The Ascent of the Loonie and Decline of Manufacturing: A Global Attack on U.S. Dollar That Canada Can Do Little About; McGuinty Wrong to Pressure Harper; Main Solution to Cut Corporate Taxes; Loonie Will Decline
Flaherty Aces Economic Statement - Among Highest Performance Scores Recorded; Main Reservations - Not Enough Infrastructure Spending and Debt Repayment; Concern Volunteered about Fate of Manufacturing, Need for Tax Simplification, and Other Issues
Throne Speech - Strong Praise for Commitments on Crime, Income/Corporate Taxes, Inter-Provincial Trade Barriers, and the Arctic; Mixed Views on GST Cut and Native Issues
Kingston and Its Communities: Where They Stand on Municipal Funding of Local Hospitals
Oil Patch Taxation Controversy: Mixed Feelings from the Business Panel
Throne Speech and Surplus: Pay Down The Debt and Control Spending
A Mixed Picture of Terrorism: Terrorist Threat Perceived as Declining, Yet Ottawa Earns Failing Grade for Preventing Would-Be Terrorists from Entering the Country and Panel Calls for Tough Trade and Investment Prohibitions against Terror-Sponsors like Iran
Unions: Constructive on Health and Safety in the Workplace, But Undermine Economy, Taxpayers, and Democracy, Backing Lunatic Fringe Groups in Canada and Abroad Layton Top Union Advocate and Harper Top Advocate of Non-Unionized Employees and Canada’s International Competitiveness
U.S. Sub-prime Mortgage Crisis: Central Banks Responded Well to a Potentially Serious Ongoing Situation
Harper Cabinet Shuffle - Good But Not Great; MacKay Appointment to National Defence Inspired; Keeping Flaherty at Finance a Strong Move; Prentice, Ablonczy, and Bernier Appointments Good; Other Appointments Acceptable
Assessing Harper’s Ministers - Honeymoon Over; Top Performers - Harper, MacKay, Flaherty, and Day; Most Stable Performers - Harper and Day; Issue Priorities - Taxes and Trade, Crime and Defence
The Bre-X Fraud: Business Panel Assigns Responsibility Widely
Oil Prices and Expert Predictions of U.S. $ 100 a Barrel: Panelists Discount the Forecast But Expect Price to Edge Up
The Looney: Looney Will Stabilize at U.S. $ 0.96; Looney Should Ideally Fall and Interest Rates Should Not Rise; Opposition to Adopting the Greenback at All Time High; Outgoing Bank of Canada Governor Earns Accolades
Serious Risks from Overseas Food Imports: Urgent Need for Stronger Labeling on Food, Better Laws against Counterfeit and Substandard Products
Urgent Need for Single Securities Regulator: IMF Leader Strikes a Chord in Criticizing Patchwork Quilt
Overtime Work: Significant Division of Opinion on a Passionate Topic
Mackenzie Pipeline: Federal Government Role Should Be to Facilitate Private Enterprise Development, Overcoming Aboriginal and Inter-government Impediments; North American Security of Supply Canada’s Top Benefit
Grading Harper: Strong on Defence, International/Interprovincial Relations, Near Failing Grades on Taxation Policy
Québec: PQ in Fundamental Decline; Duceppe May Have Been Unable to Save the Provincial Party; Federalists Politicians, Not Constitutional Reform, Are Key to Conquest of Separatism
Oil Prices
The Canadian Dollar: Business Panel Forecasts $ 0.90 in April, 2008, Sees $ 0.86 as Ideal Exchange Rate, Gives Very High Performance Scores to Governor Dodge
Taxes: Federal Government’s Achilles’ Heel
U.S. Auto Industry’s Ten Year Prognosis: No Change vis-à-vis Japanese or Perhaps Slightly Worse; Excessive Union Contracts Top the List of Problems
Harper’s Second Budget: Middling Grades as Economic Instrument, Kudos as Election Device
2006 Census
Bank ABM Fees
Corporate Giving
Greenhouse Gases: Business Panel Largely in the Middle between Fraser Institute and U.N. Panel on Climate Change
Nearly Unanimous Call for Increased Legal Liability on Organizations That Store Large Quantities of Hackable Customer Information
Assessing Harper at Cabinet Shuffle Time: Baird Appointment Celebrated But Opinion Divided on Both Government’s Strongest Suit, Integrity, and Its Weakest, the Environment
Corporate Crisis Predictions for 2007 Most and Least Likely Crises - Bad Products and Fraud Most Likely vs. Fire and Terrorism Least Likely Most and Least Prepared - Companies Most Prepared for Fire and Law Suits vs. Least Prepared for Employee Violence and Terrorism
