Why did our federal Election result last night give the Liberals an unexpected return to governing with a majority government. Note that even the most recent polls suggested a close result, with a likely Liberal minority win; the momentum shift was apparently spoken about behind party doors, not in public.
Here are pieces of the puzzle which I believe help explain the result: (more…)
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It’s federal election day in Canada – let’s recall how a famous humourist once described the scene…
“…everybody who has ever seen Mariposa knows just what election day is like. The shops, of course, are, as a matter of custom, all closed, and the bar rooms are all closed by law so that you have to go in by the back way. All the people are in their best clothes and at first they walk up and down the street in a solemn way… Everybody keeps looking in at the different polling places to see if anybody else has voted yet, because, of course, nobody cares to vote first for fear of being fooled after all and voting on the wrong side. (more…)
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The election campaign which began on an early August holiday weekend is finally reaching its rocky summit this Monday – so, what additional boons have there been?
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A last gathering of his excerpts on this Canadian Thanksgiving weekend…
On Wealth:
To become financially independent you must turn part of your income into capital; turn capital into enterprise; turn enterprise into profit; turn profit into investment; and turn investment into financial independence. (more…)
On Influence & Associating:
Don’t join an easy crowd. You won’t grow. Go where the expectations and the demands to perform are high.
There are two parts to influence. First, influence is powerful. And second, it is subtle.
Let the views of others educate and inform you, but let your decisions be a product of your own conclusions. (more…)
Our increasingly multicultural society combines both an influx of people coming to our land and wide-ranging opportunity to interact on foreign soil due to leisure or business travel. Thus, the opportunities for communication challenges based on cultural differences is magnified.
A major theme of the September issue of Toastmaster magazine focuses on the concept of ‘cultural intelligence’. (more…)
The September issue of The Insurance and Investment Journal includes a somewhat stark looking two-page checklist of duties and responsibilities of financial advisors, from the fiduciary standpoint which relates to errors and omissions (E & O) business insurance coverage.
It serves as an update reminder of what are the areas of service expectation, primarily for the advisor, but also implicitly for the consumer. (more…)
Today is the 14th anniversary of 9/11.
Let’s consider some thoughtful words on the subject of Relationships:
One person caring about another represents life’s greatest value.
Your family and your love must be cultivated like a garden. Time, effort, and imagination must be summoned constantly… (more…)
In today’s Ottawa Citizen, a page two article describes the travails of an RESP planholder attempting to redeem monies for her son’s post-secondary schooling. The coverage of such cost, of course, is the raison d’etre for the program. The financial institution which set up the RESP made an already time-vulnerable process for obtaining monies for the student one of exasperation for her and her son.
It shouldn’t have been this way if the representatives of the institution followed the likely protocol. (more…)
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the watch of time
Customer Disloyalty
The service industry, especially as relates to retail, is replete with offers supposedly designed to engender a degree of identification and loyalty in its customers. We see ads in various media promoting ‘loyalty programs’ rewards or discounts based on committing to multiple services. Sometimes this extends to inferring one is part of the glow of the ‘family’, benefitting as if actually working for the promoting company.
However, it is anecdotally clear that the loyalty wave is one directional. (more…)
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Social & political commentary
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