Last night I got home from my father’s 70th birthday party and retrieved an ambiguous voice mail message …

I love a hot glove… it gets me excited…

I thought that this might be my first experience with an obscene caller… but then I heard the sound of hockey in the background and recognized the voices of Frank and Prudence speaking into the receiver…

Thank you colour commentator, Kevin Weekes…

I have no idea what he was talking about but I imagine it may have been Luongo…

Last week, Prudence, Piper (21 mths), Starshine (10), Little Gem (7) and I went to the Macmillan Bloedel Conservatory for some warm Winter cheer…

Night flight to Venus...

The existence of this historic venue is threatened because the roof requires a $5 milllion dollar renovation… the minute I win a 649 jackpot this project will be one of my first benefactors…

But until then, if you are currently laying at the bottom of a dark hole and can’t feel your way out you should jump in your truck and make a beeline for this tropical wonderland of flora and fauna… this experience may provide the very ladder you need to climb back into the sunshine…

even on a cloudy day…

Who wouldn’t feel happy singing along with Julie Andrews and the gathering of parrots, cockatiels, and other exotic birds???

Wild thing... I think I love you...

While we meandered through the giant palms and water works I was telling Prudence about the Fed’s insane plan to close prison-farms in order to build American style Super-prisons, and that I was going to contact newly elected MP for Coquitlam-New Westminster Fin Donnelly to throw some swimmer muscle behind this public outrage…

FYI: [http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/cultivating-convicts/article1389763/]

Then Pru and I recalled how we were both there when Fin first swam across the Georgia Straight back in 1991… she manned the skiff that drove beside him and I hung out with the redheaded welcoming committee on the beach in Sechelt…

Like Baywatch, before Brazilians…

I made a lewd comment… quietly… out of the corner of my mouth…

Prudence laughed…

Starshine looked at us, inquisitively, and said, “Sacrlet Bush??? That sounds like a Nancy Drew mystery…”

I loved my daughter a thousand times more for her sweetness, and innocent perception…

By the time I was ten I was so corrupted by the questionable reading material my parents’ friends left beside their 8-track endlessly playing Glen Campbell and Neil Diamond in an act of ‘educating’ us about the joy of sex…

and my best friend’s older brother, who so expertly schooled us in the crude arts of innuendo and double entendres that we didn’t give our teachers an inch to breath without the two of us rolling on the floor…

School split us up for grade five but we managed to work our way back into the same class the next year…

and her brother became an outspoken Obstetrician/Gynecologist advocating for informed client choice, VBAC’s and home births in northern communities… 

His sister was there when Starshine was born at home in a pool from Canadian Tire… attended by midwives…

and he redeemed himself by showing up to make French Toast for breakfast…

Beautiful is the dream that makes you mine...

The ticket to neighbourhood popularity

During the past few weeks the weather here had been unseasonably warm. In fact, we had the first November on record with no snow fall since record keeping began in 1937. This is unusual for an area whose residents typically gather in October to swap techniques for thawing frozen pipes and share news of weather stripping sales.

With the nice weather hanging around, we had delayed (read: I procrastinated) getting the kids and myself proper winter outerwear.

Then the calendar flipped to December.  You know the saying about March “coming in like a lion, and going out like a lamb?” Well from now on, I will refer to November 2009 as the month that “came in like a the sweet lady who works at the library and smells like lavender and candy, and went out like an irritable, slightly overweight caffeine dependent mother of two who was given the wrong muffin at Tim Horton’s .”

By the first day of December, we had snow, sleet, and sudden freezing temperatures.  I had planned to rake the dead leaves from the yard before the first snow came, but my rake is now encased upright in 5 inches of frozen slush. Come spring, instead of being met with fresh green shoots of fescue, I will instead be faced with a groaning brown carpet of rotting maple leaves and raccoon crap.

Last night it was -20 with the wind chill. For those of you in warmer climates who may be unfamiliar with the term “wind chill,” it’s what Mother Nature invented after she thought to herself, “I really don’t like these Canadian people.” I think she’s jealous of Universal health care and 12 month paid maternity leave.  Or maybe she just heard one too many Celine Dion songs on EZ Rock while having a tooth extracted.

So this week, the mad dash to Canadian Tire for winter wear began. We all now have waterproof mittens, new toques, felt lined boots and long thermal underwear. I have environmentally friendly ice melter for the walkways, a new snowbrush for the car, and the kids are getting snow shovels under the Christmas tree. PM bought me a snow blower, my larder is stocked with hot chocolate and Godiva white chocolate liqueur and the electric blankets have been dry-cleaned.  I have given obligatory warnings about tongues on metal fence posts and discussed appropriate frost bite first aid measures.

This family is ready for a Canadian winter.  

So come on Mother Nature;  BRING IT.

Le journal Les Affaires publiait la semaine dernière un petit fait divers intéressant:

Les clients de Canadian Tire ne paient pas  tous le même prix pour les articles en promotion. Les Montréalais avaient le privilège de se procurer une batterie de cuisine de marque Lagostina pour $229.99 (…) tandis que les consommateurs de Maniwaki, en Outaouais, devaient débourser $259.99 pour le même produit. Les prix sont également plus élevés aux succursales de Gaspé et de La Malbaie.

“Les écarts de prix s’expliquent surtout par les frais de transport”, dit Daniel Despins, porte-parole de Canadian Tire. Mais on peut aussi avancer une autre raison: dans les trois villes où les prix sont plus élevés, Canadian Tire n’est pas en concurrence avec un Wal-Mart.

Ainsi, grâce à Wal-Mart, les consommateurs peuvent réaliser des économies de 13% sur cette batterie de cuisine. De l’argent qui se retrouve dans les poches de la population plutôt que dans les poches des actionnaires de Canadian Tire. Je n’ai jamais compris pourquoi la gauche, assoiffée de justice sociale,  se révolte devant Wal-Mart, symbole du méchant capitalisme…

J’en profite pour vous recommander l’excellent ouvrage de Charles Fishman, “The Wal-Mart Effect“. Ce livre de 336 pages nous dresse un portrait complet des impacts du modèle Wal-Mart sur notre société, autant du côté des gagnants que de celui des perdants.

Merry Christmas

Lots of great gifts for hikers out there that won’t hurt the pocketbook.  Here are some ideas for you :  1) a pair of smart wool socks, 2) a bear bell, 3) small mesh bag, 4) drybag, 5) a whistle, 6) a trail map, 7) a compass, a watch with carabiner that hooks on to the daypack, 9 ) a memory card for a digital camera, 10) a memory card case – Staples has one for $5.99 holds 6 cards, 11) batteries for camera, 12) battery charger, 13) a first aid kit, 14) bear spray, 15) a rain cover for daypack, 16) a national park pass, 17) a pair of trekking poles, 18) a hiking book, 19) a hiking hat,  20) sunscreen, 21) insect repellent,  22)  carabiner, 23) stainless steel water bottle, 24) a pedometer, 25)  headlamp, 26)  binoculars, 27) a camera tripod, 28) a swiss army knife, 29) a roll of duck tape, 30) rope,  31) a travel towel, 32) an emergency blanket, 33)  moleskin for blisters, 34) a trowel, 35) lip palm, 36) a hip pocket all weather note pad, 37) a tick plier, 38) camp suds, 39) waterproof gloves, 40) a toque, 41) a subscription to Explore Magazine and or Backpacker magazine.

Hikers are easy to buy for Christmas. Surprise your hiker friend with a small gift at Christmas time….The above items can be found at most outdoor stores such as MEC,  and box stores – Canadian Tire, Walmart, Home Hardware etc.

We’re just sitting here talking about Lila-Jeanne’s noises – not the gas inspired farts and burps, or the air squeezing through narrow passages giving life to snores and hiccoughs – no we’re talking the trumpeting, nasally charged noise that is Lila’s personal signature. There’s no telling when she’ll join the conversation with an insouciant riff just letting us know she is there.

Out shopping with maman this afternoon she was on a roll. She had a monologue going on loud enough for other shoppers to hear and then look around to find the source. When their eyes lit on Lila, Mé looked at them and said, “I’ve got an elephant here.” Yes, there were smiles.

It’s been a sporty day. Nellie and I went for our first swim together. This was a contentious issue for Noah last night before bedtime and all morning from wake up to school drop off. There was some behaviour on the loose and well articulated unhappiness pointedly delivered about his absence from the pool excursion.

Nellie had a blast skimming along the water’s surface like a boatman supported in papa’s hands. Then she saw the slide. It was a must do. Nellie and another girl were taking turn about and watching each other’s exploits as they whizzed down and landed with a splash in their respective parent’s outstretched arms. The perpetually wet plastic makes the ride slick and speedy. Nellie leaned too far back on one of her descents and banged her head on the slide hard enough to make the tears flow.

After some hugging, buoy like bobbing and softly spoken words we made new fun over at a basketball net. Nellie was the champion player coming in to the basket with ball firmly gripped in both hands. Just as we approached, I whooshed her out of the water, lifted her to the full extension of my arms and watched as she slam dunked the ball through the hoop. This was a repeat many times activity capped with a giggle each time she threw the ball through the hoop.

Before our session was over, there was rafting on a large size float board, sliding on a ‘baby’ slide, soaking in the shallow, warm pool, more swimming in the water with papa and, at Nellie’s request, a final conquest of the nasty, head bump slide. The final whooshes were without incident, a sure indication that there will be more sliding and gleeful squeals on subsequent visits.

We popped into Canadian Tire on the way home – two visits, in two days. There could be a trend developing here. I feel a third visit coming on tomorrow to swoop up one of the new $1 coins that will be available December 5 and 6.

Coming out of the store, a fellow shopper looks at Nellie in my arms and asks me, “Grandad?”

“No, I’m the dad,” I reply.

“Yes,” he says with a laugh. “I had a girl when I was 44. She’s 19 now.”

“I know what you mean,” I say. “I had a girl at 52. She’s just two weeks old.”

“Wait, you mean two years don’t you?” he says pointing at Nellie.

“No, this is a new baby I’m talking about. It’s her little sister. Got it all figured out how this happens now though,” I say with a grin.

This causes some more laughter. “You have a great time with those girls and enjoy your day,” he says as we part ways and head for our respective vehicles. This was my first taken for a grampa by mistake encounter. There will be many more of those in the years ahead.

What better way to end the evening than to watch les Glorieux thump the Bruins on the centenary of the club’s founding. Les Canadiens have a mythical stature in professional sports that is beautifully captured in Roch Carrier’s The Sweater, a great story and a wonderful NFB animated short. Unlike Carrier, I would have been thrilled to receive a Maple Leafs jersey by mail order catalogue when I was a boy. Living in Toronto I was a natural Leafs fan and on occasion sat in the Greys at the Gardens for an Original Six dust up.

It was all class tonight at the Centre Bell. This was a time to recognize great individual achievements and team efforts, to pay respect to the players, the fans and the game. Two more banners were raised high above the ice surface to join the timeless immortels. Émile Bouchard (3) and Elmer Lach (16) joined 13 other former Habs whose numbers have been retired. Bouchard’s son Pierre, also a former Canadiens, wheeled his father onto the ice for the ceremonies. Toward the end of the celebration the elder Bouchard blew kisses to the crowd. A moment of tenderness, love and thanks. What a night, what a franchise, what a treasure.

Every once in a while, at job interviews, I’m asked what I think is my biggest flaw. I always say, “impatience.”  There are other contenders, of course, but nothing I’d care to discuss with a prospective employer.

Now, for me personally, I don’t think my impatience is a problem because I mostly feel justified in not wanting to spend a significant percentage of my time waiting. However, I do realize that waiting is part of life; that the world can’t adhere to my schedule (or any other schedule as far as I can tell); and that my impatience can impact others; so in that sense, I do see it as a problem.

For instance, I don’t like standing in lines. No one really does,  but many people just do it because they figure that’s just the way things are. Me, I’d rather leave and not purchase whatever I came in to purchase, than stand in a line for more than a few minutes. I think since  a place of business encourages lots of customers and makes their profits from those customers, it ought to ensure that those customers spend the maximum amount of money in the shortest possible time.

Instead they have one cashier on every day during the lunch rush (I’m looking at you Shopper’s Drug Mart, Hogsback). The line is 15+ people long and when I ask why there aren’t more cashiers on, they tell me (like I’m dense) “D’uh, it’s lunch time – they’re at lunch.”

Oh! Shall I come back when it’s more convenient for you?

Or the other day, we had a completely unnecessary appointment with one of XUP Jr.’s medical specialists. It was just to brief us on the completely unnecessary test they made her do a couple of month ago, the results of which are completely irrelevant. So they made the appointment  – for 11:30.

Fine. We show up 10 minutes early. (Because I always strive to be early for appointments out of respect for the busy people with whom I have an appointment.) XUP Jr. is missing school for this and I’m losing a half day of work.

By 11:45 I’m getting twitchy. By 12:00 I’m getting irritated. By 12:15 I march up to the counter and ask (as nicely as I possibly can) how much longer it’s going to be.

“Ma’am,” she says without even looking at me. “You’ll have to take a seat and wait your turn.”

“My turn,” I point out (not so nicely anymore), “was 45 minutes ago. YOU made the appointment.”

She gives me an evil glare and orders me to go back to the waiting area. I sense some sort of threat implicit in her demeanor.

XUP Jr. says, “Let’s just go. I have to be back at school for 1:00.”  I tell her, very patiently, to hang on a few more minutes. 12:30 comes and goes.  At 12:45,  I go back to the counter. Someone new is there. I ask them if they can give me any idea how much longer because we have to go.  The new guy just shrugs and says I have to wait until the specialist is ready to see us.

At 12:55 we leave.

I deeply resent when people waste my time like this. And without any explanation or apology.  Deeply. When I make an appointment at my doctors’s and they squeeze me in, I expect a good long wait. Not when a specialist makes the appointment to see us.

And there’s no way I’ll wait more than 10 minutes without a good explanation at the dentist’s or hairstylists or anywhere else where I’m paying for a certain time slot. Get organized, ya’ll!

I hate – HATE – going to spend my money somewhere and then being made to feel like I’m imposing on them and that I’d better behave and adhere to the designated herding area if they’re going to let me buy something from their one surly cashier because they don’t want to blow their profits on actually hiring staff to help customers.

I don’t like going to meetings or training sessions on time only to have to sit there for 15 minutes twiddling my thumbs waiting for the stragglers to show up before they’ll start the meeting. A couple of weeks ago I went to a training thing where I was the only one on time. Half the people never showed up at all. The rest showed up 10-20 minutes late — and we waited those 20 minutes to begin. And then, one guy showed up 45 minutes late and the instructor actually started all over again for his benefit.

I had to leave the room.

In some ways, impatience serves me well (as I tell the job interviewers). It makes me the opposite of whatever a procrastinator is. (A concrastinator?) If there’s something that needs to be done, I get it done as quickly and efficiently as I possibly can. If other people are involved, I hound them mercilessly until they surrender their part of the project. On weekends or holidays I always have to get all the chores done and out of the way before I can relax.

Oh ya, I’m a barrel of laughs.

Every once and while you stumble across something unexpected – take drill bits for example. Canada started to move over to the  ‘metric’ system of weights and measures in 1970 and by 1980 most things people dealt with on a daily basis (weather forecasts, highway signs, fuel for the family car etc.) had been switched over. There continue to be oddities, largely for historical reasons. For example, you still see lumber sold as 2×4’s , and 4×8 foot sheets of 1/2 inch plywood even though if you check closely you will find it is actually cut to a metric size. There are other examples, which brings us to drill bits.

Today while doing some work on one of the GT750’s I’m restoring, I broke my 4 mm drill bit which was very upsetting. This bit is part of a set I bought in Holland, sold under the Black and Decker label,  and they are the best drill bits I’ve ever owned. They cut through steel like a laser and after repeated use, are still sharp and a delight to own. Most folks would have familiarity with the usual drill bits you get stuck with which although marked as ‘cobalt’, or ‘HSS’ are seemingly made of a soft material akin to cheese ! Often all they do is remove the rust, and make a small, hot,  shiny spot on the surface of whatever you are desperately trying to bore through, while you apply yet more pressure till you can’t see for the smoke starting to wisp out of your over-heated drill ! In contrast , if you expose a metal surface to these Dutch drill bits, a hole seemingly appears as if by magic with those lovely little metal swarfs evenly turned out on both sides of the drill bit’s flutes – almost pure poetry and no effort at all !

Alas, today due to a brief moment of inattention, my drill fell over and landed on the floor ‘bit first’ and my 4 mm drill bit snapped into many small pieces. After a lengthy commentary using colourful language directed at the floor, the drill and the idiot who’d allowed it to happen, I regained my composure and I said to myself  ‘OK – I’ll just go out and buy another !’. That’s when I learned something quite interesting. In Canada, after more than three decades of being a metric country, you can’t easily buy a metric measure drill bit anywhere !

Canadian Tire is usually my first shop of choice – after searching around for a while I finally asked one of the pimply faced sales clerks for some help. I normally try to avoid doing this, as often all you get is a limp arm wave in an ambiguous direction, and some mumbling about checking aisle 489 or something – they usually don’t have a clue and you are better off just moving into the store for a couple of days still you can find it yourself. In this instance, while his eyes did glaze over somewhat, he surprised me and actually did know where the drill bits were kept and was able to confirm to me what I’d already figured out – there weren’t any metric ones visible on the shelf. He then checked the store inventory via the store’s computerized inventory system and found an interesting thing – Canadian Tire doesn’t list metric drill bits for sale ! I thought this was quite surprising and asked him to please double check (this is Canada – we say please a lot here). At this point the back up system they use was brought to bear and what looked to be a 200 year old guy was wheeled out from some dusty back room where he is kept for emergencies, and he carefully told me that it was true – they don’t stock metric drill bits, and that what I should do is buy a 1/8th inch size as it was almost the same.  This is true – it is ‘almost’ the same and actually is only about 0.03248 inches too small – that’s not the point. Putting aside the amount of maths one would have to do in one’s head while standing in front of a display of fractional inch drill bits ( and this is a daunting thought when one considers 4 mm is 0.157480315 inches, and a 1/8th inch drill bit is 0.125 inches which is a slightly better option than a 3/16th inch one at 0.1875 inches which would be too big, etc.) I was left wondering how is it possible that in Canada, after being metric for more than 30 years, when I’m trying to cut a hole for a metric tap to make a metric thread, I have to run around and figure out what arcane fractional sized Imperial drill bit is ‘close’ to what I actually need ? After over 30 years, why can’t I just buy the correct damn size ?

Canadian Tire had no answers to that question, and I have since checked at my other usual places of entertainment – RONA, Home Depot, Princess Auto, etc., and find that none of them have metric drill bits either. I’ve also checked on eBay, and interestingly most of the hits I get when I do find metric drill bits are from UK based stores which I find very odd given the UK is the home of all things measured Imperial ! As things sit at the moment, I suppose I will eventually find what I want in some specialty tool place somewhere in Calgary, or the other option will be that I have to take a quick trip back to Holland or the UK to get some decent  – correct – drill bits.

Weird.

One of my former customers passed away on Monday.

Arch Brown was a very special man although I only knew him a bit. A gracious man; someone that knew who he was and where he was supposed to be.

A man of service to others, support for the community and education.

When I was morphing from a struggling lawn care franchisee into whatever the hell I am now, I was told by a great teacher that the grocery, auto and Canadian Tire franchisees had a good thing going and that only the CT guys had the brains, guts and compassion enough to hold on.

The things that Arch said and didn’t say to me on his lawn I will remember forever. He showed me you should care enough to have to keep people at a distance. At least, for a while.

Mr. Barrie. Philanthropist. Father. Retired franchisee.

These are just labels. Arch was the real deal.

Everyone knows where Barrie is: It’s the place you go through to get someplace better. We all should grow where we’re planted because landscape matters. That is,  until your ride is here.

Chay, friend.

In addition to providing customers with great products, prices and savings heading into the busy holiday season, Canadian Tire has launched a new Christmas site to help Canadians get organized for holiday home decorating, entertaining and gift shopping.Find out more about Canadian Tire’s initiative, here.

Si vous vous rendez sur le site de Canadian Tire vous constaterez qu’un nouvel onglet à fait son apparition dans la barre de navigation : l’onglet « NOEL ».

Initiative intéressante mais un peu précipitée me diriez-vous ? Certes, c’est ce que l’on peut penser puisque le mois de novembre n’en est qu’a ses débuts. Cependant, le message véhiculé sur toutes les pages est « Prendre de l’avance pour éviter le stress de dernière minute et célébrer les fêtes sereinement ».

En effet, une application est dédiée spécialement aux préparatifs avec un compte à rebours qui propose des conseils quotidiens pour être prêt le jour J, mais également deux rubriques de conseils pour la décoration de votre maison et pour une organisation parfaite des festivités.  Ces fonctionnalités restent du moins relativement basiques. Ce qui a retenu notre attention pour son coté interactif est l’application qui permet de décorer son sapin avec les boules et guirlandes vendues à Canadian Tire où 6 thèmes sont proposés : Elégant, Cosmopolite, Traditionnel, Froid Hivernal, Majestueux et Romantique.

Le nombre de combinaisons pour décorer votre sapin est infini et vous permet d’avoir un aperçu plus que réaliste du rendu final. Canadian Tire vous propose de sauvegarder et même d’envoyer par courriel votre sapin, tout en ajoutant les décorations utilisées sur votre liste d’achat. L’option est également disponible pour illuminer sa maison en téléchargeant une photo de celle-ci.

Autre application intéressante, le sélecteur de cadeaux, il s’agit d’un moteur de recherche qui vous permet de sélectionner un destinataire, un intérêt ou loisir et un prix. Le sélecteur vous propose ensuite une sélection de cadeaux potentiels adaptés aux goûts du destinataire et à votre budget.

Canadian Tire est donc prêt pour les fêtes et invite ses consommateurs à l’être également. Grâce a un site, complet, intuitif et parsemé de conseils, qui a de grandes chances d’être un outil marketing ayant un impact positif sur les ventes de fin d’année. En effet, avec ces outils interactifs, le message que veut faire passer Canadian Tire est qu’il possède tout le nécessaire pour des fêtes réussies, pourquoi aller voir ailleurs quand on peut tout trouver au même endroit…

Sources : newswire.ca ; canadiantire.ca

Yesterday at MaRS in downtown Toronto I attended a gathering of extraordinary people with minds directed toward changing the world through social innovation.

The lecture was entitled: “Impact Investing: Building Prosperity outside the Mainstream.”

An incredible opportunity, and I was inspired and transported to a higher calling for my life’s role by the quality and depth manifested by those extraordinary presenters and participants.

This post includes two elements: my analysis and understanding of the presentations, the question period, and my questions that arose thereafter relating to this essential transformative global issue.

First, SiG and MaRS–who they are and what they are about, and then I look at the event itself: its speakers, questions which arose, and the concrete actions I am taking which relate to issues addressed at the conference.

“Social Innovation Generation (SiG) is a group who believes that serious social problems can be solved. SiG is a collaborative initiative that seeks to address Canada’s social and ecological challenges by creating a culture of continuous social innovation. Our focus will be on fostering social innovation to achieve impact, durability and scale.” Taken from the http://sigeneration.ca/

“MaRS connects the communities of science, business and capital and fosters collaboration among them.

MaRS drives social and economic prosperity by leading Canada’s innovation mission.

We at MaRS envision Canadian communities that are prospering through enhanced employment prospects, the creation and retention of local wealth and an enriched cultural and social environment. To realize this vision, we foster and promote Canadian innovation.

MaRS helps create successful global businesses from Canada’s science and technology.

MaRS provides resources — people, programs, physical facilities, funding and networks — to ensure that critical innovation happens. We stimulate, identify and harness great ideas, nurture their development and guide the transformation of those ideas into reality. We measure our success through the companies that emerge after receiving help from MaRS.” Taken from http://www.marsdd.com

MaRS, beyond the physical beauty of its environment, embodies a spirit which includes magnificent people contributing so meaningfully to Canada and the world. It is an incredible facility and for those of you who can, visiting MaRS will be an exciting life experience for you.

“Impact Investing: Building Prosperity Outside the Mainstream.”

The lecture was moderated by John Tory, the former Ontario Provincial Leader of the Progressive Conservative Party, Director at Rogers Communications, and two-time Toronto Mayoral Candidate.

The Right Honorable Paul Martin, twenty-first Prime Minister of Canada (2003-2006), Minister of Finance (1993-2002), and Member of Parliament for LaSalle-Émard (1988-2008) spoke with eloquence at the conference.

Bill Young, the Founder and President of Social Capital Partners also addressed the conference.  Bill is a visionary, consistently demonstrating his capabilities in the corporate, and now, not for profit social finance world, especially with respect to creating employment programs and jobs. http://www.socialcapitalpartners.ca

Mr. Tory was an extraordinary moderator framing the discussion by providing a clear and concise vision for what was to be discussed. Specifically, three challenges which interrelate to social entrepreneurship and social innovation in Canada. Namely:

• Legal challenges
• Financial challenges
• People challenges

Mr. Young and Mr. Martin, respectively, were given the floor to introduce themselves.

Mr. Young led, speaking briefly about Social Capital Partners and its role in Canada. His vision is quite simple, robust and enormously powerful––Every Fortune 500 company within the next ten years will utilize a social hiring role in order to engage and assist the community within the context of fulfilling their respective business missions.

He also mentioned projects which have successful demonstrated that business and social infrastructure can work together to enrich lives and economic profitability: A Vancouver Property Management organization; A Winnipeg Renovations company; A Toronto Bike Courier, and ten (10) Thrift Shops in Montréal.

Each of these organizations works with a respective Community Service Agency to train and place employees in positions that allow them to contribute to their own lives as well as society in general. Many of these newly employed people move directly from social assistance to the employing organization.

Mr. Young, in the first five-year innovation and investment phase, produced results in collaboration with others that proved in doing business this way; organizations can generate a return on investment while transforming lives for the better in Canada.

It became apparent to Bill during this initial period that there had been no fundamental change in the landscape. While enabling hundreds of people to move from social assistance to employment and seeing positive societal and attitudes trends, he did not see the paradigm shift occur which is needed to create a transferrable model which can then be successfully undertaken anywhere and everywhere. Bill viewed the challenges as:

• How do we engage corporations?
• Can we make this cookie cutter?
• How can it be done easier, faster and better?
• Is it possible to franchise the core concept?

These questions led Bill Young to explore approaching franchised businesses with a simple proposition:

• He would provide funding through a subordinate debt financing package which was more attractive then the banks
• This enabled a franchise to raise money at what would be considered ‘friends and family rates’
• In return, the franchises would agree to hire from a Community Service Agency.

Bill first approached Active, Green and Ross. The pilot began with five (5) Hamilton locations in Ontario. This pilot was so successful that Active, Green and Ross now uses this same hiring strategy at twenty-two (22) locations.

Thus, Mr. Young created and proved a new model that is more effective, faster, easier and better. It then became a matter for him of connecting the dots.

Bill next approached the Canadian Tire Board of Directors. He learned that one evaluation applied to the Board and its executives related to an organizational ability to effectively engage the community and aid in its development.

Bill Young, with this knowledge, went to Brampton, walked through their Brampton distribution centers and found that Canadian Tire could benefit to the tune of 4,000 employees who would come into the environment as employees trained by the Community Service Agencies. In a sense, he had identified an important element in the demand/supply chain as related to Human Resources development and had done it from the entry point. Bill had demonstrated and proven the value proposition.

He pointed out that technology would also play an important role and sites such as Monster and Workopolis could contribute toward accelerating changing the way that businesses engage in Human Resources strategies and social hiring.

This will allows the Community Service Agencies to focus on training rather than placement. The current Government models see the Community Service Agencies getting a fee for placement. However, Community Service Agencies may not necessarily excel at placement whereas they have demonstrated that they do excel at training.

By taking the original model and turning it on its head Bill Young has proven that Governments will save time, money and other resources, that there will be new effectiveness developed in the system, and further realized that there may be a way to reverse engineer social systems to gain greater effect.

One might reasonably wonder how does one follow such an amazing presentation by a leading social innovator.

Quite simply––be The Right Honorable Paul Martin, former Prime Minister of Canada and best damn Finance Minister the modern world has ever known.

Mr. Martin started by pointing out that there is a massive inequity in the way that Business Entrepreneurs and Social Entrepreneurs are treated in legal, tax and regulatory ways, and with respect to access to capital. He stated that this inequity leads to business entrepreneurs having access to all kinds of capital and incentives, while Social Entrepreneurs are left out in the desert.

Mr. Martin went on to define a social and business entrepreneur as being the exact same thing in that they each want to achieve the building of something, and that each fills an essential need within the context of the social fabric of Canada.

The former Prime Minister then asked a question and framed the answer: What should Government do? And in brief, he suggested the Government should treat both the same. Further, in so doing, there will be greater capital available to achieve greater results for Canada.

Mr. Martin elaborated by stating that currently there is a deficit in that social entrepreneurs have not been given a seat at the capital table–– for a myriad of reasons social entrepreneurs have not been allowed to tap into capital markets and that this represents a major challenge that needs to be overcome.

He went on to ask, “Where then do social innovators currently get money?”

Mr. Martin clearly revealed that Social Entrepreneurs are currently limited to accessing capital that may be made available by Angel investors who can see the value in undertaking social innovations through entrepreneurship. Further, that while being a good start, access to Angel investor capital is not enough to satisfy the needs of Canada and Canadian society.

It is important to note that this former Prime Minister of Canada does more than speak of the inequity; Mr. Martin has taken action to address this issue. While in Government, Mr. Martin directed $175 million dollars toward social innovation and entrepreneurship while cautioning that this was but a drop in the bucket, and yet he could not do more at that time because he did not understand the complexities as he does today.

How then does Mr. Martin now understand more? Simply, by putting his money where the rubber hits the road. Mr. Martin has long been a vocal and active advocate for the Aboriginal Peoples in Canada. He witnessed from his time as Finance Minister and Prime Minister of Canada that there was an ever-growing divide between Aboriginals and the rest of the country.

Hence the Cape Fund was born, and the critically important CAPE Fund Mission is “to further a culture of economic independence, ownership, entrepreneurship, and enterprise management among Aboriginal Peoples, on or off reserve through the creation and growth of successful businesses.”

More specifically, in communities where economic opportunity and capable political leadership are present, the CAPE Fund within a spirit and in the context of partnership provides equity and quasi-equity capital, business expertise, and mentoring on individual projects that are capable of providing both a:

Financial Return: A reasonable return based on market conditions and transaction specifics and after taking into the costs associated with the Social Return.

Social Return: consisting of the promotion of entrepreneurship, transfer of skills, and in most instances, ultimately the transfer of ownership/control to Aboriginal entrepreneurs or community.” http://www.capefund.ca

Yet, Mr. Martin acknowledged that more is required––Federal, Provincial and Territorial Governments need to recognize that this is an area of business that is going to have massive growth potential which will put people to work, and rather than bleed the tax rolls, will increase revenues while reducing unnecessary social infrastructure expenses.

As such, Mr. Martin believes it is necessary for regulatory and tax incentives to be placed into the Tax Act and sooner rather than later.

It is clear that Mr. Martin was looking for the imprimatur or legitimacy that already exists for business to be extended to social entrepreneurship.

The former Prime Minister of Canada effectively argues that there was a dearth of competent and experienced professionals inside this world of Social Entrepreneurship, and this is one factor that makes it such a difficult sale to investors and Governments alike.

However, he pointed out that through the Cape Fund, they have invested in a building company, which hired directly off the Reserves which dot the Canadian landscape. To overcome this challenge, he felt, the best thing to do was to put outside experienced and competent managers in place and allow Aboriginals to be promoted from within as time allows. Mr. Martin believes that over the course of the next decade he will be able to hand the reins over to competent Aboriginal managers and––His vision is bang on.

Mr. Martin went on to allude to the fact that the paradigm shift has already occurred. That the Global Financial Crisis has exacerbated this shift, and that Governments in Canada have been slow to recognize that this paradigm shift has occurred. He elaborated that the effects of this recession would be long ranging, perhaps as long as ten years, and we need a definite plan to deal with the realities, with Social Entrepreneurship, leadership and training being three areas that ought to be considered as promising contributors to the future well-being of Canada and Canadian society.

The former Prime Minister emphatically pointed out that Government is the problem. By virtue of the Leviathan, Government is slow to react to situational realities. It needs to be demonstrated in such a way as to make it easy for Government to embrace the necessary changes.

And, to do this it is important to clearly understand and be realistic about returns on investment and yet point out that some of the returns may not immediately measurable.

Thus, there are longer-term considerations that need to be examined, and metrics developed to figure out returns on investment.

Mr. Martin, in conclusion, eloquently made clear that a crack exists in the fabric of society and this crack will only worsen if it is not addressed now. Further this is far greater than just the distribution of wealth inequalities––Unaddressed this rift will cause far more problems and damage to society. He points out the need is currently greater than it has ever been in the past, and that the funds available to deal with that need are ever smaller due to the recent economic meltdown. As such, we need fresh vision, new ideas and champions to attempt to reverse this damaging trend.

The next post will look at the question period related to the regulatory, financial and people problems that exist within this field.

“Social entrepreneurs are helping to create a more peaceful, just and sustainable world.” Robert Alan

“Social entrepreneurs are not content just to give a fish or teach how to fish. They will not rest until they have revolutionized the fishing industry.” Bill Drayton

Be Inspired Today!

The New Currency
 SDM
“Change…At the Speed of Thought”

Despite the fact that Hubby and I have been really boring of late, we’ve still managed to get a few things done. With the onset of the colder weather, we’ve become a bit complacent and lazy. No ooommph!!! So, in order to get the juices flowing again, we’ve decided to shop a little early for bathroom fixtures and accessories in anticipation of the renovations.

I’m still baffled why the new Rona store in Welland isn’t up and running yet – can only suppose it’s economic problems – as this was one of the other stores we wanted to shop, having done all the other ‘big box’ stores. Yes, there are other Rona stores around, like the big one in Grimsby, but that’s a bit out of our way and unless we have another excuse to take that trip, we’re sticking closer to home. There’s also the probability that we’ll go all the way to Grimsby and not see anything we like. The chances you take, I guess. We did, however, have a great look around the Lowe’s store in Hamilton on the day we had to go to St. Joseph’s last week. It was just as well we didn’t have any high hopes, as there was nothing on display that grabbed our fancy. As an aside, have you been to the Lowe’s store (on Barton Street)? Nice store, but their displays are worse to look at than Home Depot. All of the bath and kitchen taps, shower heads, and other doodads were so high up I got dizzy cranking my neck that far back!! Even Hubby remarked it was kind of ridiculous. Yes, it was nice that you could just choose your fixture and then grab the corresponding box on the shelves below, but picking your fixture was the trick – couldn’t see most of them as they were darn near in the rafters of the store!! You’d have to borrow one of their loading ladders to even get eyeball to eyeball with most of the display.

So, having ruled our Lowe’s, Canadian Tire, Home Hardware and the like, we decided to hit some bath specialty shops. We gathered a small list of ones in Welland and Niagara Falls and headed out this morning ready to make a day of it. Our first destination was a little shop in Welland – Aqua-Blue – a nice bath, spa, shower, jacuzzi shop with great displays and lots of choices. And as luck would have it, we got lucky. Found everything we needed and different than what the big box stores had. The prices were right, the sales staff helpful and friendly and we walked away happy campers. So much for making a day of this whole thing, as we were finished by 11:00 am. So onward home, do the lunch thing, run a couple of other errands and then snuggle in for the rest of the afternoon. Being a rainy, drizzly day, it worked out just fine!

We now have most everything we need to get the bathroom done, and only have to shop for the light fixture, new towels, towel bars and paint, which shouldn’t be too much of a problem. So now I’m officially excited – we’ve got this stuff and it has to go somewhere, right!!!!

J’étais à souper avec des amis hier soir dans un bon restaurant de la métropole.

Notre discussion, la situation économique du Canada, du Québec, de Montréal et de ses habitants.

Conclusion: une grave crise économique se prépare au Canada.

On aura beau me dire que les statistiques de la Banque du Canada, de la Banque Royale du Canada, de Royal Lepage ou autres indiquent tous une reprise, la triste réalité est tout le contraire.

La soupe. Le déficit du Canada et sa dette.

50 milliards cette année.  50 milliards pour 32 millions de citoyens.  1563$ par citoyen du Canada.  Mais environ 3100$ par citoyen de la population active.  La dette du Canada s’élèvait en 2008 à 490,412 milliards soit environ 30650$ par citoyen de la population active.  Autrement dit, chaque personne apte à travailler au Canada est endetté au fédéral de 30650$.    En 2007 la dette du Québec était de 122,4 milliards, réparti par chaque citoyen de la population active cela donne  29248$.  Ainsi si on combine les deux paliers de gouvernements, chaque citoyen de la population active du Québec a près de 60000$ de dette publique.   Je n’ajouterai pas à ce calcul le palier de gouvernement municipal.   Mais je vais le faire pour la Ville de Montréal.   Montréal possédait une dette de 5,2 milliards en 2008 pour une population active d’environ 1 042 000 personnes.  Soit environ 5000$ par citoyen de la population active.  Ainsi le citoyen Montréalais apte à travailler représente 65000$ de dettes publiques.

Donc à lui seul ce citoyen devra assumer à même les taxes et impôts qu’il paie les intérêts sur cette dette de 65000$. Tout cela en plus des services actuels que lui donne les deux paliers de gouvernements dont l’entretien des routes, le régime de santé universel, la collecte des ordures, l’abonnement biblothécaire et toute la panoplie de services qu’offrent les trois gouvernements.

On voit tout de suite que ça ne tourne pas rond.  Surtout pour Montréal qui a une population active qui n’a plus aucune croissance.  Donc si la population n’a plus de croissance il faudrait que les déficits cessent.  Sinon il y aura augmentation de taxes, d’impôts et réduction des services.  Par exemple imaginer qu’à Montréal on ramasse les ordures une fois par semaine au lieu de deux fois par semaine.

La salade. La devise canadienne trop haute par rapport au dollar américain.

On ne se le cachera pas avec une population 10 fois inférieure à celle des États-Unis le Canada représente un très petit marché pour les entreprises d’ici.  Le gros marché il est aux États-Unis.  Hors pour favoriser l’exportation de ses biens aux États-Unis il faut une devise faible.  Ainsi minières, pétrolières, entreprises manufacturières et de services ont tout intérêt que le dollar canadien soit inférieur à la devise américaine.  Des millions d’emplois dépendent de cette devise.  Hors le Canada c’est connu ne contrôle pas sa devise trop souvent associé à une seule chose.  Le pétrole.  Le Canada aura beau faire des milliards en déficit comme cette année, la devise fluctue uniquement en fonction du pétrole.  Et c’est comme ça depuis la fin des années 70.  Le gros problème est que dans les années à venir la consommation de pétrole de l’Inde à elle seule et la consommation de pétrole de la Chine à elle seule dépasseront celle des États-Unis le plus gros consommateur de pétrole au monde.  Le pétrole est un combustible fossile dont les réserves ne sont pas éternel.  Donc comment les entreprises d’ici vont elle composer avec un dollar canadien fort?  C’est pour cela que j’ai déjà écris que si le président de la Banque du Canada avait des couilles, il dévaluerait la monnaie canadienne de 30 à 40% afin de favoriser son secteur d’exportation.  Mais le Canada ne contrôle pas son secteur d’exportation.  En grande majorité ce sont des entreprises étrangères qui viennent extraire la matière première du sol canadien et qui possède les grandes manufactures du Canada.  À titre d’exemple, Les Imperial Oil, Textron, GM Canada, Ford Canada, Ultramar, Chrysler, AbitibiBowater, Domtar, Pratt & Withney Canada, General Electric Canada, Allstom, Air Liquide,  RioTintoAlcan, Vale Inco, Toyota Canada, Honda Canada,  IBM Canada, Molson Coors Brewing, Coca-Cola Canada, Pepsi Canada, Labatt Canada, Alcoa Canada pour nommer que celles là sont tous des grands employeurs du Canada mais à capitalisation étrangère.  Ce que j’essaie de vous dire c’est qu’en grande partie les employés de la population active du Canada travaillent pour des compagnies étrangères.  Les profits ne restent pas au Canada, ces compagnies se préoccupe uniquement d’engendrer des profits dans une devise qui ne doit pas être dévalué sinon ça deviendra moins payants de faire des affaires au Canada.   Car aux employeurs mentionnés plus haut je peux rajouter les entreprises de ventes au détail et de services que sont les Future Shop, Wal-Mart, Costco, Home-Depot, Fujitsu, Dell Canada, Hewlett-Packard Canada, HSBC Canada, ING Canada,  Compagnie de la Baie d’Hudson,  McDonald’s Canada,  également tous des entreprises américaines.

Donc comme le Canada ne contrôle pas sa devise associé au pétrole, son économie dépend en majorité des entreprises étrangères.  En fait je tiens à préciser que le nombre d’emploi direct ne dépend pas des entreprises étrangères.  Mais le nombre d’emploi directs et indirects par rapport aux grandes entreprises étrangères en sol canadien, surpasse le nombre d’emploi directs et indirects par rapport aux grandes entrprises canadiennes en sol canadien.

Je ne connais pas de pays qui se sont enrichis en ne contrôlant pas leur devise ou leur économie.

Le plat de saumon.  La vraie situation de l’immobilier canadien ne tourne pas rond, vendez au son du violon achetez au son du canon.

Malheureusement les études fournies par les Royal Lepage et les banques sur la situation de l’immobilier au Canada ne fourni jamais les statistiques suivantes.
Combien de nouveaux acheteurs se sont-ils procurés une résidence en 2009 ?
De ce nombre d’acheteurs quel est le taux d’endettement?
Cette statistique on ne nous l’a dit pas.
Mais quand je parle à gauche et à droite aux gens de mon entourage qui se sont achetés une résidence dans les trois dernières années, c’est environ deux personnes sur neuf qui ont acheté une nouvelle résidence et avec des taux d’endettement qui n’ont aucun bon sens.  On parle ici d’environ 1 450$ mensuel pour le versement hypothécaire, les taxes municipales et scolaires.  C’est donc dire que le prix moyen du marché immobilier canadien évolue en fonction seulement de ceux qui possédaient déjà une résidence et qui s’en procure une nouvelle plus dispendieuse.  Mais pour que le marché à long-terme se maintienne il faut que de nouveaux acheteurs acquièrent une résidence surtout dans un contexte comme Montréal où la population vieillie et que sa croissance diminue depuis 2004.  Mais encore.  On ne cesse pas de construire de nouvelle résidence à Montréal toujours dans un contexte où la population diminue.
De plus le Canada est le seul pays du G8 qui n’a pas vu ses prix immobiliers chuter d’un bon pourcentage.
L’immobilier ne tourne pas rond.  Sur les deux personnes sur neuf qui se sont achetés une maison, leur raison majeure était les taux hypothécaires bas.  Hors expliquez moi comment que le secteur immobilier pourra croître lorsque la Banque du Canada rehaussera les taux d’intérêts uniquement pour suivre la situation inflationniste aux États-Unis ?  On voit bien que ça ne tient pas la route.  Ainsi la personne qui paie 1 400$ par mois de paiement hypothécaire (taxes municipales et scolaires inclus) pourrait se retrouver avec un paiement majoré à 1 900$.  Ce 500$ peut parfois faire une grande différence entre conserver sa résidence, la vendre ou remettre les clés à l’institution financière.  C’est pourtant vers ça que le Canada s’en va.

Actuellement on entend les différentes banques et les différentes agences immobilières nous dire que l’immobilier va bien au Canada.  Je vous rappel ces paroles sages.  Vendez au son du violon achetez au son du canon.  Actuellement les banques et les agences immobilières nous joue un bel air de violon.  Ansi, vendez avant de subir.

Le dessert, l’endettement des canadiens et les emplois.

L’endettement des canadiens, je parle ici de l’endettement hors hypothécaire,  ne cessent d’augmenter.  Ainsi selon l’agence Moody’s, les canadiens utilisent davantage leurs cartes de crédits et la mesure des défaillances de paiement a atteint 4,8 % au second trimestre, un record.    Moody’s estime que le taux des défauts pourraient augmenter dans les prochains mois.

Également les canadiens en profitent pour s’endetter vu que les taux d’intérêts sont bas.  Sauf que le Canada n’a pas subir encore de plein fouet la récession parce que ses consommateurs en ont profité pour consommer en s’endettant.  Qu’adviendra-t-il de ses dettes lorsque les taux d’intérêt monteront.  Encore une fois je vous le répète, le Canada ne contrôle pas sa devise ni sa politique monétaire.  Lorsqu’il y aura inflation aux États-Unis, la Banque du Canada n’aura d’autres choix que de monter ses taux d’intérêts.  C’est là que ça fera mal.  Plusieurs faillites personnels surviendront lorsque les taux augmenteront.

Les seuils d’endettement canadiens approchent maintenant ceux des Amércains et des Britanniques, selon Moody’s.
Toujours selon Moody’s, les taux de défaillance des cartes de crédit sont habituellement corrélés avec le taux de chômage, qui avait atteint 8,7 % en août. Moody’s prévoit un taux de chômage de 9,6 % au second trimestre 2010.

Un taux de chômage qui monte de 0,9% cela équivaut pour le Canada environ 400 000 pertes d’emplois supplémentaires par rapport à la situation d’août 2009.

Ça n’annonce rien de bon.  D’autant plus que je trouve les estimations de Moody’s très conservatrice.  Un taux de chômage plus près des 10,5% est davantage plausible.  C’est donc près d’un million d’emploi qui pourrait être perdue.

Le café, c’est beau le positif mais il faut être réaliste

Comme je le dis dans le titre, c’est beau être positif mais il faut être réaliste.  Le marché immobilier canadien, la devise canadienne ne tiennent actuellement d’aucune logique face à la réelle situation économique du Canada.  Se rajoute à cela un gouvernement fédéral qui gouverne avec le gun sur la tempe, lui qui est menacé d’être dissous à toute occasion par les partis d’oppositions.  Allez en élection n’est pas la solution car on sait que la situation politique canadienne reflète beaucoup la différence de ce grand pays.  Ainsi l’Ouest plus pétrolière élit des députés conservateurs, le Québec vote souverainiste, l’Ontario et les Maritimes font la balance.  Allez en élections n’est souvent pas la solution.    Quand on regarde les principales activités économiques et idéologiques par région du Canada on se rend rapidement compte que le Canada semble condamné à élire des gouvernements minoritaires.  Aussi bien gouvernement en toute logique plutôt que de gouverner en attente du plein pouvoir.

Le cigare.  Comme citoyen, la solution face à la crise à venir: économiser, payer vos dettes et achetez canadien.

Il suffit de se rendre dans les centres commerciaux pour voir que les canadiens ne sont actuellement pas affecté par l’actuelle crise économique. En fait ils n’y croient absolument pas car ils se sentent aucuneemnt affecté dans leur quotidien.

Ces gens consomment avec leurs dernières économies et surtout avec les cartes de crédit comme je l’ai mentionné plus haut.

Hors en temps de crise on se serre la ceinture, on paye nos dettes non résidentielles et on consomme moins et on s’en tient à l’essentiel.  On achète de l’usager plutôt que du neuf.  On se contente pas du dernier modèle de télévision.  Vous désirez une télé 50 pouces?  Les petites annonces regorgent de télé HD 50 pouces à projection pour moins de 500$.   Pourquoi payez 2 000$ pour le dernier modèle?  Consommez intelligemment.  Actuellement face à la récession mondiale, les consommateurs canadiens ont davantage l’air de cigales plutôt que de fourmis.  Normal parce qu’ils ne se sentent pas affecter par cette crise?  ERREUR.

Rare sont les pays qui ne sont pas affectés par une récession mondiale et qui ne contrôlent pas la destinée de leur devise.  En fait je vous met au défi de m’en nommer qu’un seul.  J’en ai personnellement pas trouvé.

De plus dois-je le rappeler, le principal partenaire économique du Canada, les États-Unis sont dans un marasme économique profond et avec leur clause Buy America avec laquelle ils croient pouvoir s’en sortir n’annonce rien de bon pour les manufacturiers du Canada.

La solution c’est d’économiser et de protégez vos économies.  Réduisez votre consommation au plus proche possible de l’essentiel et économisez pour la crise à venir.  Vous pouvez économiser pour éviter le pire durant cette crise ou vous pouvez économisez pour saisir les occasions d’investissements qu’il y aura au coeur de cette crise.  Ces occasions pourraient être un petit condo sur le Plateau à 40% moins cher qu’en 2009 ou encore le beau bungalow en banlieue qui aura perdu 30% de sa valeur.  Comme occasion on pourrait retrouver également des actions de grandes entreprises ou de  PME canadienne toujours solides mais bouder vu la crise au Canada.

Je vous invite aussi à protéger vos économies.  Assurez-vous que vos investissements actuels ne se feront pas éroder par l’inflation.  L’or, l’argent, les actions de grandes compagnies minières, l’art (pour les connaisseurs), les résidences à revenus (payés avec plus de 40% de capital), les actions de grandes corporations peu endettées,  bien dirigés et donc une bonne partie du chiffre d’affaires se fait à l’étranger (SNC-Lavalin et Groupe CGI sont de bons exemples), sont là de bons moyens de protéger vos économies en temps de crise.

Aussi il serait grand temps que les consommateurs canadiens se conscientisent et se décide à acheter majoritairement des produits canadiens.  C’est beau d’être le consommateur égoïste et d’acheter toujours ce qu’il y a de moins cher, trop souvent produit ailleur mais au bout du compte ça ne cré pas d’emplois durables au Canada sinon l’emploi du vendeur et de la caissière.

Lisez les étiquettes.  Où est fabriqué le produit? Je vous dirais d’achetez canadien à prix égal ou même à 10% supérieur. Par exemple mesdames, achetez donc les serviettes hygiéniques Cascades avant d’acheter une marque étrangère.  Même que je vous dirais d’avoir une carte de crédit d’une banque canadienne avant d’avoir une carte de crédit d’une banque étrangère.  C’est beau les taux des cartes de crédit MBNA (États-Unis) ou le pseudo-prestique d’avoir une American Express (États-Unis) mais les banques canadiennes peuvent vous passez à taux similaires sur leurs cartes de crédits.

Aussi même si la marque est canadienne et qu’elle est produite ailleurs, à prix égal ou même 10% supérieur, achetez cette marque plutôt qu’une autre.  Ainsi c’est le fun les blocs Légo dont la maison mère est au Danemark mais une compagnie québécoise produit des items similaires à prix similaires.  Méga-Blocks.  Qu’ils fassent produire leurs petits blocs en Chine ou ailleurs on s’en fou.  Les capitaux de cette entreprise demeureront ici.

Certains ne m’aimeront pas mais je vous dirais également d’encouragez les magasins de ventes au détail canadien avant d’encourager les américains.  À prix égal ou même très légèrement supérieur, achetez donc dans un magasin canadien.  Canadian Tire, Rona, Réno-Dépôt, Reitmans, La Source, Sports Experts, Nevada Bobs, Dumoulin, Archambault, Renaud-Bray, Indigo,  Hart pour ne nommer que ceux-là sont tous des magasins canadiens qui offrent souvent à prix égaux ou légèrement supérieurs le même item que vous désirez vous procurez.

Pour les chaînes de fast-food encouragez donc la canadienne Harvey’s avant de vous rendre dans un McDonald’s ou un Burger King.

Même votre essence, achetez-là donc d’une entreprise canadienne avant d’encourager une entreprise étrangère.  Pourquoi vous rendrez chez Ultramar, Shell ou Esso alors que Irving et Petro-Canada (maintenant Suncor) sont canadiennes ?  Encouragez aussi les revendeurs d’essence indépendants canadiens que sont les Canadian Tire, Pétro-T, Olco pour ne nommer que celles là.

Plus encore, vous êtes chef d’entreprise, avant d’accorder un gros contrat à une firme de consultant dont la maison mère est hors-canada, pensez-donc à une compagnie dont le siège social est établie au Canada.  À titre d’exemple favoriser donc le Groupe CGI avant de favoriser le groupe DMR dont la réelle maison mère est établie au siège social de Fujitsu au Japon.

Ayez le réflexe achetez canadien avant d’acheter étranger.

Ce comportement a adopté devrait être une loi interne pour chaque citoyen du Canada.  Les américains le font maintenant ouvertement avec leur clause Buy America (qui exclut le Canada soit dit en passant, America pour un américain signifie États-Unis).  Au Canada on a pas besoin d’une loi ou d’une clause Buy Canada.  On doit être plus intelligent et en faire une loi non écrite, en faire un réflexe primaire de penser à acheter canadien avant toute chose.  Aucune loi ne peut empêcher un citoyen d’un pays d’acheter des articles et des services de sont pays avant ceux provenants d’ailleurs. C’est là qu’on doit être plus intelligent.

Ne soyez  pas égoïste en achetant à tout prix l’item ou le service le moins cher.  Pensez aux emplois d’ici en achetant le plus souvent possible des produits fabriqués au Canada et des services offerts par des compagnies dont le siège social est canadien. C’est ainsi que le Canada pourra un jour reprendre le contrôle de son économie et la destinée de sa devise.

Dites vous-ceci.  Achetez un produit ou un service d’une compagnie étrangère est pire pour l’économie du Canada que le blanchiment d’argent ou l’argent des riches citoyens du Canada envoyés à l’abri d’impôt dans des paradis fiscaux.  Chaque citoyen peut faire une différence dans l’économie du Canada.

Soyez fiers d’être citoyens de votre vlle, d’être québécois, d’être canadien.   Je ne parle pas ici de protectionnisme mais de simple logique.  Un dollar dépensé chez nous pour un produit de chez nous fait travailler des gens de chez nous.
Montrer que vous êtes fier de travailler pour une entreprise en consommant les produits de cette entreprise.  Rien de plus loufoque de voir un employé d’un concessionnaire Chrysler se rendre au travail avec une Hyundai Elentra.   Tout aussi loufoque l’employé de la Ville de Montréal qui habite Longueuil, Laval ou Repentigny.  Soyons cohérents dans notre consommation et notre fierté. Adoptons des comportements logiques face à cela.

C’est ainsi que chaque citoyen du Canada prospérera.

Straight (slanted?) on, from Bath Road.  I think it looks more exciting blurry, at night…clubby, even.

Welly, welly, well. I just went to my local Canadian Tire store at Leila & McPhillips. The message that I got from Canadian Tire was very clear. Customers are nothing but a bunch of pain in the ass, shopping cart using, question asking thieves.

Scan, bag, stop stealing, hand over the cash and then muscle everything out to your car and don’t use our shopping carts.

I took my spending money to Canadian Tire and not more than 3 feet inside the main entrance, I was greeted with a life-size cardboard cutout of a cop warning me that shoplifting would not be tolerated. I looked to my left and noticed the new security guards and that the cash desks had been replaced with “self serve checkouts”. Having experienced the horror of the self serve checkout on my last visit, I was incensed. I commented loudly about this as I passed several Canadian Tire employees on my way to the mall entrance and not a single one of them took notice. Blocking the mall entrance was a sign that read “shopping carts are NOT to leave the store”.

This just about sent me over the edge, so I went to “customer service” to request to speak to the manager. The girl there asked me what it was about and I told her that I had concerns about the store. She asked if it was a specific department and I told her that it was about the store in general and that I wanted to see the store manager. The girl called someone named Keith, who was too terribly busy to bother with a lowly customer, such as myself. I told her that was fine and that I would direct my concerns to the head office. Then I left.

Here’s what I think about the whole situation. Canadian Tire used to have many, many cashier’s desks with only 1 or 2 cashiers actually working. This led to ridiculously long wait times, that customers probably complained about. Don’t even get me started on the bullshit associated with trying to return something. The solution that Canadian Tire dreamt up was the self serve checkout. How very modern. My personal experience with the self serve checkout, was that it was a gong show. The self serve checkout, combined with a lack of staff most likely led frustrated customers to say “fuck it” and throw their unscanable items into a bag and walk out. Now, Canadian Tire has added signs, extra security and fancy cardboard police officers to their decor in an attempt to deal with their thieving customers. I hope that the end result of this new unwelcoming attitude will be a decrease in theft and a severe decline in sales because I for one am not giving Canadian Tire another single penny of my money. I don’t work at Canadian Tire and I am not a cashier so I don’t want to scan my own shit. I also don’t appreciate being pre-accused of shoplifting by a cardboard Canadian Tire cop.

I think that Pollock’s Hardware will be able to fill my Canadian Tire void quite nicely.

Oh, and by the way, I did contact the head office in Toronto; they’ll get back to me. Maybe they’ll send me a coupon.

Ground Zero Paintball pulled through with another successful paintball event once again, hosting the fifth event of the season in Gananoque, Ontario. Unbelievably, it was already here. This was the last event for your team to make the cut as the number one team in your division, the last chance at bringing home the medals, and the last shot at making NAX. We, the players, and spectators, witnessed it all. Everything from the tears and blood, to the joy and high feeling of accomplishment. It all comes in the package; hopefully you were fortunate enough to catch it all live.

Sometimes there is just too much to tell, or, you just don’t know where to kick the weekend’s story off from. So the best way to resolve this is by starting with congratulating all the teams who busted their buts this season in the trenches, and now have made it to the top. After all the hard work, dedication, money, and time put into this, they deserve one big round of applause.

CX4 team Whitby Rhino Rampage came first this season, winning the series title as the number one CX4 team in their division. They came through with a total of 225 points this season, along with Codrington Corrupted Youth in second place and Hamilton Havoc in third place. It was a tight division, packed with close matches all season long, but everybody did an amazing job. Congratulations boys, enjoy the prizes and super cool medals.

RXL team Woodstock Defiance came into the division with next to no Xball experience, other than being under the wing of Travis Kropf (ex. Shockwave Canada player). This was their first year as a real team together, gaining hundreds of war stories and hotel memories this season together as a team. They went through the drama together, and have now learned how to win together. Woodstock Defiance also accomplished their goal of winning an MXL spot in the league for next season. Congratulations on a job well done. Essex Supremacy led shortly behind in second place, as well as Joyceville Juveniles in third place. Hopefully everybody takes another shot at the title next season in 2010, where we’ll find more exciting matches and new winners.

Kitchener Recon came into MXL this season after winning their spot from RXL in 2008. They smashed their way through RXL, now absolutely obliterating anybody in their path in MXL. Recon has a point differential of plus 65, leaving the closest contender (Sudbury Union) in the dust with only plus 18. They not only blew the points off the score sheets, but also managed to win every single match, going undefeated this season. If that isn’t impressive enough, they also not only won a CXBL spot for next year, but an AXBL spot as well. Kitchener Recon competed in MXL up in the states as well, under the name of Bronx Hate. It just so happens that Bronx Hate went undefeated this season in the MXL division. This group of players definitely has something going for them, who knows what 2010 will bring. I believe I speak for them when I say thanks go out to their loyal coach Nelson Fonseca. Congrats also go out to Elmira Nemesis for coming in second place and Waterloo Wildcards for coming in third.

CXBL was an absolute, out of control, rollercoaster this season. Teams that were in the bottom seemed to somehow find their groove around the middle, and others who thought to have no worries, fell into the ground. Although, three particular teams seemed to always be in the same ball park. First up was Cambridge Raiders, the thought to be winning team this season. Next up was Kingston Criminal Factory, a team that was coming from experience, as well as the help from hired pros Bart Blonski and Pete Utschig. Finally was Toronto Rage, a well represented team who made some major pickups this season to perfect the roster. All three teams grinded out hard matches with one another, but the question remained, who would break through with the medals and move onto NAX? The answer was Toronto Rage. After Cambridge Raiders slipped last event, Toronto Rage seized all the open opportunities possible. Quick points in clutch times raised their point differential a ton, bringing them the medals and entitling them as the number one team in Central CXBL. Cambridge Raiders just fell short, coming in second. Kingston Criminal Factory remained in third with only a total of 10 points, compared to Rage and Raiders with 12. Amazing jobs everybody, but the action isn’t close to over yet. NAX is in less than a month, so I hope to see everybody there.

Special Thanks go out to all of our hosts for making this possible. Ground Zero, Flag Raiders, Soldier Gear, and Bingemans entertainment center all did a phenomenal job with the events. Special thanks also go out to BuyPBL, Draxxus, VForce, Smart Parts, Sup Air Ball, Canadian Tire, and FantasyPB for making any of this possible. The best event of the season is always saved for last; NAX is going to get hectic. The pressure is on and the teams demand 110% out of their players at this point. Stay tuned in and don’t miss a second of it with ThisIsPaintball.ca!

Kyle Muffty

I am always impressed and – let’s be honest – very happy when I need to visit Canadian Tire.  In one visit the other day, I went in, spent 15 minutes, grabbed three items that were most unrelated, and left.  If this was a start up business, it would fail or be expected to fail right away.  This is not what one can consider….focused.  Now let’s be honest, from their corporate website but also from the name, it is easy to know that when it all started, Canadian Tire was selling – well – tires!

Imagine that…one of the most diversified stores in the country, was extremely focused when it started.   The diversification happens when you are successfull at doing what you do best.  You don’t start with “being everything to everybody”….the same goes with any companies.

It is a good lesson for entrepreneurs as well.   People in the biz call this “trying to boil the ocean”.  Be focused.  Take something you are good at, develop it and work hard at it.

This is what we are trying to do as well.  More to follow on that story….but now that the dog looks good and my wheels are shiny, time to head to the golf course!

Voulez-vous bien me dire…. Est-ce que le Canadian Tire va revenir un jour à Mont-Laurier? Les commères du coin ont beau alimenter les discussions depuis plusieurs années… la situation stagne depuis longtemps de ce côté, il me semble. J’attends de vos nouvelles!;)

There are three options we have for fixing our car.

1. Attempt to drive it out to Jim the Mechanic, who lives a fair distance from town. He knows his stuff. He knows cars like ours. We could probably make it. Maybe.
2. Take it to Canadian Tire, which is about four blocks from here. They’re likely more expensive and I kind of doubt they’ll know their stuff like Jim the Mechanic does. But it’s close and we can definitely make it there.
3. Give the car a proper Viking Funeral.