Canada Ranks Above US in Economic Freedom

The Heritage Foundation just put out its annual report, and Canada scores 7th best in the world. In Heritage Foundations’ latest index of economic freedom, the top 10 countries with the most economic freedom are:

1. Hong Kong
2. Singapore
3. Australia
4. New Zealand
5. Ireland
6. Switzerland
7. Canada
8. United States
9. Denmark
10. Chile

Do you see anything remarkable on this list? Chile, still a 3rd world country, has managed to climb on the top ten list through dynamic economic growth because of free global trade agreements, strong public sector growth, and diversified financial sector.

One thing I did not like on Wikipedia’s Canada page is this line:“Canada is a mixed market, ranking lower than the U.S. on the Heritage Foundation’s index of economic freedom but higher than most western European nations.” Now that Canada beats USA in economic freedom, This line would not make me unhappy anymore and hopefully Wikipedia will update this shortly.

More Canada Articles:

Canada/Toronto Archive

Canada 2010 Federal Budget Highlights

New Mortgage Rules Come To Canada

Canada Exceeds Economic Expectations

The Small Press of Toronto Book Fair 2009 took place at the Gladstone Hotel, 1214 Queen Street West, Toronto M6J 1J6 (Queen Street West & Gladstone near Dufferin). From 10 am-5 pm on Sat, December 12, 2009. I participated in this event, and I am posting a video clip. It was a cold day and temperature stayed at -5, but better than last Thursday when wind chill reached -27. The fair was a huge success, despite cold weather.

Toronto Small Press Group has a new branding now and it is called Small Press of Toronto (SPOT). SPOT is in its 22nd year and it continues to be one of the most anticipated and diverse events in the Toronto literary arena. Visit Small Press of Toronto for more info.

Related Posts:

Meet Canada’s Personal Finance Author A. DAWN At The Gladstone Hotel
The Spring 2009 Toronto Small Press Book Fair
The Toronto Small Press Book Fair June 2008
Invest Now At The Toronto Small Press Book Fair
Meet Your Author A Dawn At The Toronto Small Press Book Fair
The Fall 2008 Toronto Small Press Affair

Meet Financial Author A. Dawn At The December 2009 Toronto Small Press Book Fair

The December 2009 Toronto Small Press Book Fair will take place at the Gladstone Hotel, 1214 Queen Street West, Toronto M6J 1J6 (Queen Street West & Gladstone near Dufferin; Public Transit: TTC Queen Streetcar (the stop is right in front of the Gladstone Hotel). From 10 am-5 pm on Sat, December 12, 2009.

I will be participating in this event. This year we will be celebrating our 22^nd year with a fair at the fabulous Gladstone Hotel. This is a great opportunity to meet Canadian authors under one roof. Just stop by to say Hi. Hope to see you there.

The Toronto Small Press Group meets twice a year, and I always participate in these fairs. I will be posting video clips and pictures of The December 2009 Toronto Small Press Book Fair later on. Don’t forget to check out The Toronto Small Press Group website.

Related Posts:

The Spring 2009 Toronto Small Press Book Fair
The Toronto Small Press Book Fair June 2008
Invest Now At The Toronto Small Press Book Fair
Meet Your Author A Dawn At The Toronto Small Press Book Fair
The Fall 2008 Toronto Small Press Affair

Canada’s Global Competitiveness Ranking Improves

The World Economic Forum released their Global Competitiveness Report 2009-2010 today. Canada moved up to ninth place from last year’s  10th and 2007’s 13th for overall competitiveness.

The banking sector is one of the many factors Geneva-based organization World Economic Forum looks at to rate countries in terms of overall global competitiveness. The U.S. has ranked second, behind Switzerland, in a poll of over 13,000 business leaders. Singapore is third and Sweden comes fourth.

Here are the top ten countries on the Global Competitiveness Report:

1.   Switzerland
2.   US
3.   Singapore
4.   Sweden
5.   Denmark
6.   Finland
7.   Germany
8.   Japan
9.   Canada
10. Netherlands

Source: World Economic Forum. Visit World Economic Forum website for more information.

More Canada:

Canada Ranks High

Canada Gets A+ Again

Canada – The First Nation To Step Out Of The Recession

Canada Is Back In The Top 10 Of The Least Corrupt Countries

The Spring 2009 Toronto Small Press Book Fair In HD – Long Version

The Spring 2009 Toronto Small Press Book Fair – Short Version

The Spring 2009 Toronto Small Press Book Fair took place at the Toronto Reference Library, 789 Yonge St. Toronto, ON, M4W 2G8. From 9am-5pm on Sat, June 13, 2009. I participated in this event, and I am posting two video clips for your viewing pleasure. The weather was nice (23 °C little wind) and lots of visitors attended the fair.  The Small Press Book Fair featured lively entertainment such as eclectic readings, performances, raffle draw etc. For the first time in our 22-year history, the TORONTO REFERENCE LIBRARY agreed to host the 2009 Toronto Small Press Book Fair! This was a Unique Opportunity To Meet Canadian and International Celebrity Authors Under One Roof. Celebrity authors such as Kieran Furey, Kildare Dobbs, Goran Simić were featured.

I like attending this kind of event, and I encourage entrepreneurs to join any events like the one we had today. It presents an opportunity to meet many other like-minded people and it will increase your networking capability which is very important.

The video was done with a MoviePix MP5A4 HD cam. For more pictures and video clips, visit A Dawn Journal on  Flickr, and YouTube. Also, visit The Toronto Small Press Group Website for more info.

Related posts:

The Toronto Small Press Book Fair June 2008

Invest Now At The Toronto Small Press Book Fair

The Fall 2008 Toronto Small Press Affair

MEET YOUR AUTHOR A DAWN AT THE TORONTO REFERENCE LIBRARY

I will be participating in this event. For the first time in Toronto Small Press 22-year history, the TORONTO REFERENCE LIBRARY has agreed to host the 2009 Toronto Small Press Book Fair. This is a great opportunity to meet Canadian authors under one roof. Just stop by to say Hi. Hope to see you there.

The Toronto Small Press Group meets twice a year, and I always participate in these fairs. I will be posting video clips and pictures of The Spring 2009 Toronto Small Press Book Fair later on. Don’t forget to check out The Toronto Small Press Group website.

Related Posts:

The Toronto Small Press Book Fair June 2008
Invest Now At The Toronto Small Press Book Fair
Meet Your Author A Dawn At The Toronto Small Press Book Fair
The Fall 2008 Toronto Small Press Affair

The Canadian Association of Credit Counselling Services Begins Its Journey

The credit crisis has bitten deep in many countries the world over. Perhaps as a result of the many alerts that have been sounded worldwide in the last few years, it had seemed like people were taking a rather skeptical view of this crisis. When you take into account that the Y2K bug never really stung – or at least planes did not fall from the sky and in fact the world kept operating much as it had before – and that although bird flu claimed more lives than one would have hoped, it never really reared up into the crisis it may have been, it is easy to see why there were people who brushed off the idea of the credit crunch. But it is here, and it is very real.

More and more Canadians are now having to admit that they are being sucked into the trouble that the crisis has caused. People are losing their jobs and their homes, and as a consequence there is a very real human cost to all of this. Although Canada was one of the last countries to submit to the global credit crisis, it has certainly succumbed to some extent, and the people being affected range from the high earners to the low-paid. Although the sound financial policies practised more widely in Canada than almost anywhere else mean that we will be one of the first countries to recover, that may be a while off yet. In the meantime it is essential that there are people out there to provide help for those who are at the mercy of the credit crunch, and that is why people should be relieved at the founding of the Canadian Association of Credit Counselling Services (CACCS).

Credit counselling is a vitally important step in putting people on the right footing to deal with this crisis. The existence of paid-for debt counselling is something that is really not helping the current situation, and if you have been considering putting your debt matters in the hands of a company who promise to get your finances sorted out “for a small monthly fee”, please reconsider. If anyone says that you paying them to fix things will help you out of debt, then they are lying to you. There are services who will do the same thing free of charge, and they are generally far better qualified than the fly-by-night profit-based debt management companies.

CACCS are dedicated to providing an umbrella under which the not-for-profit credit counselling services can operate, and raising awareness of the services they provide. If you think about it, the profit-making companies who purport to offer the same service are going to have less incentive to get you out of debt – because the longer you are paying them to “sort things out”, the better for their profit margin. If you are working with one of those organizations, take the first steps towards kicking them into the long grass today and contact CACCS at their website (www.caccs.ca)

Some hand-picked related and non-related posts:

Credit Crisis, Canada, Real Estate, and Mortgage

Putting It On Paper Can Solve Your Problems

Free Home Phone Comes To Canada

Lights Off for Earth Hour

2009 CANADA TAX DEADLINES

If this is your first time here, You may want to subscribe to ADJ via RSS. If you are reading this page via RSS reader, you can visit the main page here – Canada’s Personal Finance Blog.

Canada 2009 Budget

Canadian Finance Minister James M. Flaherty released the 2009 Federal Budget yesterday. Looks like after 11 years of surpluses, we will have a $33.7 billion deficit in the next fiscal year, reaching a total deficit of $80 billion in the next five years. Most probably, we will move back to positive territory after 2013 or 2014. This is how one of the best performing economies among G7 nations looks like.

Today, I am going to present some important highlights that will affect you directly:

• The basic personal amount, the spousal and common-law partner amount, and the eligible dependent amount will increase to $10,032 in 2009 (from $9,600 in 2008)
• The upper limit on the lowest personal income tax bracket (taxes income at 15%) will increase to $40,726 in 2009 (from $37,885 in 2008)
• The upper limit on the second personal income tax bracket (taxes income at 22%) will increase to $81,452 in 2009 (from $75,769 in 2008)
• A new Home Renovation tax Credit will be in place. It lasts one year and is worth up to $1,350 per household. This credit applies to expenditures in excess of $1,000 but not more than $10,000 at 15% from January 28, 2009 to February 1, 2010.
• Home Buyers’ Plan withdrawal limit increases to $25,000 (from $20,000)
• A new First Time Home Buyers’s Tax Credit is being introduced. This non refundable tax credit is equal to $5,000. To get the dollar value, multiply this by the lowest personal income tax rate. It works out to be 15% X $5,000 = up to $750.
• Age credit for seniors will increase by $1,000 to $6,408. The income level at which age credit is fully phased out increases to $75,032 (from $68,365)

These are just some highlights I have picked. For more information about this budget, visit Canada’s Economic Action Plan Budget 2009

Some hand-picked posts you may want to read:

10 Tips to Save Money at Restaurants

No One Cares About Your Money

40 Ways To Save Money On Textbooks

30 Free Canadian Financial Tools and Calculators

13 Free Canadian Personal Finance eBooks

Ontario Towns – Towns and Cities in NorthWest Ontario

Ontario Travel - Travel Guide and Vacation Planner for Ontario

Where Canada – Shopping, Dining, Entertainment and More

WeekendTrips – What Are You Doing This Weekend ?

Ettractions – Online Travel Guide To North America

Canada’s Claim Over Arctic

Why Now?

Just a few years ago the world has not paid much attention to the vast, abandoned arctic but nowadays its hard not to notice that Canada and arctic being mentioned everywhere, specially after Canada’s prime minister Steven Harper’s trip to Nu navut to reaffirm Canada’s claim over the North. But the question is why now?

It’s all about Global warming, which is opening up huge economic potential in the arctic north mainly for 2 reasons.

1. World is using up its oil fast and to survive the future, we need to look for places which have not been explored yet. Arctic holds oil, gas, minerals, fish and other resources under it’s frigid, barren landscape which stretches thousands of miles. Surveys show that the Arctic contains an estimated one-quarter of the world’s undiscovered energy resources. Also studies suggest that up to 50 per cent of the earth’s remaining undiscovered reserves of hydrocarbons are located north of 60°n latitude. However, the extraction and transportation procedures still remain difficult and expensive. New technologies should cut down the cost considerably by making extraction and transportation procedures efficient and cost effective, just like Alberta tar and oil Sands.

2. The effects of climate change could open up the Northwest Passage to summer commercial traffic by 2015, which links the Atlantic and Pacific Oceanand offers a 7000 KM shorter route than the Europe to Asia voyage through Panama Canal. This summer the Arctic sea ice cap shrank to the smallest size ever measured and scientists believe that in 25 years not just the Northwest Passage, but the whole polar cap could thaw and by the end of this century, summer sea ice could disappear entirely. Some countries are already testing the waters. A Russian ship traveled through the Northwest Passage to Bermuda in 1999 and it saved them a lot of time and money. Japan and other countries researching to find ways to travel through Arctic for large ships.

Canadian or International Waters?

How much of Arctic is Canada’s? Canada claims that the Arctic waters of the Northwest Passage constitute “historic internal waters”, and under Canadian jurisdiction. While most countries agree that many islands dot the Arctic to the north of our mainland belongs to Canada but some countries, most arguably the Unites States does not recognize Canada’s right over waters separating Somerset Island from Devon Island or Melville Island from Banks Island. These countries see the Northwest Passage as an International strait or waters that any countries should be able to use. Hans Island in the Arctic Ocean has already been a matter of diplomatic issue with Denmark. Recently, Danish troops landed on Hans Island and planted a flag (2002 and 2003).Canada responded by doing the same right after (2005), which was the right thing to do to show the world that although we are peace loving people; we won’t tolerate anything when it comes to maintain our sovereignty.

Canada’s Plan For Protecting The Arctic

- Three new armed naval heavy icebreakers in the area of Iqaluit. The icebreakers will include 500 regular force personnel for crews and support and will be capable of carrying troops. This commitment will establish a Canadian naval presence in the Arctic.

- A new military/civilian deep-water docking facility in the area of Iqaluit. 

- A new Arctic National Sensor System for northern waters which will include underwater surveillance listening posts, such as acoustic or movement sensors, that will detect the movement and position of any foreign submarines and ships in Canadian Arctic waters.

- A new Arctic army training centre in the area of Cambridge Bay. 

- New fixed-wing search-and-rescue aircraft in Yellowknife. 

- Provide eastern and western Arctic air surveillance. New long-range unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) squadrons will be stationed at Goose Bay and Comox to provide continuous Arctic and Ocean surveillance and patrol. Also, the Aurora aircraft and the satellite surveillance system will be upgraded to provide a complete Arctic surveillance capability.

- Revitalize the Canadian Rangers by adding 500 additional Rangers. The Rangers’ level of activity and training will be increased and equipment will be upgraded.

- Provide an army emergency response capability for the Arctic through a new airborne battalion at CFB Trenton.

Conclusion

Although Canada and the U.S. may disagree on the Arctic waters issue, it hardly becomes dispute. We can not work this out militarily with our southern neighbours for the obvious reasons. An Arctic cooperation agreement with the U.S. is in place and has worked well so far. Under this agreement, we are to suspend our differences and cooperate in one another’s Arctic waters. This agreement can be extended to include naval cooperation, Arctic security cooperation etc which would be beneficial for both and cost effective. Recent government activities are very positive and hopefully it will not wither away. Further policy discussions have to be arranged to secure Canada’s future most efficient and effective ways.

Originally published on www.adawn.net. I will be transferring all my articles from Canada’s Personal Finance Website. You will see articles from www.adawn.net being posted here once in a while. Thanks.