From a long-term perspective, Harper is good for Canadian business and good for investors in Canada. He's the top guy right now in a country that maintained active oversight of its financial system, didn’t succumb to the short-term allure of cheap and easy credit for homebuyers, and is cutting taxes. Read More

Canada is still among the strongest, if not the strongest, of the world’s developed economies. The government hasn’t had to bail out its banks, it has a strong balance sheet, and the country is blessed with significant resources to export once the global economy returns to more normal growth. These factors make “The Canada Trade” highly attractive from a US investor’s perspective. Read More

Canadian National Railway's (TSX: CNR, NYSE: CNI) holds promise, as far as potentially moving oil sands product more economically than can be done via pipeline and to the extent that product can then be moved to Asian markets. Read More

The question going forward: Is the worst behind us in terms of economic growth, energy and metals prices? If the answer’s yes, then the worst is also behind Canadian dollar values, which should start to appreciate, not only against the US Dollar, but also versus the European currencies. Read More

At the most general level, the law on both sides of the US-Canada border recognizes that income trust conversions will be tax-free events for unitholders. The intent, colored by a reasonable bias in favor of the free flow of capital across borders, is to avoid tax consequences for investors. Read More

Major League Baseball clubs are packing the vans for trips to Arizona and Florida to begin preparations for the season ahead. That’s an auspicious sign of spring. A less inspiring sign of winter’s wane is that Canadian income and royalty trusts are beginning to issue guidance on the US treatment of their respective distributions to US-based unitholders--tax season is upon us, too. Read More

The goal of government largesse--Canada’s, the US, China, and countless other nations, developed and emerging--is to spur demand. But how to structure such plans is a tough nut the North American leaders are trying to crack; Harper has already confronted hostility from Parliament to his handling of the economy, and Obama’s ambition to sign a stimulus bill in the earliest stages of his presidency has met with objections from both sides of the Congressional aisle. Read More

Canada’s November jobs report proved an unpleasant, though not necessarily unexpected, wakeup call. This morning’s release ended a string of relatively solid (read: not awful) economic indicators. Read More

With the direction of the global economy still unclear, we've enlisted in-house experts to answer questions about the future of the energy sector, the Asian markets and, of course, Canada's ability to bounce back. Read More

The global financial system is now a mess, and sorting through it will take quite some time. But we can gain a clearer view by examining the behavior of the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) and TED spread. Read More