 2006 Census Data by Federal Electoral District (FED ... i.e., federal riding) on June 26. My value-added is that I've scraped all that into my database, grouped and sub-grouped it, computed all the percentages, and computed each riding's rank (nationally, regionally, provincially, and "local-region"-ally) both top-to-bottom and bottom-to-top, on each measure they provided."

So say, hypothetically, there was a federal by-election coming in Westmount-Ville Marie. What would Alice's charts and graphs tell us? So much. They would tell us so much. For instance...

We see that Westmount-Ville Marie has the country's second-highest percentage of people who lived outside Canad 1 year ago and five years go, and the highest percentage of non-permanent residents. (Alice's best guess: McGill and Concordia university students.) The riding is third in the country in knowledge of both official languages, sixth for people who claim Arab ethnicity, and last in the country in the number who have no post-secondary education at all.

I'd tell you more, but the charm of punditsguide is that you can decide for yourself what you want to look for and go data-mine for yourself. Here's the link for the StatsCan data for the three ridings facing more or less imminent by-elections. The other 305 have all the same data, so you can get lost for hours...

St. Lambert, Quebec

Westmount-Ville Marie, Quebec

Guelph, Ontario

Denmark outclasses America as the best country for doing business

• Global Fitness Guru Scores At Home National Post, Monday, July 14, 2008 

"We instituted monthly dues. There was no contract. You quit when you wanted. Clients were happy, and we had the recurring revenue stream we needed to cover fixed costs."

• Food Services And Drinking Places Statistics Canada, April 2008

A 3.6% increase in sales in the largest sector of the industry, full-service restaurants, accounted for most of the overall rise. This sector, comprised of restaurants where patrons order and pay for meals at their table, continued to grow at a steady pace despite a temporary setback in March. The full-service restaurants sector also showed solid growth compared with the same month of 2007.

• The School Of Hard Knocks National Post, Monday, July 14, 2008 

"In the case of a new entrepreneur with a startup situation, often times the entrepreneur will be very knowledgeable about the product or technology they have developed but may be lacking business acumen"

I think it's time that they actually have a box for people in this situation.  I think it's a great way to find out how many Canadians UNDERSTAND their ancestral language, but do not speak it or default to it.

According to the 2005 survey (results were released today), almost one-fifth (19 per cent) of Canada's overworked nurses said they made mistakes in medicating patients "occasionally" or "frequently." What's interesting is that nurses' education or experience levels did not influence these numbers—but workplace demands did.

The study (which was the first of its kind) shows that increased overtime, inadequate resources, lack of support from co-workers and low job security—all hallmarks of a nurses' shortage—made them more likely to commit medical error. And more people are impacted by this than you might think: according to a separate report from 2007, about 10 per cent of Canadian patients got the wrong meds in 2005.

Lisa Little is director of public policy for the Canadian Nurses' Association; she's also a registered nurse. She tells the Macleans.ca health blog that StatsCan's findings don't surprise her one bit: "It's exactly what we hear from nurses on the front line," she says. "Unfortunately, overtime has become the norm for employers trying to deal with the shortage [of nurses]."

In Canada, only 55 per cent of nurses work full-time, Little notes, meaning that many worry constantly about job security and might be split between two or more employers. Nurses who work part-time, though, often "actually work full-time hours," she adds. "Nurses are called in constantly to work on a day off." All this job stress not only makes nurses more likely to mess up a patient's meds; it also makes them prone to illness themselves. Nurses take twice as many sick days as the general workforce does, Little says, which only aggravates the already acute nurse shortage.

Today, the average nurse in Canada is 45 years old. With scores of them set to retire and a lack of young recruits to fill their shoes, Little hopes this report makes the public aware of how the nursing shortage affects them personally. After all, taking the wrong medication can have disastrous results

Ottawa wants a new drug
The capital is relatively quiet, but the pundits are vexed over heroin, statistical tomfoolery, the quietness itself, Gordon O'Connor (remember him?) and, of course, the old in-and-out.

The Globe and Mail's Margaret Wente deems the credentials of Tony Clement's Insite panel "irreproachable," saying "they don't seem to have an axe to grind." But while their report has been hailed as a vindication of the Vancouver safe-injection site, Wente believes its findings are "at best mixed." She seems to mean it's a mixture of the positive (it has prevented some overdose deaths and "increased access to detox and treatment") with the inconclusive (nobody knows how many deaths or how much of an increase). It's a little weird that she would consider Insite's limited reach—it "accounts for less than 5 per cent of all injections in the Downtown Eastside"—a potential negative rather than grounds for expansion, especially since she declares herself a pragmatist when it comes to drugs. Which is bloody odd itself, considering her nonsensical stance on marijuana.

In the Financial Post, Terence Corcoran launches a withering attack on the Canadian media for going crazy over one Statistics Canada release showing that lower- and middle-class individuals' earnings have stagnated over the past quarter century, and completely ignoring another release, mere days later, showing that total family incomes have risen considerably over the same period.

John Ivison files what could pass as his resignation from political punditry, decrying in the National Post that empty legislative agenda and the complete disappearance of election fever, and swiping as per usual at Stéphane Dion as he goes. This column does represent Ivison's long-awaited follow-up to his famous dismissal of what would become the in-and-out affair, however, as "an eye-glazingly complicated tale that has failed to gain any traction in the national media." His take, seven months on? Remarkably, it's pretty much the same. "The Liberal quest for scandal has produced more dead ducks than a toxic Alberta tailings pond." (More on that below.)

The Toronto Star's James Travers again flirts with unreadability, which is unfortunate, since the column is just a bog-standard jab at the Conservative paranoia machine. "Core Conservatives [are] comfortable in their suspension of disbelief," he argues. "They are convinced," for example, "that independent watchdogs are happiest when biting the hand that feeds them bark loudest at these ruling strangers." We have no idea what that means. And it all begins with an attack on Gordon O'Connor for his handling of the online tax return filing fiasco that reads as if the first three paragraphs are missing. What, exactly, was wrong with extending the filing deadline but not the payment deadline? Travers offers us no clue.

With questions now arising over the Conservatives' accounting practices with regard to polling expenses, Sun Media's Greg Weston has had enough. If taxpayers rather than individual donors are going to fund political campaigns, he argues, "throw[ing] open the books of all political parties and candidates to far greater public scrutiny" is the only way to go—and not just the Torys' books, of course, but the Liberals' too. "What other government operation would get away with telling taxpayers it spent $4.5 million—almost 15% of its entire 2006 budget—on 'other'?" he asks.

Damn-fool Democrats on the march!
The Globe's Jeffrey Simpson suggests Hillary Clinton is trying to turn Barack Obama into a latter-day Adlai Stevenson, by hammering away at his purported elitism and abandoning her own history of embracing "policy analysis" in favour of unconvincing populist stances on gas prices, "obliterating" Iran and smearing her opponent.

Also in the Globe, John Ibbitson assesses the possible outcomes in the North Carolina and Indiana primaries, and how they'll affect the superdelegates' decisions. If Obama wins both, he says, Hillary would likely concede some time before June 3. If Clinton wins both, "the superdelegates might well decide that Ms. Clinton has conclusively demonstrated she's the more electable candidate" and hand her the narrowest of victories. And if Clinton takes Indiana and Obama takes North Carolina, as expected, then the superdelegates will have to think for themselves—and quickly, for the good of the party. (Dangerously, given Ibbitson's and every other pundit's record in this campaign, he neglects the possibility that Obama might take Indiana and Clinton North Carolina, as well as the chance of an Armageddon-esque asteroid strike on South Bend.)

All this intrigue is silly, the Toronto Sun's Peter Worthington contends. "By being too smart by half, the damn-fool Democratic party has made itself look both incompetent and corrupt by having superdelegates second-guess voters instead of trusting a simple majority as Republicans do," he writes. It leads straight to a "cesspool of … in-fighting" within the party, he argues, all of which is allowing Clinton to chip away at Obama's once-insurmountable lead.

If we order the foie gras, will anyone share it with us?
Alberta's dead ducks ha… oh God, those poor ducks! Sorry. Damn it, we promised we wouldn't cry. Just give us a second. Okay. We're okay now. Alberta's dead ducks have, the Vancouver Sun's Barbara Yaffe suggests, "forced people to ask, what sort of place is the Aurora tailings pond that it could kill off so many birds who did nothing more than light on its lagoon-like liquidity?" Dead ducks forced people to ask that, did they? Not the ostensibly "grotesque abnormalities" in fish caught downstream, health complaints from local human beings, or the "outrageous carbon emissions and … enormous amounts of water and natural gas" used to extract oil from the tar sands? Not the fact that aesthetically speaking, as Colby Cosh put it, the mines "make for a convincing portrait of hell on earth"? Either Canadians are much stupider than we thought, or much smarter than Yaffe believes.

The Calgary Herald's Don Martin wins lunch on us—the pâté to start, we think, and then the confit de canard—for being the first Megapundit to say he doesn't give a fat damn about all these dead birds. "Had the Syncrude grovel and government investigations of the incident been aimed at possible consequences for Cree and Dene populations living downstream," he argues, Stephen Harper's utterly bizarre description of the event as a "terrible tragedy" might have been fitting. But it wasn't. It was aimed at ducks. Enough already.

Duly noted
Andrew Cohen, writing in the Ottawa Citizen, explores the idea that a symphony is the perfect national metaphor for Germany, in that it's a densely populated country whose people need to "organize themselves carefully" and "emphasize the collective over the individual" to be successful. He concludes that the metaphor is apt—particularly since the German government funds the arts to the tune of roughly 98 quadrillion Euros a year—and that Germany is an absolutely terrific place.

The Post's Jonathan Kay notes a new study showing that Taser blasts to a pig's chest can lead to quantifiable "stimulation" of the heart muscle—and that when the pigs are "infused with adrenaline" (is anyone else getting hungry?) the risk of cardiac events increases dramatically. But Kay doesn't think Tasers should be banned as a result. Rather, cops should simply be trained to aim away from the chest. "A significant … number of folks would unnecessarily end up in body bags if police officers had to reach for their service pistol every time they confront a drugged-up lunatic with a broken bottle or a knife," he argues—or, we'd add, in the case of Robert Dziekanski, when they confront someone armed with absolutely nothing. Training is an issue, no question. But when to use a Taser, not just where to aim it, seems just as pressing an issue to us.

E-commerce is on the rise in Canada, according to the latest official figures from Statistics Canada.

Internet sales hit an estimated $62.7 billion in 2007, up 26% from 2006. But e-commerce is still to make an impact in Canada, representing a relatively small fraction of total economic activity.

Stats Canada reports that online sales of private sector firms accounted for just under 2% of total operating revenue in 2007.

Maybe this explain why the news business in Canada is lagging behind in its investment in digital journalism.

Maybe it's no shock that childless Canadians are sleeping well, with less midnight wakeup calls. But the finding that women sleep longer than men does surprise me (females supposedly get eight hours and 18 minutes a night, seven minutes longer than men). Between the workplace and the home, women tend to work more hours in a week—so you'd think they'd be the ones getting less rest. And last month, a study from Duke University showed that poor sleep takes a greater toll on women than men. (Another study, here, shows that menopausal women report lack of sleep to be their biggest problem.)

The study goes on to show that women are lighter sleepers than men, and take longer to actually fall asleep (in the case of new moms, that certainly makes sense).

But having kids seems to close the sleep "gender gap": men and women with kids get roughly the same amount of sleep.

The study's other findings:

- Married and common-law couples report sleeping 24 minutes less than single Canadians

- People with two kids slept an average of 25 fewer minutes a night than childless Canadians

- Those who made $60,000 or more a year slept 40 minutes less per day than those who made $20,000

- Full time workers got 24 minutes less sleep than those who were not regularly employed

- Canadians who were married (or in common-law relationships) slept about eight hours and five minutes per night, 24 minutes less than single people who had never been married

(It's important to note that these results were self-reported: the study was based on a 2005 survey of 19,500 people)

In related news, here's a neurologist who says investing in a new pillow could improve your sleep (he's also got some tips on how to buy a good one).

The grievor alleged that she had been disciplined – she requested that her grievances be held in abeyance pending a decision of the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) on the complaint that she had filed under the Canadian Human Rights Act – the employer did not object to that request – prior to the hearing, the employer objected to an adjudicator’s jurisdiction to hear the grievances, because they raised human rights issues and the CHRC had not decided that the grievor ought to exhaust the grievance process – the grievor objected to the timeliness and admissibility of the employer’s objection to jurisdiction –the adjudicator found that an objection to jurisdiction could be raised at any step of the proceedings, and that the employer’s objection was timely – the adjudicator further found that the employer had not waived, and could not waive, its rights to object to the adjudicator’s jurisdiction.

Objection to the timeliness and admissibility of the employer’s objection dismissed.

The rest.

South Asian and Chinese-Canadians (termed SACHIN for convenience) comprise of about 50% of the total visible minority population. First time in 2006, the South Asian Canadians population estimated at 1,262,865 exceeded the Chinese-Canadian population estimated at 1,216,570. Ontario has the highest number of South Asian and Chinese-Canadians, 794,170 and 576,980 respectively. British Columbia has second highest numbers, 262,290 South Asians and 407,225 Chinese.

The above numbers, that is, 5 million people constituting 16% of the total population may not stop many marketers in their tracks, however, further analysis of the data would. The visible minority market, especially SACHIN market segment is highly attractive and provides huge potential for growth because of the following factors:

1. Younger market: The visible minority population is younger than the average for the total population. As per 2006 census, the median age of the visible minority population is 33 years versus 39 years for the total population in Canada. Being young and possibly in the early phase of family life, they would have diverse requirements ranging from buying home, car, young children needs, capital goods, recreation activities, employment, entertainment and savings. If marketers could reach and connect with the visible minority market segment and gain its trust and loyalty, the young visible minority could be in for a long haul, as customers and clients.

2. Easily Accessible: Visible minority population, especially SACHIN, is concentrated in few metropolitan cities. About 84% of the South Asian-Canadians and 81% of Chinese-Canadians live in Ontario and the BC compared to 49% of all Canadians. Thus SACHIN are easily accessible to marketers for their advertising campaigns and products / services. Concentration of visible minority is a major advantage these days because prices of gas and diesel are skyrocketing. According to recent news, the price of diesel has increased by 30% in one year and about 85% of the consumer products are transported via trucks . This increase in cost of transportation is being passed on to consumer gradually, increasing prices of consumer products. Product distribution to SACHIN markets may not be adversely affected by the increase in costs of transportation, as these are concentrated in two provinces, primarily in the Greater Toronto and Greater Vancouver Areas.

Similarly, marketers can use local and regional media to communicate their message to the target market, and be discrete, effective, and cost-efficient due to smaller spread with minimal noise and wastage.

3. High Aspirations: The emigration from Asian countries got momentum in early 1990s.Thus most of the immigrants who make up the visible minority group are relatively new, being here for less than 10 years. They are not only younger in age but are also young with regards to being in Canada. New Canadians are motivated and open to new ideas, product & services and have many needs to fulfill. Moreover, generally immigrants are made of a unique fiber. They are risk takers, enterprising, ambitious and optimistic. I believe because of these traits people leave their homes (in most cases) and migrate to a new land to look for better opportunities. Immigrants come with high aspirations, willing to go an extra mile, work hard and play hard. This emotional aspect provide an opportunity to marketers to catch them young, understand and satisfy their emotional needs and inculcate a trust. In return the marketers would get brand loyal customers for life!

4. High Growth Rate: SACHIN are young, easily accessible and motivated; they have a high population growth rate as well, specially the South Asians Canadians. Thus businesses can grow by leveraging the SACHIN market and winning a dominant market share in this segment. According to the 2006 Census, the South Asian Canadians population grew by 37% from 917,000 in 2001 to 1,262,900 in 2006. This is the highest growth rate among visible minority groups. The Chinese and Afro-Canadian population had the second highest growth rate at about 18% during the same time period. Most of this growth was in Ontario and the British Colombia.

On the other hand, 63% of all Canadians are between ages 20 and 64. Furthermore, average fertility rate for total women population is 1.53 children per women. The fertility rate is higher in immigrant women at 3.1 children per women. For comparison, the US has a fertility rate of 2.1 children per women. Based on above, leveraging the high-growth SACHIN market segment is vital for Canadian companies to offset the affect of aging population and lower average fertility rates.

The Asian-Canadian market is a “YEA-HA” for marketers. YEA-HA for Young, Easily Accessible with High Aspiration. I believe YEAHA factor will be significant for the future growth of many Canadian businesses. It’s time for all marketers to consider YEA-HA seriously; savvy marketing companies are already doing so and reaping the benefits.

In other news, the Canadian Press reported Tuesday that women are increasingly outblogging men - in quantity, at least. The blogs I regularly read are mostly female written - although, this is more a symptom of my profession than the opinions available in the blogosphere - roughly 80 per cent of the students in my PR program are women.

Was anyone else getting a bit sick of last Saturday's Earth Hour? Kudos to Tara Wood (a Centennial grad) and the WWF for their successful promotion of the event itself, but what were the key messages? Turning off the lights is a good idea? Symbolism is necessary to show public support for climate change initiatives? What exactly was I supposed to have learned because of the darkened hour?

I have many opinions concerning the TTC and its labour dispite, but I'm not going to share them now. Instead, I'd simply like to observe that the colour maroon is a poor brand choice for an organization dealing with claims of chronic filth. Maroon looks dirty even when it's not. If cleanliness is next to godliness, then the TTC's maroon dress has turned it into the devil's mistress.

I went on a build for Habitat for Humanity Toronto last Friday in the exotic locale of Scarborough. It was great fun and I'm not just saying this because I'm doing my internship at the non-profit. I got to hit things - like nails and my thumb - saw things, crow bar things and pick up nails with a super magnet attached to a stick.

March was social media month in the Wall Street Journal, which I discovered by randomly picking up a section of it in the Tampa airport on my way back from Florida over reading week. When I tried to follow its content online, however, it was restricted - to paying readers.

Both the Wall Street Journal and the Globe and Mail should follow the lead of the New York Times. The latter publication recently returned to offering its online content free - much like the Toronto Star has always done. I'm all for some well placed capitalist greed, exploitation, what have you, but media have a legitimate and necessary role in any truly functioning democracy. In other words, media have a responsibility to keep citizens informed so that the decisions that are made are based on fact.

Why does Google's spell check insist that there is no 'u' in colour? I can't be the only one who gets penalized for spelling colour, honour, centre, metre and doughnut correctly. C'mon, Google, get it together.

It's becoming increasingly apparent that my efforts to save Alma College (see some of my previous posts) are complicated by internal failures at the Ontario Municipal Board. It issued approval for the demolition of Canada's most endangered heritage property based on the type of research I'd have been failed for submitting back in my undergraduate days at McGill.

Last Friday, the Toronto Star reported that the city of Aurora is "slamming a decision by the OMB not to hold a special joint hearing with the province's environmental review board." Interesting. Alma College's fate was sealed when none of the groups actually interested in preserving the school were allowed to have a say in its fate.

The OMB has a new website. I couldn't find its mandate or mission anywhere. Go figure. Even Toronto urban designer Ken Greenberg is grumbling about the dominance of the OMB. Referring to the proposed construction of suburban box stores in the city core, he says, "The sad truth here is that the OMB has become the de facto planning board for Toronto, a role that it was never set up to fulfill."

Coming home on the subway today I was assaulted by an advertising campaign for Gillette Mach3 Disposable razors. Its eco-insulting tagline - "enough said." Really? I mean, really!? At a time when western consumers are being encouraged to minimize their consumption, is it absolutely necessary to promote a product that's the personal hygiene equivalent of an SUV?

Finally, Statistics Canada released 2006 census data this morning that accurately expresses why Toronto is such a unique and exciting city - it's one that belongs to the world. Nearly 43 per cent of Canada's largest metropolis is a visible minority. Eat your apple, New York City!

(original blog art by Sandra Poczobut, 2008 - available for commission - sandra dot poczobut at gmail dot com)

Now admittedly, this analysis doesn't speak to whether these victimizations were related directly to their sexual orientation (i.e. gay-bashing), but it stands to reason that at least some of them are. They do not seem, however, to feel victimized, however:

Despite experiencing higher rates of violence, gays, lesbians and bisexuals did not express higher levels of fear than their heterosexual counterparts.

Overall, more than 9 out of 10 gay, lesbian and bisexual Canadians indicated that they were "somewhat" or "very" satisfied with their personal safety, a proportion which was similar to heterosexuals.

It would be interesting to see the same study done with regards to transsexual/transgendered folks: I have a bad feeling that the victimization rates would be even higher for that population.

The full study is available here.

Almost half of the industry's revenues came from the film printing and processing services. Visual effects and editing services accounted for just over 23%.

The study also looked at the rise and fall of the fortunes in Canada's production community. Ontario is home to 48% of the business but saw the largest drop in revenues by 6.7%. Production houses in BC on the other hand were up 22.4%.

Ontario firms also had the lowest profitability compared to the rest of Canada.

Canada is home to many great productions including SciFi Channel's Battlestar Galactica, as well as the not so great Bionic Woman.

One must wonder however what the high Canadian Dollar is going to mean to the numbers for 2007.

Technorati: Canada, Canadian Television, Canadian Production, Statscan, Statistics Canada, Battlestar Galactica, Bionic Woman, Canadian Dollar

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