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Canada to ring in New Year in different ways
Canadians were to welcome 2006 with everything from sipping bubbly and polar bear swims to indoor bungee jumping and snowboarding through flames.
Halifax was celebrating the new year with its annual bash in front of city hall.
Local musicians were scheduled throughout the night, followed by what organizers were calling “the most intense fireworks display in Canada.'’ Bus and ferry service in the city were free Saturday night.
Outside Halifax, swimmers prepared to kick off the new year Sunday morning with a plunge into the icy ocean water at polar-bear swims in Herring Cove and at Lawrencetown Beach.
In northern Newfoundland and southeastern Labrador, some homes were preparing to start 2006 in the dark.
Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro said Saturday that ice-covered power lines from a winter storm caused several power outages.
Spokeswoman Dawn Dalley said there was so much ice on some poles that crews couldn’t get up to fix them.
More: ctv.ca
Canada takes on Norway at world juniors
Never underestimate your opponent. It’s a piece of advice the Canadian junior hockey team will heed as it prepares for a round-robin contest against Norway Thursday night.
Team Canada is 2-0 at this year’s world junior hockey championship in Vancouver, but had a close call Wednesday night against Switzerland.
Canada held a 4-1 lead halfway through the second but made several crucial mistakes that allowed the Swiss to crawl back into the game. Fortunately for the host country, they were able to hang on for a 4-3 victory.
“We tried to play a finesse game and we aren’t a finesse team,” said Team Canada forward Steve Downie, who plays for the OHL’s Peterborough Petes.
As Downie alluded to, this year’s edition of Team Canada is more of a “lunchbox” squad than years past.
More: cbc.ca
Mac boosts healthy interests in Canada
MACQUARIE Bank has continued its drive into the Canadian healthcare market, buying majority stakes in two healthcare developments from ABN AMRO.
At a time when most major deals are put on ice, the investment bank has managed to squeeze one more in for 2005, paying $427.03 million for 81 per cent stakes in the Abbotsford Regional Hospital and the Academic Ambulatory Care Centre projects. Both projects, located in the western province of British Colombia, are yet to start construction.
ABN AMRO, which won the tender to oversee design, construction and financing of the developments in 2004, will retain the remaining 19 per cent interest. The deal strengthens Macquarie’s love affair with public-private partnerships around the globe.
The 300-bed Abbotsford project will be three times the size of the facility it replaces, providing specialised care services to the growing Fraser Valley region.
The project cost is expected to top $415.9 million.
More: theaustralian.news.com.au
Air Canada comes off a strong year; expects more altitude in 2006
After its first full year since emerging from a humiliating 18 months of bankruptcy protection, Air Canada found itself with an embarrassing problem on its hands: $300 million.
Having a wad of cash is an anomaly in North American aviation - at least for the so-called full service carriers like Air Canada.
The Montreal-based airline distinguished itself among the continent’s aviation industry for its strong balance sheet. It accumulated $361 million in net profits in the first nine months of 2005, while most other carriers have fallen into bankruptcy protection, teeter on the brink, or have just emerged.
That was achieved despite a year that continued to be tough for the industry as a whole, mainly as a result of soaring fuel prices, the second-largest cost for an airline.
Calgary-based WestJet Airlines (TSX:WJA) also posted strong profits in 2005, but Air Canada’s discount rival has been a consistent money-maker anyway, thanks to its low cost base.
More: cbc.ca
Canada battles Switzerland at world juniors
Canada shoots for its second win at the world junior hockey championship when it hosts Switzerland Wednesday in Vancouver.
Dustin Boyd of the Moose Jaw Warriors tallied twice while Blake Comeau of the Kelowna Rockets had a goal and an assist as Canada skated to a 5-1 win over Finland in their tournament opener on Monday.
Head coach Brent Sutter has his roster playing an aggressive forechecking game that pressures the opposition into making mistakes. If the team is to capture its second consecutive gold medal, it has to keep using this tactic, according to Sutter.
“We’ve got to be a pressure-type team,” Sutter said. “I don’t believe in being on our heels and I don’t believe in having forwards skating backwards to the neutral zone.
“To be a good defensive team, you want to keep it out of your end as much as you can and the way you do that is by pressuring the team in their own zone and getting the puck back and playing in their zone as much as possible.”
More: cbc.ca
Air Canada comes off a strong year; expects more altitude in 2006
After its first full year since emerging from a humiliating 18 months of bankruptcy protection, Air Canada found itself with an embarrassing problem on its hands: $300 million.
Having a wad of cash is an anomaly in North American aviation - at least for the so-called full service carriers like Air Canada.
The Montreal-based airline distinguished itself among the continent’s aviation industry for its strong balance sheet. It accumulated $361 million in net profits in the first nine months of 2005, while most other carriers have fallen into bankruptcy protection, teeter on the brink, or have just emerged.
That was achieved despite a year that continued to be tough for the industry as a whole, mainly as a result of soaring fuel prices, the second-largest cost for an airline.
Calgary-based WestJet Airlines (TSX:WJA) also posted strong profits in 2005, but Air Canada’s discount rival has been a consistent money-maker anyway, thanks to its low cost base.
More: cbc.ca
Canada’s S&P/TSX Reaches Five-Year High; Financial Shares Gain
Canadian stocks reached a five-year high as some investors sought dividend-paying shares amid concern of an economic slowdown in the U.S., Canada’s biggest trading partner.
Financial companies including Bank of Nova Scotia led the rally. Shares of bullion producers including Barrick Gold Corp. gained as the price of the precious metal rose to a two-week high in New York.
“The market has gone up so much that it’s time to go to safe places such as banks and other dividend-paying stocks,'’ said Doug Davis, president of Davis-Rea Ltd. Investment, which manages $329 million in Toronto. “We need more confirmation, but we could get a recession in the U.S. as early as in six months.'’
The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Composite Index added 15.83, or 0.1 percent, to 11,261.20, the highest since September 2000. The benchmark has risen six of seven sessions, bringing its advance this year to 22 percent.
More: bloomberg.com
Canada battles Switzerland at world juniors
Canada shoots for its second win at the world junior hockey championship when it hosts Switzerland Wednesday in Vancouver.
Dustin Boyd of the Moose Jaw Warriors tallied twice while Blake Comeau of the Kelowna Rockets had a goal and an assist as Canada skated to a 5-1 win over Finland in their tournament opener on Monday.
Head coach Brent Sutter has his roster playing an aggressive forechecking game that pressures the opposition into making mistakes. If the team is to capture its second consecutive gold medal, it has to keep using this tactic, according to Sutter.
“We’ve got to be a pressure-type team,” Sutter said. “I don’t believe in being on our heels and I don’t believe in having forwards skating backwards to the neutral zone.
“To be a good defensive team, you want to keep it out of your end as much as you can and the way you do that is by pressuring the team in their own zone and getting the puck back and playing in their zone as much as possible.”
More: cbc.ca
Storm woes: Eastern Canada copes with bad driving, flight delays
A slow-moving winter storm is roaring across Eastern Canada, bringing snow, rain and wind, and causing travel headaches on the ground and in the air Tuesday.
“It’s a very slow-moving system that has caused all kinds of problems,” says CBC weather expert Colleen Jones.
The storm is “still quite a big area and very intense,” she added.
Since Monday, much of the region has been hit with heavy snow, winds and rain.
As well, there were electricity blackouts to some 70,000 homes and businesses in Quebec.
More: cbc.ca
Worst of snowstorm over for Atlantic Canada
Forecasters say the worst of Atlantic Canada’s winter storm has passed, but that’s not immediately obvious in New Brunswick, which was hit hard on Tuesday.
The same storm that left 70,000 Quebecers in the dark on Monday forced road closures, airport delays and power outages throughout New Brunswick on Tuesday, dumping 70 cm of snow in some parts of the province and freezing rain in others. Winds gusted at speeds of up to 100 kilometres per hour.
The storm, which began in the Great Lakes, cut power to 1,200 people in northern New Brunswick. Roads were bad further south, where freezing rain halted traffic on the ground and in the air, leaving 400 people stranded at the Moncton airport and preventing planes from landing for much of Tuesday.
Due to already busy flights at this time of year and the high number of stranded passengers, some may not be able to get on another plane for a few days, said Air Canada clerk Claude Arsenault.
Richard Hoshino was one of those marooned.
“When we learned the flights were cancelled we ran back to the Air Canada gate and found out that the next plane to reschedule to go to Toronto was Thursday,” said Hoshino, who was about to board his flight when its cancellation was announced.
More: ctv.ca
Storm causes blackouts for 70,000 in Quebec
The major winter storm starting to blast Atlantic Canada Monday night blew through southwestern Quebec earlier in the day.
The storm left 70,000 Quebec homes and businesses without electricity, some since 6:30 a.m.
According to Hydro Quebec, the blackout hit the Monteregie agricultural region early Monday morning, leaving towns near Saint-Hyacinthe and Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu in the dark.
Hydro officials said high winds were the downfall of the local electrical grid. They have not found any broken equipment, said spokeswoman Helene Perrault, adding it’s “difficult” to know when power would be turned on again.
Flights leaving Montreal for Quebec City and Eastern Canada were delayed Monday, and major provincial thoroughfare Highway 20 from Quebec City into the Gaspe region was still closed Monday evening.
Now in New Brunswick, the storm is expected to pelt the province with fierce winds and up to 60 cm of snow. Freezing drizzle began early Monday evening, which will solidify to ice pellets overnight, said Environment Canada.
More: ctv.ca
Canada’s group sex club patrons swinging free
On a recent night out on the town, Michel and Chantal Delbecchi left their suburban Montreal home and drove to the L’Orage Club in the city’s east end, where they had sex with a couple they had never met before.
The Delbecchis, husband and wife since 1978, are “echangistes,” French for “swingers,” who for the past 21 years have been visiting clubs like L’Orage (Thunderstorm) to have consensual sex in a group with one or more other people.
For future outings, they will no longer have to fear police will raid the club and arrest them for being in a “bawdy house,” a place where prostitution or acts of public indecency take place.
In a landmark decision on Dec, 21, the Supreme Court of Canada lifted a ban on swingers’ clubs, ruling that group sex among consenting adults is neither prostitution nor a threat to society.
More: today.reuters.co.uk
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