Oh Canada, it sure is getting crowded here…

Apologies for the alteration of our Hymn Nationale, but it is topical. Our amigos at Stats Canada are putting out Census info, which for a “stat head” like me is hours of fun and excitement (yes I really do need to get more of a life).

Between 2001 and 2006, Canada’s population increased 5.4%, the first time since 1991 that the census-to-census growth rate has accelerated. This acceleration during the past five years was due to higher levels of immigration.

Woo Hoo! Canada is the place to come to I guess for immigrants (speaking as the son of immigrants, I am glad to see it). Even though I think I have Quebecois blood in me (growing up in Montreal), I have no aspersions about “Pure Laine” attitudes either. We have 31,612,897 in Canada at the moment of the Census, so that is cool, I remember when Canada only had 21,000,000 folks living here.

If you want to read all about the Census data go here and you can revel in data by the gross or metric tonne!

Getting back to the happy world of Finance, those of us who invested in Nortel will be heartened to see that the SEC is going after some of the former Execs who allegedly defrauded we investors out of millions (or at least the company). The folks charged are not facing criminal prosecution however it is civil, so the SEC is going after their money (and the bonuses they allegedly fraudulently received for having Nortel “return to solvency”). Should be an interesting litigation, which I will be watching closely.