Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , The Liberals, NDP and Bloc have signed a historic accord that supports a Liberal-led coalition government. But the Conservatives are determined to do all they can to stay in power
STEVEN CHASE and CAMPBELL CLARK AND BRIAN LAGHI
Globe and Mail Update
December 2, 2008 at 8:30 AM EST
OTTAWA — Stephen Harper’s beleaguered Conservative government girded yesterday for an all-out battle to stave off imminent defeat at the hands of a newly minted Liberal-NDP coalition, signalling it might even move to terminate the current session of Parliament to do so.
This morning, Governor-General Michaëlle Jean announced she is cutting short a state visit to Central Europe to return to Canada on Wednesday “in light of the current political situation in Canada.”
Government supporters said they are planning rallies across the country and will go door-to-door to gather signatures on a petition protesting against the deal that could lead to the Conservatives’ ouster as early as next week by a coalition that would make Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion interim prime minister. Rally locations will include Rideau Hall – home of the Governor-General – and Parliament Hill. Sources say broadcast or print advertising is also a possibility.
“It’s a PR war now,” one senior Conservative said.
They’re fighting a coalition pact under which the Liberals would share cabinet seats with the New Democratic Party for the first time in history, with Mr. Dion handing over the prime minister’s job in May to whichever candidate – Michael Ignatieff, Bob Rae or Dominic Leblanc – wins the Liberal leadership race in May.
Rank-and-file Tories, many of whom are upset with the Prime Minister’s Office for precipitating the crisis, were nevertheless united yesterday in efforts to fight the opposition coalition. At a Tory staff Christmas party last night, a feisty Mr. Harper referred to the coalition as the “nightmare before Christmas.”
One controversial measure open to the Tories would be to prorogue Parliament, ending the current session and setting a date in 2009 for a new one.
Asked whether proroguing Parliament is an option, Environment Minister Jim Prentice, speaking to reporters after a conversation with Mr. Harper, indicated that it is being considered. “The government will consider all steps that are reasonable to protect the interests of the country, and the interests of Canadians, particularly in these uncertain economic times,” he said.
The Tories are planning to argue that their seven-week-old government must be allowed to stay in power or, failing that, Canadians should decide in a new election who is in charge.
The Liberals, NDP and Bloc Québécois, which together hold more than half of the seats in the Commons, yesterday signed a historic accord that would support a Liberal-led coalition government for at least 18 months.
They also sent a letter to the Governor-General, indicating they are ready to take over as the government from the Tories.
It is an odd alliance: Mr. Dion, the anti-separatist crusader who authored the landmark Clarity Act and Mr. Duceppe, whose party advocates an independent Quebec.
They said they were taking this extraordinary action because the Harper government failed to deliver an economic-stimulus package in its fall fiscal update.
Eighteen of the coalition government’s cabinet ministers would be Liberals and six would be New Democrats. The Bloc would not formally be a part of the coalition and would back it to the end of June, 2010.
In a press conference with Mr. Dion and Mr. Duceppe, NDP Leader Jack Layton urged Mr. Harper to accept his fate, and not create instability by fighting tooth and nail.
“Prime Minister, your government has lost the confidence of the House. And it is going to be defeated at the earliest opportunity in the House of Commons. I urge you to accept this gracefully,” he said.
Mr. Dion said Mr. Harper has only himself to blame.
“If he lost the support of the House, it’s his own fault. It’s because he did not know how to present a government that faced the economic crisis we’re now in. And because he said one thing and its opposite to the point where no one could believe him any longer.”
Mr. Harper set the tone for the Tory response yesterday, chiding the Liberals as the “party of Laurier and Trudeau” for being in league with leftists and separatists, and saying he believes his government’s fate should not be decided until it has presented an economic-stimulus package in a Jan. 27 budget.
“I would certainly not want to find myself governing this economy today … under a situation where I was required to follow socialist economics and be at the behest of the veto of the separatists.”
The Liberals, NDP and Bloc together outnumber the Tories in the Commons. The Liberals have 77 seats, the New Democrats 37 and the Bloc 49, giving them 163 votes versus the Conservatives’ 143.
Monday is expected to be the first chance for the coalition to defeat the Conservatives. The Tories delayed confidence votes on their fall fiscal update until that date when it became clear opposition parties meant to push them from power.
Although the opposition pact calls for the Liberals and NDP to share power until June, 2011, Mr. Duceppe said the Bloc Québécois would not guarantee its support beyond June, 2010, because the other two parties would not make concessions on actions to reflect Quebec’s recognition as a nation.
The Bloc will support the coalition on automatic confidence matters such as Throne Speeches and budgets, but will vote freely otherwise.
The coalition agreement calls for an economic stimulus package including infrastructure spending; money for housing; aid to key sectors such as manufacturing; auto and forestry sectors; funding for skills training; and support for unemployed older workers.
But Mr. Dion said leaders could not say when stimulus details would be revealed, or how much the plan would cost, arguing they do not yet know when they would take power and have not seen the country’s hidden fiscal details.
The pact does not detail all stands such a government would take on matters that divide the parties, but Mr. Dion outlined a few. His election-campaign carbon-tax proposal would not go ahead, but plans for a cap-and-trade system for carbon emissions would. Planned corporate tax cuts would go forward – a major concession for the NDP – and Canadian troops would remain in Afghanistan until 2011.
Tories say they’d prefer to be defeated early next year rather than in December. One senior Conservative said that even if they were defeated when the House is called back after prorogation, the government would be a few months older and Ms. Jean might be more inclined to call an election at that point rather than turn government over to the coalition. Tories believe they could win an election by arguing that the coalition partners are solely interested in political gain.
The Harper government also drew support from the wider Tory family yesterday with an intervention from Conservative Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach.
“[Canadians] did not vote for a minority coalition that will govern with the support of a party whose agenda is by definition opposed to the national interest,” Mr. Stelmach said in a reference to the separatist Bloc.
Asking Ms. Jean to prorogue Parliament at a time when the opposition is seeking to defeat the government would place the Queen’s representative in a never-seen constitutional quandary.
Mississauga Conservative MP Bob Dechert argued that shutting down Parliament until the New Year would not be undemocratic.
“I don’t think so. I think the confidence vote will happen in the New Year. It could be a confidence vote, it could be a vote on the Throne Speech, it could be a vote on the budget itself,” Mr. Dechert said.
But Eastern Ontario Tory MP Daryl Kramp said there’s no point, because the coalition will take power sooner or later.
“To my mind, all that would simply do is delay the situation to another day.”
With reports from Katherine O’Neill and Jane Taber
Original Article HERE
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , OTTAWA — Canada’s minority Conservative government, re-elected less than two months ago, could be toppled in the next few days if Prime Minister Stephen Harper doesn’t make changes to an economic statement that has all three opposition parties up in arms.
Two of the three Canadian opposition parties are negotiating to form a coalition government, which the third has agreed to support, if the government is defeated in a confidence vote in the House of Commons on the government’s updated budget forecast, which the opposition parties said doesn’t address the financial crisis. The plan also would eliminate some subsidies to political parties.
Former Liberal Prime Minister Jean Chrétien and Ed Broadbent, former leader of the New Democratic Party, are brokering a behind-the-scenes deal, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The two parties plan to ask Governor General Michaëlle Jean to allow them to govern as a coalition if the Conservative government is defeated. The Quebec-based separatist Bloc Québécois will support them, but won’t be part of a coalition.
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty’s economic and fiscal update, delivered on Thursday, contained an array of spending cuts to keep the budget in surplus. The projected surplus for the current fiscal year ending in March 2009 was pared to 800 million Canadian dollars (US$650 million) from C$2.3 billion predicted in the C$241.9 billion budget last February. In the following two fiscal years, the surplus is now expected to be just C$100 million each year, down from C$1.3 billion and C$3.1 billion respectively.
The plan didn’t contain measures to stimulate an economy that Mr. Flaherty acknowledged was in a recession. The government said it was reviewing spending to save C$4.3 billion in the next fiscal year and as much as C$11.3 billion over four years after that.
The opposition parties said the plan fails to address the growing financial crisis in Canada. But their ire was especially stoked by a controversial plan to eliminate about C$30 million a year in taxpayer subsidies to political parties. Although the Conservatives stand to lose the most, they attract more contributions from individual donors, unlike their opposition rivals that depend to a greater degree on the subsidies.
A spokesman for Mr. Harper said Friday that the prime minister is prepared to stand his ground on the political subsidy issue.
Original Article HERE
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , It only took a couple of days in Toronto last week to remind me that Canadians are not only different from Americans, but they are also different from one another: by province, language and ethnicity. This diversity has some interesting implications when it comes to marketing brands not just in Canada but globally.
As my colleague Aurelio Diluciano puts it, “If America is a melting pot, Canada is a fruit cake,” meaning that in Canada people adhere to their origins and do not blend into one homogeneous culture.
While I am not sure that Aurelio’s analogy holds up to close scrutiny – after all, many different ethnic groups in the United States maintain a strong cultural identity – it does give the right impression. Diversity in Canada, where there are just 20 million people, is more striking and obvious than in the U.S., where there are 300 million. A visit to Quebec might convince you that you were in France, while a trip to Nunavut or British Columbia would give a totally different impression.
This diversity does not stop Canadians from being very proud of their collective culture, and some brands have leveraged this pride to good advantage. A notable example is Molsen Canadian. This ad, “The Rant,” created substantial buzz around the brand with its humorous take on the frustration of mild-mannered Canadians who are overshadowed and often misunderstood by Americans (and others).
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his ad appeals directly to Canadians but would not resonate the same way in the U.S. In this way, The Rant is like many ads in our Link database that test exceptionally well in one country but have limited appeal elsewhere. Similarly, a brand that plays to national culture may limit its appeal beyond the country’s borders, but may enjoy greater success within the country by doing so.
As I said at the outset, diversity has some important implications for marketing. If the choice to highlight similarities and differences among people has real marketing implications for brands, then an important question is: will the differences between ethnic and cultural groups in Canada and elsewhere stand the test of time?
My belief is that the answer is yes. As the world becomes more connected, we will observe two diverging trends: one towards greater homogeneity, and one toward greater diversity, a celebration of what makes us different as individuals and cultures.
We can see the two diverging trends at work online. Facebook, Google and YouTube have global reach, but much of the content shared on these sites is personal and local in nature. Just as these social media platforms connect people of like mind around the world, they also enable sharing among people in local communities who are likely to understand references to local news and events and enjoy the same type of humor. Recognizing this, these Internet brands have created local extensions to their global platforms. By creating sites specific to different countries, brands like Facebook and Google are seeking to foster a stronger sense of community.
I reviewed this idea with Matt Semansky, a reporter for Marketing Magazine in Canada, and he said he had come across something similar in researching an article that will come out this week. He suggested that people in Quebec recognize that they are becoming more similar to the rest of Canada in many ways but that this makes them more determined to celebrate what remains different.
This makes good sense to me. Humans have always been tribal in nature. Identifying with a group is important to us; therefore many brands have become successful by helping people promote a sense of community and shared interests.
In future I suspect brands will need to decide whether they want to be mass-market players that can appeal to common human motivations around the world, or if they need to solidly embed themselves in their local culture, whether that is defined by geography or values. We may eventually see a greater proliferation of niche brands, tailored and targeted to very specific audiences.
So what do you think? Will the world become more diverse or less? And what are the implications for marketers? Please let me know.
Nigel Hollis � Blog Archive � Differences, diversity and marketing
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , Direct marketers bracing for a gloomy holiday season might be surprised to learn that their neighbors to the north could offer some refuge from the cold shoulders of American consumers.
According to Laurene Cihosky, senior VP of Canada Post’s direct marketing, advertising and publishing business, Canada is becoming an increasingly attractive option for catalogers and e-tailers seeking to offset decreased consumer spending in the U.S.
To date, the country has been less severely affected by the credit crunch. As a result, Cihosky believed Canadian consumer confidence and 2008 holiday spending will remain strong—or, at least, strong compared to that in the United States. “There’s still optimism here,” she said.
Read The rest Here Eh?—>Economic conditions, lack of competition make Canada a land of opportunity :: BtoB Magazine
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , We just had a (somewhat pointless) federal election in Canada yesterday. There’s generally supposed to be a blackout ban on televising or broadcasting the results until all of the polls across the country are closed. Because of our geographic spread, polls in Newfoundland closed more than 3 hours before those in Vancouver had. In fact, when the polls closed in Newfoundland, I still hadn’t voted in Vancouver.
The CBC is reporting today that the broadcast blackout was “broken” by the use of social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook.
Read The Rest—->Canada’s Election System Doesn’t Get Social Media
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , Happy Thanksgiving!! Eh?
Hosers
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , 
British Columbia’s ClubPenguin.com, which Disney this week announced it had acquired for a minimum of $350 million (and up to $700 million) had growth of 329% in 2006 alone .
Canada’s Financial Post has more on the story here
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , Cellphones, Internet step to the fore
Land lines pull in just 27% of revenue
GRANT ROBERTSON
MEDIA REPORTER
July 27, 2007 at 8:49 AM EDT
Almost 50 cents of every dollar flowing into the Canadian telecom sector now comes from cellular or Internet service, an indication of how much the traditional phone has been shoved aside as the industry’s biggest money generator.
The sector brought in a record $36.1-billion last year, but old-fashioned local phone service represented just 27 per cent of the pie, or $9.75-billion, according to annual data published by the federal communications regulator.
The report, released yesterday, highlights the contrasting segments of the telecom industry. Internet and cellphone service now combine for just over 49 per cent of total revenue.
Cellular phones command $12.64-billion in revenue, or 35 per cent of the industry total.
They have become the new kings of the sector, not only overtaking residential phone service, but the industry’s other traditional cash cow – long distance service, which brought in $4.69-billion last year, representing just 13 per cent of the pie.
The dominance of cellular service is perhaps more apparent when looking at profits, industry observers said.
Wireless service accounted for $5.6-billion in pretax profit last year, which equals 44 per cent of its revenue.
Overall, the industry made $7.5-billion in pretax profit, holding on to roughly 32 per cent of total revenue.
“You can see where the money is,” said Kaan Yigit, a consultant at Solutions Research Group Inc. in Toronto. “Wireless is bench-pressing above its weight in profits.”
Wireless subscriptions grew by 10 per cent last year, but revenue rose more than 15 per cent, indicating the use of data services and other cellphone features is driving the trend.
Further pushing the traditional residential phone into the background is the increasing number of Canadians opting only for cellular service. Barely more than 1 per cent of households were using only cellphones in 2001. Last year that number hit 5 per cent.
“We are seeing the Golden Age of wireless,” Mr. Yigit said.
The report suggests two thirds of Canadian homes have at least one cellphone. Other industry estimates peg cellular penetration at 58 per cent of the population.
Though Canada still lags the United States, Europe and Asia in terms of cellphone penetration, it leads in broadband adoption.
About 7.5-million homes now have high-speed Internet access, equal to 60 per cent of households.
Mark Goldberg of telecom consulting firm Mark H. Goldberg and Associates Inc. said the challenge for the industry is to continue investing in networks that will increase the use of high-speed Internet among consumers.
“One of the things we’ll be watching is how they are able to invest in technology that allows them to continue the speed evolution of Internet service,” he said.
Canada’s CBC Launches ‘Canadian Idol’ for Online Video Directors
 All Tasty on the Western Front,a current Exposure Canadian network CBC will be premiering the first episode of Exposure this Sunday, reports The Globe and Mail. The show seeks to discover the country’s best online filmmakers with a YouTube-esque video posting process. The very brave (or very foolish) can post videos on the Exposure website. Results will be broadcast on television and will air every Sunday until Labor Day. “It’s putting the tools in the hands of the artists,” said CBC producer Sean Embury.
Producers select the best videos, but viewers will also have the opportunity to vote on their favorites. The winner will receive $25,000 and a chance to work on a new series for CBC. The website boasts 2,000 registered users and 800 featured videos since its launch, five weeks ago. |
