Canadian Personal Finance Blog

Leading indicators for March are up 0.4% and if you view that with the 0.7% increase from the month before, I’d say we are seeing a trend?

Easy to say, but we have been positive leading indicators for the past two years, which reinforces the statement that the Canadian economy is doing quite well thank you very much.

Higher stock prices, continued consumer spending being positive and the manufacturing business recovering (thanks to an increase in US demand), means good things for Canada for now.

Keep up the good work Canadian worker!

Another Stats Canada posting points out that Car prices in Canada continue to rise (for the fifth year in a row). Must mean a strong demand, since you can’t raise prices on things nobody wants (I learned that at ECON 101).

Canadians continue to buy North American, but we also continue our trend towards buying cars from overseas manufacturers as well (at about 33% of all passenger cars bought now). Given Toyota is now the leading manufacturer in the world, wonder what that means? Are Toyota’s built in Canada counted as a car manufactured overseas? I think so, which is interesting.

This is a good thing folks! The Bank of Canada announced their overnight interest rate at 4.25%, staying the course and not raising it (for now). The economy has grown as expected, or at least not outside of the hopes of the bank, so they do not see a need to raise interest rates for now.

The best quote is the following paragraph:

Over the projection horizon, domestic demand is the main driver of growth in Canada. With the U.S. slowdown now expected to be somewhat more prolonged than previously projected, net exports should exert a slightly greater drag on growth in 2007. The Canadian economy is projected to grow by 2.2 per cent in 2007 and 2.7 per cent in both 2008 and 2009, returning to its production capacity in the second half of 2007 and remaining there through 2008 and 2009. Core inflation is projected to decline to 2 per cent by the end of 2007. Total CPI inflation is projected to rise above the 2 per cent inflation target in the second half of this year, before returning to the target by mid-2008.

Let’s hope they are right, because higher interest rates in the near future could spell doom for a lot of folks carrying a very high debt load.

That was the question of the weekend for us. Yes, the snow is now gone and we can actually look at our back yard and wonder how we are going to get that all cleaned up (but I digress). The other issue, was whether we should buy a new Bar B Q (about a $175 - $450 expense) or try to replace the ruined burner (made of aluminum, and rusted through to the point of being a safety hazard) which would cost anywhere from $24.95 to $52.00.

Now normally I would just open my wallet and buy a new bar b q, but I knew that although it sounds much simpler, there is a great deal of “assembly” still to do. The replacement of the burner could be fiddly and complicated, but it would still be simpler than building the entire bar b q (remembering I was going to have to do that with a new system as well). The replacement would also mean I had to clean out the bottom of the bar b q (with the shop vacuum, so it wasn’t as bad as I thought).

I was about to buy the common garden variety cheaper burner replacement, when I saw there were cast iron versions of these devices as well. I reached for it and felt how heavy it was, and that made me want to buy it. The aluminum version seemed flimsy in comparison, and I have done this replace with an Aluminum burner before, and wasn’t very impressed with what I got (it was better but not much better).

We ended up buying the $50.00 cast iron burner, along with some new lava rock, and after doing the job 4 times, and getting out a hack saw, the whole job was completed, with a minimum of swearing and arguing (which was a good thing). My guess is the burner will last a good long time, in fact I may have to remember to remove it, when I finally dispose of this bar b q, but we have used it a few times, and it seems to work to our satisfaction, and it does not make the grill look like a flamethrower either.

So let me begin that the following comments are an UNsolicited and UNpaid for endorsement by me of a garage here in Ottawa.

I have been taking my cars to Parker Auto Care for over 15 years now, and have never had any problems with the work done, or by the folks that work there. Dave Parker the owner proprietor does good work, only charges you for the work that needs done, and will not try to kill you “nickel and diming” you on things that can wait. Word of warning, Dave is also very busy, and you might not get in to see him right away (another good sign for most services like this, the busier they are, the better they are (most of the time)).

Why am I doing this? I have said more than once that the major allies you need in life are:

1. A good spouse
2. A good doctor
3. A good mechanic
4. A good dentist
5. A lawyer that takes care of you (not sure how you define good for that profession)

Dave fits (3) to a “T”, and I have no problems endorsing his business (and I must repeat, I am not getting paid to say this).