Dragon’s Den

Friday January 15, 2016

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator Ð

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday January 15, 2016

Ex-dragon Kevin O’Leary mulls Conservative leadership bid

Donald Trump is not the only celebrity businessman with his eye on high political office.

Kevin O’Leary, the chairman of O’Leary Funds, probably best known to Canadians as a former investor panelist on the CBC show Dragon’s Den, said he is considering running for the federal Conservative leadership.

By Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator - Wednesday, December 2, 2015 Ontario to lose equalization payments as Alberta's economic fortunes fall Ontario will shed its status as a poor cousin of Confederation in the coming years, not because its economic fortunes are rebounding, but because resource-rich Alberta is falling on hard times. The federal government is expected to announce how much each province will receive in the fiscal year 2016-17 from transfer payment programs, which include equalization, before Finance Minister Bill Morneau meets with his provincial and territorial colleagues in Ottawa on Sunday evening. The equalization program redistributes national income to help poorer provinces provide services comparable to those of their richer counterparts. But equalization experts say the formula for calculating the payments is slow to respond to changes, including volatile commodity prices, which will leave Alberta carrying a disproportionate burden when the numbers are announced this weekend. Ontario began receiving equalization for the first time in 2009, a dramatic reversal of fortune for the countryÕs one-time economic powerhouse. It is now set to reclaim its status as a ÒhaveÓ province because the disparity between its economy and that of Alberta is shrinking. ÒWhat weÕre talking about here is the bad way of coming out of equalization,Ó economist Don Drummond said. The Ògood wayÓ to come out of the program, he said, is for a provinceÕs economy to rebound so that growth in its revenues offsets a loss of equalization payments. Because the equalization funding is based on a three-year national average of gross domestic product, next yearÕs calculation will still include times when oil prices were high and Alberta was booming. This means Ontario will not get Òkicked outÓ of the program for another two or three years, Mr. Drummond said. Alberta pulled up the overall standard of living in Canada when the countryÕs wealth was sh

“I thought at some point, someone is going to say to me, if you can be such a critic, why don’t you do better? Why don’t you try it? I thought to myself, hmmm, maybe I should,” O’Leary told CBC News.

That criticism made headlines earlier this week when O’Leary said he would invest $1 million in Canadian oil industries on the condition NDP Alberta Premier Rachel Notley resign.

The Conservative Party of Canada is expected to hold its leadership convention to find a successor to former prime minister Stephen Harper sometime in 2017.

Rona Ambrose is currently interim party leader.

Wednesday December 9, 2015O’Leary, who did not immediately respond to an interview request with the Star Thursday morning, also told CBC News that he was inspired by the campaign of Trump, who is currently leading the pack of those running for the U.S. Republican presidential nomination.

“I know Trump. I know his family. I’ve watched him work. I think he’s smart as a fox,” said O’Leary, who is currently an investor on the ABC reality television show Shark Tank, where he is known for his brash personality and often harsh advice.

O’Leary has named the economy as the main focus of his potential leadership bid so far, saying the primary test for the success of any politician — at the municipal, provincial or federal level — should be whether or not they have created any jobs.

“Did what that person, man or woman, say create one incremental job in Canada? Yes or no?” O’Leary said during a Thursday morning interview with John Moore on Newstalk 1010.
On that front, O’Leary said, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has failed.

“Our prime minister, in his first 60 days on the job, left the country, committed $4.2 billion around the world and didn’t create one incremental job for a Canadian. I call that a fail. I think I can do better,” O’Leary said. (Source: Toronto Star)

Published in the Winnipeg Free Press, January 18, 2016

Published in the Winnipeg Free Press, January 18, 2016

 

Monday April 9, 2012

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator, Monday April 9, 2012

CBC cuts 650 jobs, wants ads on radio

The austerity axe chopped deep into the CBC’s budget Wednesday, and will result in “a very different public broadcaster,” CBC president Hubert Lacroix said.

Viewers can expect less original programming, more reruns and – for the first time – ads on CBC radio as the broad-caster copes with a $115-mil-lion cut in federal funding. The agency will also sell some buildings, tinker with employee pensions and cut jobs in the coming three years as it adjusts to a smaller budget.

“It’s not a fun day,” Lacroix said.

Across Canada, 650 full-time CBC jobs will be eliminated. This includes 475 this fiscal year, a further 150 jobs in the 2013-2014 fiscal year and the remaining in 2014-2015. Those 650 jobs – split equally between French and English services – amounts to about nine per cent of the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.’s work-force. That includes 150 management jobs.

Budget cuts will start this year with a $27.8-million reduction in government spending on the CBC’s operations, and increase to $69.6 million in 2013-14 and finally reaches the $115-million savings mark by 2014-15. The CBC will also no longer receive its $60-million top-up from the federal government for programming. Taking into account budget trimming already done this year and severance pack-ages, Lacroix said, the CBC is staring into a budgetary hole of $225 million.

“We are talking about financial pressures totalling $200 million today,” he said. “Plus an additional 25 million for severance of about 650 [jobs].” CBC television’s senior correspondent in Ottawa, Terry Milewski, was stoic in his response to the deep cuts.

“We’ve been through this a few times before, and we’ve survived,” he said. (Source: Globe & Mail)