Jean Charest has slammed the door shut on my Quebecois Student brethren, and they will have to finish their terms in August? I really think this is a mistake and with the looming specter of an election on the horizon, will this be a lever for our Independiste friends to seize power in Quebec? Will we have another decade of Canadian hand wringing, thanks to separatist leanings in both Quebec and Alberta? Will Monsieur Bouchard make a comeback and be the Savior in Quebec? This could make for a great deal of fun for all of us, stay tuned folks, and make sure you have your safety straps tightly attached.

As for other news, check out our amigo Preet’s Podcasts, there will be a very interesting one coming up this week, with some crazed financial crackpot spouting his demented concepts of the demise of Western Civilization. You might get a new point of view on your humble author as well (if you can guess, it is me this week, who knows whether Preet’s podcast can recover from this, we shall see).

I did have a great deal of pleasure watching St. Gail Vaz-Oxlade of the personal finance take on the suited dragons of Bay street on TVO’s Agenda. Mrs. C8j was cheering out loud as Gail skewered the suited beasts (in our opinion).

A long weekend awaits Canada, enjoy it, with your family, enjoy the sunshine (hopefully), and relax as well.

Weekly Recap

Some improving data from Stats Canada about jobs, but other news which may not be as good news for the young folks searching for jobs (including my own kids):

• I did do  a traditional Happy Mother’s Day post, which also included some tweets for the previous week as well.
• Another interesting report from Stats Canada with More Employed but Unemployment up for April, more people looking makes the data change.
• I have said this many times but Take Advantage of the Rules (When you can), is an important credo to live by.
• St. Gail’s fight against the suited dragons was highlighted in Video: TVO with GVO, Gail has a way of talking that just makes sense.
• I cribbed the title of Loveless, Sexless Marriages (and Money) from a comment made by our friend Preet on the National a few weeks back. Will money destroy your marriage? I think it has the chance if you aren’t careful.

Links for the Week

With Europe threatening to implode (financially) and other interesting issues arising with this what did our favorite writers write about this week:

• Larry MacDonald (a real economist I’d like to point out) warns that Federal equalization payments have unintended consequences, not just seeing Ontario become a “have not” province after being a “have” for so long!
• My Own Advisor reviews Rob Carrick’s book with My Favorite Takeaways - What is Good Bad and Downright Awful in Canada’s Investment Industry, guess meeting Rob face to face lit a fire under him.
• Rob Carrick gives out a little more tough love with a 29-year old on the difficulties in finding a first job, I was lucky I had a Co-Op degree so finding a first job was not as hard (but that was 1986 as well).
• Canada Mortgage News wonders is there a need for A Complete Overhaul of Mortgage Lending in Canada? I think so, but I have been ridiculed for my opinion (not that I am sensitive, I simply include it for factual content).
• Mr. Money Mustache explains Internet Sharing — How to Get Revenge on the Cable Company, now I’d like to point out that this is for the U.S. only and none of us condone the explanation given in this article, it is simply supplied as an interesting experiment (might not even work in Canada).
• Timeless Finance had a guest post which talked about how Your Hair is a Money Pit, not for me, Mrs. C8j cuts it, with a trimmer, I’m good with that (and I can use Lifeboy as my shampoo then too). Yes, I am anything, if not a Style-hound.
• The Blunt Bean Counter (who should really get on Twitter), asks the interesting question How Much Control Do I have From the Grave? The answer is fairly obvious, “… you are dead …” guess the rest.
• Michael James posts an interesting picture in Jose Canseco Hits Huge Homerun for Autism, one of the people in the picture is someone you know well (no, not me).
• Canadian Capitalist wonders about TSX index funds with Sector Breakdown of Diversified Portfolios, how does one balance an Index fund?
• The Canadian Couch Potato testifies about Why He Has no Faith in Market Timing, because timing is… everything (that’s a funnier joke on a podcast). Timing the stock market is a mugs game in my opinion as well.
• Boomer of Boomer and Echo gives us some useful tips on How to Pay Off Your Mortgage Faster (hint there is no mention of buying an expensive car in that plan).
• Miranda at Planting Money Seeds, wonders why folks are Paying for a Credit Card with more Status than Benefits? I wouldn’t know given I have an BCM Platinum Super colossal HOLY CRAP GREAT Card, myself.
• Gail Vaz-Oxlade helps you ladies how to Save and Still be Beautiful, which Gail succeeds with, I better be careful Mrs. C8j might get mad at me for my Finance Blogger Crush I have on Gail, shhh, don’t tell anyone.
• Preet must be done picking the splinters out of his fingers (after scraping the bottom of the barrel to find his podcast’s latest guest) but found time to let TuskTrader do a piece on JP Morgan’s $2 Billion blunder re-ignites debate on regulations. I hope to one day make a $2 Billion mistake, think about it….
• Given this is a long weekend ahead, think about Giving Blood, it is in you to give! I will be doing so on Friday night.

Other Bookkeeping

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Have a look at my micro-blog on Twitter, where you can see a whole plethora of good articles and pithy comments by me as well. Twitter feed where I re-tweet many great articles by some of my featured writers (and make the occasional odd or off colour commentary on life (in 140 characters or less)). I am also on Digg as Big Cajun Man, on reddit, Tumblr, Pinterest and other Social Media sites (look for the BigCajunMan userid) as well.

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Donating Blood Thoughts

Have you given lately:

The measure of a life, after all, is not its duration, but its donation.

Many Folks