A special subcommittee of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology (Twitter hashtag: #CINDU) spend the last several weeks hearing from witnesses in forestry, aerospace, mining, manufacturing, and other ailing industrial sectors in the Canadian economy. The subcommittee's report, just out last week, provides a good, conventional and relatively brief summary of how we got here, separating out factors that we can chalk up to the recession and factors that we can chalk up to ongoing structural change some of these sectors. The recommendations, however, were not unanimous among the parties. Here's some of the things that stood out for me . . .

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But other staffers, even those who have come in for a dressing-down by Byrne on those conference calls, says she has to be that tough because the meeting after her daily 7:15 a.m. call with staffers is with the prime minister and it's her job to make sure he is not surprised by anything a reporter or opposition politician might say that day. When Sandra Buckler (another woman) was Harper''s director of communications, I'm told that she and Byrne often tussled over what the message of the day ought to be and then Buckler would decide how that message would be delivered.    more »

Regina and Saskatoon placed 1 and 4 on the list, a sign of Saskatchewan's new title as economic wunderkid among the provinces. Both cities have the highest population growth right now in Canada, Regina's employment growth is second only to St. John's and it has the lowest unemployment rate in the country at 4 per cent.

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The press release also has this paragraph which I'm quite sure even a non-scientist could have concluded:

Many people use forecasts for planning specific activities, such as vacations, and routine daily activities, such as deciding what to wear and how to get to work or school. The peak periods for accessing forecasts are the early morning, early evening, and late evening, says (Lazo's co-author Julie) Demuth.

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I always thought that being an entrepreneur meant you didn't need government handouts? Am I missing something here?

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... please note that reports that the Canadian Embassy in Iran was turning away people seeking sanctuary are false. Embassy staff are making every attempt to ensure services provided, particular consular services, remain unaffected by the situation. To our knowledge, no embassies in Tehran have provided shelter to injured foreign nationals. We are aware of media reports that Italy may open its embassy to wounded protesters ...

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In fact, according to the TD number crunchers, when it and the World Bank uses the same forecasting model, the World Bank has the global economy shrinking by just 1.7 per cent next year compared to 1.9 per cent for the TD guys.

Feel better now?

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So you can understand how relieved I was when the Prime Minister's Office e-mailed their handout photo-du-jour to press gallery reporters. It is a picture of Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Finance Minister Jim Flaherty reviewing Important Documents today at Willson House which overlooks beautiful Meech Lake, Quebec....

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Canada's fourth and current Information Commissioner, Robert Marleau, announced today his retirement from public life effective June 29, 2009. In a letter to notify the Governor in Council of his decision, he explained that his reasons for doing so are entirely personal and of a private nature.   more »

The core complaints of the industry have not changed. Not enough angel investors. We don't support venture capitalists well enough. Government and other industry sectors don't buy enough tech stuff from Canadian companies. Canadian companies spend next to nothing (relatively speaking) on research and development. . . .

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