The Bloc won 49 of 75 seats in the last election. I wouldn't exactly call that a minority. How many seats in Alberta and B.C went to seperatists?
"The current economic crisis is worse than a divorce....I've lost half my fortune but I still have my wife"
My family owns one of the largest parts manufacturers in Canada and I just had to forward this ad to my cousin. He wasn't very pleased but we had a laugh anyways.
Yesterday's noontime rates: 1 Euro = $ CDN 1.69 1 SFR = $ CDN 1.07 ouch....soon we'll have to stop consuming goods from Europe (like Swiss Cheese, for example)...
Much like CFM I am nearing the end of a fairly successful run where we would have to unwind the business due to circumstances beyond control. I am also in search of a new venture, these days you are poised to do better with investments you control. I remain invested in stocks beind down approx. 50% from peak and expect to leave that money there for a min of 5 yrs before I expect to see meaningful recovery. Dont own any real estate other that personal and pleasure, and would stay way from things like apartment buildings and senior residences. Banks have changed their lending standards dramatically and this will hit smaller guys, overleveraged guys etc. I expect to see real state investments to soften substantially and then I would certantly be a buyer. No reason to rush, real estate market doesnt snap back overnight, you will know when its time. I would look at apartment buildings with yield of 12% ( net on total purchase price) in Toronto or 13-15% in Montreal, and close to 20 on multi unit industrial. Might see far fetched but those deals were around as recently as 94-95, and that was when housing market was already off its low's. Real estate or markets will always remain secondary to active business where I believe you stand the best chance. From start up stand point I like home energy products - sales,distribution,installation - seems like a longer trend also supported by gov grants, as well as second tier consumer finance - banks have left lots of space. Not overly concerned by reccessionary enviroment - good businessman will always find a way to overcompensate lower demand with lower costs and cheaper talent. Other than that I got to say that while this year has served a very painful blow to my net worth via market crash, hardly much would change in my lifestyle. Life goes by with no regard to state of ecenomy, and life is to be enjoyed no matter what.
I am one of the fortunate few who has a business that is not effected by the economic down-turn in the US or Canada. I had decided to invest in some new production ideas with the long future in mind. As a matter of fact, the expectation and projections by our OEM customers and distribution network, is a 22 to 25% growth. Infrastructure is still pretty well supported by budgets throughout 2009. With some new energy directed products for release in the spring of 2009. The exciting times are still to come. There is a 5 year plan, at that point I will sell this very profitable portion of my company and work on something else. I am looking to add another Ferrari. Merry Christmas
Vasco, it was a regional retail chain. Consumer financing was tigtened substantially by 3rd party providers such as Wells Fargo and Citi cut off substantial customer base.
Well don't mean to come off the wrong way but those 500 dealerships or so probably weren't needed in the first place.
I guess that my son got really lucky, considering all the negative news: He lost his job at Nissan Finance in TO in mid-December, and got a job almost the same day at Chrysler Finance...
Technically and statistically you may be right. But it's easy to state this if you do NOT count on the car business to support your wife and kids. Losing jobs and company's closing is never good news.
+1 Whats next? Saying that there are too many grocery stores in Canada? Maybe if Loblaws closes 100 stores you would see another 5000 people out of work as well........This is a harsh reality these days. People are just not buying as much as they used to, whether its cars, food, shoes, clothes...etc.
...and the bad news is truly GLOBAL, not just in N/America & Europe: www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10554241
Being in the used exotic side of the car business I can say things are not a busy as it has been in the past, but on the flip side we have still managed to make deals and offer great buys for retail customers, the reason i feel we will still manage to stay above water is due to the fact the price of cars have become a lot more affordable, its much easier to buy an exotic today considering certain cars have come down in price almost 100k since this time last year ! Serge L
I'll find out in March. Jan Feb are always dead. So far comparing months to years past all is on track. Knock on wood.
Hi guys, Just to say that I bear with you guys but also to say that in Quebec City unemployment is down to 3,8% while the province is up to 7,7% and the country up at 7,2% 3000 jobs created in the area last month! I'm just wondering if we are not just going higher to jump even lower afterward...?
What sector are these new jobs in? - Staffers at the Quebec Employment Offfice? They're certainly not in Engineering - quite a few of my colleagues are already out of work...
