A Place To Stand, A Place To Grow...

...Maaantario.

From our favourite economist, Dr. Livio Di Matteo, comes another look at the benefit of northern Ontario leaving the fold to join Manitoba. In previous posts I have, in my intellectually bereft way, discussed the costs and benefits to the citizens of northern Ontario of joining Manitoba, as well as the possibility of a Northern Ontario political party. And by "discuss", I mean to say that I pointed to papers written by Dr. Matteo and made a few pithy comments. Well, enough about me; on to the good stuff.

In the June 20 edition of the Winnipeg Free Press, Dr. Matteo discussed the manufacturing recession in Canada. He noted that, historically, Ontario has weathered this type of economic storm due to its competitive advantage in electricity pricing. He put it this way:

Ontario's traditional industrial advantage was rooted in having cheap electricity rates but that advantage has disappeared as Ontario's rates are now among the highest in North America. The disadvantage comes particularly to the fore when Ontario is compared with Manitoba, which has electricity prices that are about half of those in Ontario.

Dr. Doom really lays the boots to Ontario when he notes that:

Between 2002 and 2005, employment in pulp and paper declined by 11 per cent in Ontario, with most of the declines in Northern Ontario. Meanwhile, in Manitoba it rose by 12 per cent. In wood product manufacturing such as sawmills, Ontario saw an eight per cent employment decline while Manitoba saw almost a 15 per cent increase. Put another way, while the last few years have seen several thousand jobs disappear in adjacent Northwestern Ontario's forest products industry, Manitoba's forest sector has added nearly 1,000 jobs...

Damn but those Lakehead kids can be bitter. Wonder why?

Manitoba appears to have obtained a significant competitive advantage in the short term from its more affordable hydro-electricity.

In adjacent Northwestern Ontario, which has a surplus of cheaply produced power over and above its own needs, the lack of a regional power authority and a "made in southern Ontario" electricity pricing policy has devastated the region's manufacturing base. Northwestern Ontarians, and indeed all of Ontario, need only look at Manitoba to see what cost-effective electricity prices can accomplish.

Book Pirate Ruins Publishing Empire

As reported today in the Globe And Mail:
"Photographs of what seem to be all 784 pages of the U.S. edition of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling began to circulate on numerous file-sharing websites Tuesday. The photographs appear to be of two-page spreads of the novel's entire text, including epilogue, shot by a digital camera of a book laid out on a rug.

What will the kiddies do? Is there no way to keep them from accessing these pirated images? And what of Raincoast and Scholastic? According to the breathless report in the G&M:

"If genuine, the leak is a severe blow to the marketing plans of its English-language publishers, "

A sad day indeed for bibliofiles. Millions of books will sit, unsold and unread because somebody looked at The Book! The Book that, according to the affidavit booksellers must sign, cannot be photographed, talked about, or have it's location disclosed. Even the boxes containing The Books cannot be photographed or described. The Book is now Voldemort.

And what of poor Ms. Rowling, how is she holding up in this time of tragedy?

"Spoilers won't stop sales," only "diminish" readers' pleasure in the book, she said. "I want the readers who have in many instances grown up with Harry to embark on the last adventure they will share with him without knowing where they are going."

Oh. Nevermind. I guess she knows, as we all do, that the book will sell anyway.