Right back where we started from

Economic and Fiscal Update November, 2005: – Decrease lowest tax rate from 16% to 15%, retroactive to January 1, 2005 – Increase basic personal amount over 3 years to reach $10,000 in 2009 Economic and Fiscal Update October, 2007: – Decrease lowest tax rate to 15% from 15.5%, retroactive to January 1, 2007 – Increasecontinue reading

Everything’s (sort of) fine (for now)

RBC Royal Bank is feeling so confident about the Canadian economy that it thought it would hold a press conference to share its sunny outlook yesterday. According to Jim Westlake: “If the U.S. economy settles down and they get the types of growth that are forecasted right now, and you don’t see any more secondary effect,continue reading

Parks Canada encourages geocaching

Pretty cool, even if they are controlling it a bit: Parks Canada caches are located in publicly accessible areas and are accessible from trails and/or roads. Instead of containing trade items, caches contain messages that reveal interesting often unknown aspects of the area where they are located. Parks Canada aims to encourage geocachers to sharecontinue reading

Tiny bubbles

– Am I the only person who is baffled by the parity protests? What is it that makes Joe 2-4 think that Canadian prices should be identical to those in another country, with a different size, different transportation costs, and different labour laws? And why is Flaherty grandstanding on this issue, pressuring retailers, who havecontinue reading

Is the blond hegemony crumbling?

As Toronto has grown, the share of Toronto-born-and-bred residents of the city is ever smaller. As part of that diminishing minority, I’ve noticed that many people who move to the city later in life are blissfully ignorant of the significance of being from one part of the city or another. Overall, this is a goodcontinue reading

Well, that’ll piss off the generals

Prime Minister Moves to Grant Honourary Canadian Citizenship to Leader of Democracy Movement in Burma, Aung San Suu Kyi Interesting move. I approve (since I’m sure Stephen Harper’s decision-making hinges on my approval…). Note the language, too: in news articles and press releases including this one, I’ve noticed an almost total switch from “Myanmar (alsocontinue reading

Oh dear

Headline in my RSS this morning: Canada’s New Government Increases it’s Commitment to Enhancing Girl’s Education in Afghanistan