NewsCan: For December 7-13, 2007
Special Features |
International News |
Business and Trade |
Canadian News |
Opinion/Editorial
The Connect2Canada team produces NewsCan as a weekly summary of Canadian news. If you have comments or suggestions, please email us at newscan@canadianembassy.org.
The articles appearing in this newsletter have been collected from various Canadian and American news websites. Articles appear in the language in which they were published.
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News from Connect2Canada
Santa gets VIP treatment in Canada
The Connect2Canada Team
With Canadian fighter jets meeting Santa as he enters Canadian air space off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador on December 24th, children across the country can rest assured that Santa gets VIP+ treatment all the way!
Canadian NORAD fighter pilots, flying the CF-18, take off out of Newfoundland to welcome Santa to North America. Then at numerous locations in Canada, other CF-18 fighter pilots escort Santa. While in the United States, American NORAD fighter pilots in either the F-15 or F-16 get the thrill of flying with Santa and his reindeer. About a dozen NORAD fighters in Canada and the United States are equipped with Santa Cams.
You will be able to closely follow Santa's progress on NORAD's website. Santa has communicated to NORAD that he intends to begin his journey at 2:00 am MTN on Christmas Eve, and you can track Santa Live as he makes his historical journey around the world! At that time, NORAD's tracking data will be translated into streaming audio and video updates and posted to the web site's radar map. All of this information is available in English, French, German, Italian, Japanese and Spanish.
Canadian Artists Garner 20 Nominations at the 50th Annual Grammy Awards
The Connect2Canada Team
Feist, Michael Bublé and Nelly Furtado are among this year’s top Canadian nominees with a combined eight nominations. They are joined by Arcade Fire, Bramwell Tovey and James Ehnes (Vancouver Symphony Orchestra), Delerium, Emerson Drive, Isabel Bayrakdarian, Joni Mitchell, Loreena McKennitt, Marc-André Hamelin, Nickelback, Royal Conservatory Ensemble, Rush and Walter Ostanek vying to take home the U.S.’ highest honors in music. In addition to these 20 nominations, American jazz pianist and composer Herbie Hancock was rewarded with an Album of the Year nomination for River: The Joni Letters, his tribute to Canadian Joni Mitchell.
The 50th Annual Grammy Awards will air live on CBS from Los Angeles on Sunday, February 10, 2008 at 8 PM (ET/PT). To learn more visit their website.
Special Features
Canada Supports UN Principles for New Climate Change Deal
December 10, 2007
Canada’s Environment Minister, John Baird, met today with Yvo de Boer, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Minister Baird emphasized Canada's support for the UN's efforts to reach agreement on a process for a new global climate change deal post-2012.
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PM outlines vision based on real results for a strong Quebec within a united Canada
Tuesday, December 7, 2007
In an address delivered today before the Rivière-du-Loup Chamber of Commerce, Prime Minister Stephen Harper indicated that his Conservative government practises a federalism of openness that respects Quebec’s historical, cultural and linguistic distinctiveness and gives it the flexibility and autonomy it needs to maintain its Francophone identity within a strong and united Canada.
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Legislation to restore citizenship to lost Canadians
Monday, December 10, 2007
The Honourable Diane Finley, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, today tabled a bill to give Canadian citizenship to those who have lost or never had Canadian citizenship because of outdated provisions in existing and former legislation.
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International
Ambassador stresses vigilance for vital cross-border trade
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Michael Kane, Vancouver Sun
Economic insecurity in the U.S. is stoking fires of protectionism that could threaten British Columbia's vital cross-border trade, Michael Wilson, Canada's ambassador to Washington, said Monday.
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Canada's climate position gets UN boost
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Canadian Press
Canada's bid to water down climate-change targets at a world environmental conference has earned the high-profile backing of the head of the United Nations. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said today that he agrees that a demand for rich countries to slash greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 might be too ambitious for this week's climate talks to tackle.
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A hawkeyed addition to Canada's Arctic arsenal
Monday, December 10, 2007
Paul Taylor, Globe and Mail
A Canadian satellite is to blast into orbit this week with the explicit goal of monitoring the country's environment and natural resources from space. But in the age of global warming, the high tech eye-in-sky, called Radarsat-2, could soon be playing a pivotal role in defending Canada's territorial claims in the high Arctic.
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Les États-Unis se convertissent au «soft power»
Jeudi 13 décembre 2007
Jim Mannion, La Presse
Après six difficiles années de conflit depuis le 11 Septembre, les dirigeants américains se convertissent à l'idée que le «soft power», le pouvoir de convaincre, peut être un bon moyen de regagner de l'influence dans un monde marqué par l'instabilité.
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Plans for Canada's Afghan reconstruction base stretch to 2015: insiders
Wednesday, December 13, 2007
Canadian Press
The Foreign Affairs Department has developed plans to keep a Canadian provincial reconstruction base in Kandahar until at least 2015, say federal officials.
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Poll highlights unease over U.S. foreign policy
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Marcus Gee, Globe and Mail
A new poll suggests when it comes to their country's role in the world, Canadians really are from Venus, not Mars.
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Business and Trade
Senate passes bill to resume isotope production
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
CTV.ca
The Senate has passed emergency legislation to reopen the Chalk River nuclear reactor, so officials can resume production of medical isotopes.
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Canada sends a message on foreign takeovers
Saturday, December 8, 2007
Steven Chase and Norval Scott, Globe and Mail
Canada has put the world on notice that it's toughening up scrutiny of foreign state-owned companies looking to take over Canadian firms, signalling that it won't condone acquisitions that turn companies into puppets of offshore interests.
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Confidence on economy seen boosting PM
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Peter Zimonjic, Sun Media, Winnipeg Sun
A new poll indicates that two-thirds of Canadians believe Canada is moving in the right direction and that half of us think the economy will grow next year.
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Canada's trade surplus unexpectedly grows in October
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
CBC.ca
Imports declined faster than exports during October, Statistics Canada reported Wednesday, sending Canada's trade surplus higher.
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Dodge sees loonie in mid-US90 cents
Monday, December 10, 2007
Jacqueline Thorpe, Financial Post
A loonie in the mid-to-upper US90 cents range is more in keeping with historical norms and Canada's terms of trade than the recent record high of US$1.10 which may have required some offsetting tweaking of monetary policy, David Dodge, governor of the Bank of Canada, said on Monday.
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Deal raises hope for single regulator
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Steven Chase, Globe and Mail
The proposed merger of Canada's two biggest stock exchanges is a model of interprovincial co-operation that should encourage progress in the drive for a common securities regulator, market watchers say.
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Des consensus se dégagent
Mercredi 12 décembre 2007
Radio-Canada.ca
Le Sommet sur l'avenir du secteur forestier québécois qui a réuni à Québec 400 représentants de l'industrie forestière s'est terminé mercredi midi. L'objectif principal de la rencontre était de trouver des solutions à la crise qui secoue cette industrie.
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Canadian News
Cities in global competition for talent
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Caroline Alphonso, Globe and Mail
The lure of a red-hot economy has attracted thousands to Calgary and made it the most attractive city in Canada, a new study concludes.
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Canada's quest for Olympic gold paying off
Wednesday, December 12, 2007 11:32 PM ET
CTV.ca
Canada's quest to "own the podium" at Vancouver 2010 appears to be paying off, if this season's international competition results are any indication.
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Sask.'s new government sticks to campaign promises
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Tim, Cook, Canadian Press, Globe and Mail
Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall stuck to a winning script when his newly elected government presented its first Speech from the Throne yesterday.
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Menace terroriste sur le 400e anniversaire
Mardi 11 décembre 2007
Gilles Toupin, La Presse
Les célébrations du 400e anniversaire de la ville de Québec ne seront pas de tout repos pour les services de l'ordre qui s'inquiètent de la menace terroriste.
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Study finds most Canadian kids have Internet at home
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Janice Tibbetts, CanWest News Service
More than half of students over aged 16 work while attending school, the vast majority of 15-year-olds have the Internet at home, and university graduates earned more than twice the salary of employees who dropped out before graduating from high school, says a new report.
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Canada dominates with Hayden, Pierse, Beavers winning gold at SwimCup 2007
Sunday December 9, 2007
Canadian Press
Canada finished the SwimCup 2007 competition strong with Brent Hayden, Annamay Pierse and Keith Beavers winning gold medals on Sunday.
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Canadian museum unveils long, long-lost dinosaur
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Reuters, Claire Sibonney
Canada's Royal Ontario Museum unveiled the skeleton of a massive dinosaur on Wednesday that had been lost for decades -- in its own collection.
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Opinion/Editorial
Keep goods, people flowing across border
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Michael Wilson, Seattle Post Intelligencer
It's a relationship so natural and so positive that we often take it for granted: Canada and the United States. Seldom contentious, rarely dramatic but the most productive bilateral relationship in the world.
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Assessing the side-swipe factor of a U.S. slump
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Jay Bryan, CanWest News Service, Canada.com
With prognosticators as eminent as Alan Greenspan acknowledging a high probability that there could be an American recession, stocks in the United States are struggling, even after a boost from interest-rate cuts.
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When multi morphs into plural
Saturday, December 8, 2007
Globe and Mail
Canadians have successfully proselytized for multiculturalism overseas for years. Scholars trooped to European capitals to give PowerPoint presentations. Canada was the multi-culti go-to nation.
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