Last Year’s Inflation 2007 Officially 2.2%

That is what Stats Canada says, which is not surprising, but the fact that it was only 2.2% amazes me a little. In 2006, the CPI was 2.0%, so this is not a large year-over-year jump; however, as I keep saying, the impact of skyrocketing energy prices is still being shaken out of the market.

Housing in 2007 seems mostly to blame for higher prices, but energy started having an effect by the end of the year as well:

Price increases for basic and frequently-purchased commodities, like food, also fuelled consumer prices in 2007. However, price declines for a number of commodities, particularly several of those less frequently purchased, such as new vehicles and computer equipment, mitigated the rise in consumer prices. Faced with higher prices for frequently-purchased commodities and lower prices for those not frequently purchased, consumers might perceive that inflation was increasing at a faster pace than measured by aggregate inflation.

Stats Canada Review of 2007

Interesting view on things, wonder how important vehicles are going to be in the future? Will there be a glut coming soon, or will the Asian continent simply pick up the slack?
Very interesting indeed, this year is going to be a very different kettle of fish.

Politeness Wins Out

One of the Mantras that I espouse on this humble site is to be Polite when dealing with Customer Service folks in specific and with most folks in general (remember being Polite to Police is very important). Yesterday, another example of politely speaking to someone you want to fix something with helped out again.

My eldest just graduated from High School, and we are very proud; however, we noticed she didn’t get an Ontario Scholar “tag” in her graduation. Given her previous marks, we were alarmed to think what might have happened to her marks to cause this inability to keep her average at the correct level (80% for 6 Grade 12 courses).

I decided after discussing (calmly) with my daughter that there must have been a mistake, so I called the school and asked in a polite way if someone could look into this for me, and sure enough, it was an error on their part, and they are rectifying the situation. I was very thankful to the woman who called me back, but it again shows that acting in an aggressive or rude fashion rarely gets you what you want (unless you are a loan shark). With a little politeness and courtesy, you’d be surprised what can happen.

Happy long weekend to my Canadian readers (ok, EXTRA long weekend, since you have to take Monday off to really make it long).

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