Harpers Latin America Tour

Harper leaves on his mission to Canada's trading partners in Latin and Central America and the Caribbean. The small number of countries he is visiting shows this trips is all about being Canada's salesman for our friendly Imperialism in the region.

Whether it is promoting our investment interests in Haiti, or those of Barrick Gold in Chile, or the role of the money laundering Scotia Bank in the region. Canadian miners are big investors in the Caribbean and Latin America, and their impact on the environment leave much to be desired.

It is a natural extension of the Conservatives contientialism. They have abandoned aid to Africa, a Liberal policy, for selective aid to countries we have sent our military to, or have investment interests in.

Ironically one of the Caribbean countries we have major investments and influence in is not being visited by Harper, Cuba.

Harper's itinerary is also packed with meetings with Canadian investors in the region, and with speeches to local economists and businessmen.

In Santiago, he will celebrate the 10th anniversary of Canada's free-trade deal with Chile, tour a new Scotiabank office, and stop by the local headquarters of Toronto-based Barrick Gold Corporation, which is developing a highly controversial mine in Chile.

"It will be very disappointing if the prime minister returns from this trip and it simply has been a business-as-usual approach - of trying to sign as many new contracts as possible, slapping leaders on the back, talking about how investment is going to flow and how new commercial opportunities are opening up - without any significant attention paid to these very real human rights concerns," said Alex Neve of Amnesty International Canada.

Well Alex be prepared to be disappointed.

See:

More Munk-Key Business

Haiti Quebec's Shame

Haiti Canada's Colony

Haiti Atrocities

Canadian Imperialism

Gildan Sweat Wear

Gildan Sweat Shop Success Story

Gothic Capitalism Redux

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Cuban Boom

Cuba booms thanks to Canada.

Speaking Friday at a congress of leftist economists, Rodriguez said Cuba had transformed its economy since the collapse of the Soviet Union, once its chief supporter and trade partner.

An economy whose exports were 90 percent goods and only 10 percent services in 1989 now leans toward services, he said. Services now account for 76 percent of Cuba’s overall economy while primary goods, such as crops, amount to only 4 percent.

Rodriguez said growth in Cuba’s GDP "should reach more than 10 percent this 2007" despite high prices for imported food and fuel. Cuba has been aided by steadily rising domestic oil production as well as by significant fuel aid from Venezuela.

He said that if social services and commerce were dropped from the count, Cuba still would have shown 9.5 percent growth last year.

Cuba was aided last year by high prices for nickel and cobalt and by a continuing flow of tourists.

Rodriguez put the number of tourists for 2006 at 2.22 million – a slight drop from the 2.3 million Cuba reported for 2005 to the Caribbean Tourism Organization.

And it is far safer as a tourist resort than Mexico.

Air Canada launches seasonal Cuba link

Cuba ranks among Canadians' top three holiday destinations, Smith noted, adding that Air Canada flies to the Caribbean island 27 times per week.

And Canada's economic and political relationship with Cuba not only includes the tourist industry, but Sherritt and its unique bilateral trade agreement with Cuba for production of coal, oil, nickel and cobalt. Despite American attempts to apply their laws against Sherritt and other Canadian companies doing business in Cuba.

The U.S. government also appears to be stepping up its enforcement of the best known of its extra-territorial measures - laws enforcing its 45-year-old Cuban embargo.

One law prevents foreign subsidiaries of U.S. companies from having virtually any dealings with or in Cuba, while another allows U.S. entry to be refused to executives and directors of any company found to be "trafficking" assets confiscated by Cuba after the 1959 revolution.

Under the latter legislation, executives and directors of the Toronto resource company Sherritt International have been barred from the U.S. because the company has interests in a nickel mine and oil-and-gas ventures in Cuba.

And thankfully Canada continues to exert its sovereignty when dealing with Cuba.

Canada's silence on Washington's Cuba policy speaks volumes

Canadians continue to visit Cuba by the millions each year. Canadian businesses pursue mining, tourism and other interests on the island. And the Canadian government maintains normal diplomatic relations with Havana, normal being the operative word, says longtime Cuba observer John Kirk.

Both Kirk and Ritter, who visit the island regularly, emphasize that nothing is likely to shift in Cuba for many years, with or without Castro. They note that Cuba's economy has been getting progressively stronger over the past decade, with higher nickel prices, cheap oil from Venezuelan ally Hugo Chavez and more tourists - all developments that point away from civil unrest in the country.

That cheap oil from Chavez is payment for one of the service industry exchanges that Cuba is exporting; Docs-for-oil trade shows Cuba's flair

The OAS is now looking at its position on Cuba, and Canada as a member of the OAS is in the position of offsetting the United States, which opposes any rapprochement with Cuba.

And thanks to Canada you have a further extension of civil liberties in Cuba

US-based Episcopal Church names woman bishop in Cuba

Cuba was a diocese of the U.S. church until 1967, when it was forced to break away because hostility between the U.S. and Cuban governments made contacts difficult. Cuba's communist leaders were embracing official atheism at the time, a stance abandoned in the early 1990s.

It has operated under a Metropolitan Council now chaired by the archbishop of Canada, Andrew Hutchison. It also includes Jefferts Schori and the archbishop of the West Indies.

And Cuba's export Rum; Havana Club is number two in world sales, which included Canada and Europe but not the United States. Their loss.

I particularly like the Havana Club seven year old amber, which is has a smoky chocolate flavour and is so smooth you can drink straight or on the rocks, no mix. It is like a fine brandy or cognac.

The number one brand is Bacardi which continues to use its wealth to fund anti-Cuban Terrorists in Florida.

See

Cuba

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One Party State

What does the One Party State of Alberta and the One Party State of Cuba have in common? Sherrit Inc.

In Cuba, it's business as usual


Also See:

Cuba

One Party State



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Made In Cuba Green Policy

On Clean Air day Rona Ambrose assured reporters, again ad naseum, that sometime soon we will have a Made in Canada Green Plan.

My message to you, on Clean Air Day, is that the Government of Canada is working towards a “Made-in-Canada” approach to deliver real change and real results for all Canadians, in our common campaign to clean up our air and to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions.

So instead of Ambrose the Minister of Do Nothing standing up in the house talking about how the US is ahead of us, ad nauseum;

Hon. Rona Ambrose (Minister of the Environment, CPC): Mr. Speaker, the truth of the matter is that thanks to the Liberal government being in power for 13 years the Bush government has done more on the environment than this country has for the last decad. The Americans are outperforming us on pollution control. They are outperforming us on emission reductions. This government is going to ensure that we outperform not just the Americans but all of our counterparts.

How about we start comparing the Made In Cuba plan with the lack of plan that the Tories have. Because Cuba is way ahead of Canada, and the U.S.

Castro's new soldiers
Richard Gott
03 May 2006 04:59

At a petrol station outside the Cuban town of Cienfuegos, half a dozen teenage girls stand languidly by the pumps, jumping to attention when a car or lorry pulls up. They work the pumps efficiently, take payment and enter the transaction on to a large official form. They are dressed neatly in T-shirts and jeans and a slogan across their backs proclaims their identity as trabajadores sociales, or social workers. They are Fidel Castro’s latest army of guerrillas, deployed in the struggle against corruption, the scourge to which state-run economies have always been peculiarly vulnerable. They are also the vanguard of the generation upon whom the future of the Cuban revolution will depend.

On earlier visits to Cuba I have observed the petrol problem. Driving through the countryside you could always find a willing accomplice to direct you to a tank in someone’s back garden, where petrol would be sold at an advantageous price, or simply off-ration. It had been siphoned off the state’s supplies. The practice seemed harmless enough. Yet it had begun to create a large hole in the economy. Castro complained that “as much petrol was being stolen as sold’’, and last year his government stepped in with a novel solution. About 10 000 young activists, more than half of them women, have taken control of the country’s pumps, while the usual attendants have been sent home on full pay.

The social workers’ jobs do not stop at the petrol stations. They also go from house to house to hand out low-energy light bulbs, to check that everyone has the new electric pressure cookers provided by China and to prompt the exchange of old, gas-guzzling fridges from the 1950s for something more energy efficient. Others will move on to examine financial practices in bakeries and the construction industry. About 30 000 of these revolutionaries, aged between 16 and 22, have been deployed across the country. Identified some years ago as a potentially counter revolutionary class, they are helping to keep alive the revolution’s mystique.

Maybe the Tories could mobilize all their Blogging Tories and Fraser Institute student Interns to be Green Social Workers like Castro has done.

Besides both parties share the same intials; CPC. And same style of authoritarian leadership.


And don't forget all the Canadian investment in Cuba. Like Sherritt Gordon.

And we have a long tradition of being business and social partners with Cuba.

Our CPC could learn some lessons from the Cuban CPC.

Other Great Leaders of Canada have.



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Nothing To Worry About In Bolivia

Despite the hand wringing and crocodile tears from the Canadian Mining industry about Bolivia's planned nationalizations of oil and mining, there is nothing to fear from it.

Nationalization worries foreign mining firms

TORONTO
Bolivia's plan to nationalize its natural-gas industry and exert greater state control over all of its natural resources has North American mining companies fretting over their future prospects extracting the nation's rich resources of gold, silver and tin.
The chairman of one of the world's largest gold-mining firms told shareholders he would now "put my buck" on exploration in Pakistan, rather than the South American countries that are erecting more roadblocks to foreign investors.
Patricia Dillon, president of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada, said plans by Bolivia to raise taxes and royalties on foreign mining firms are disconcerting.

Cuba is a excellent example of cooperation between a Canadian Mining Giant and a state-capitalist regime. I am speaking of Sherritt Gordon. Which has revived the nickel mines, coal production and oil production in Cuba based on an unheard of 50/50 deal.

China, Canada seek crude off Cuba, but not US
HAVANA (AFP) - China will send 12 hi-tech rigs to drill for oil in Cuban waters of the Gulf of Mexico, officials have confirmed, irking US lawmakers that US firms cannot prospect in nearby US waters. Cuba has stepped up work on a total of 36 new oil wells with Chinese companies and Canada's Sherritt, about four kilometers (2.5 miles) off the north coast, officials said privately.

Maverick shifts gears -- again

Ian Delaney's Cuban adventure laid the groundwork for his latest contrarian project: Canada and its coal, WENDY STUECK writes

At the time, the only two places in the world with a surplus of nickel and a shortage of refining capacity were Russia and Cuba. Talks with Russian interests went nowhere. But by 1991, Sherritt had struck a deal to buy metal from Cuba, an arrangement it cemented through a joint venture in 1994.

The Canadian-Cuban partnership made sense for both parties: Sherritt was hungry for metal and Cuba, reeling from the disappearance of billions in financial aid after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, was desperate for hard currency.

One party, however, was mightily displeased. The United States, which imposed a sweeping trade embargo on communist Cuba in 1961, watched with consternation as foreign investors, including Sherritt, moved into the country.

Slammed by U.S. critics for daring to do business with a communist dictator, Mr. Delaney launched a company to do just that. In 1995, the former Sherritt was split in two, with one arm holding the fertilizer business and the other set up to focus solely on Cuba.

In 1996, the Helms-Burton Act came into effect. The legislation opened the door to lawsuits against companies that "traffic" in property confiscated in the Cuban revolution of 1959, and to this day prohibits Mr. Delaney and other Sherritt executives from setting foot in the United States.

Through it all, Mr. Delaney chomped on Cuban cigars, trumpeted the potential of the Cuban business scene and said one should never back down from a fight.

It's a trait that he's still known for.

"Ian is very much a 'screw you' kind of guy," says long-time acquaintance Jeff Green, chairman of Toronto-based Paradigm Capital Inc.

Something the Canadian Miners in Bolivia should consider. Instead of whining about how they intend to invest in Pakistan, home of the Taliban and Osama bin Laden Inc., instead of Bolivia.

A capital strike by the Canadian Miners against the people of Bolivia will not result in harm to Bolivia, but will give another black eye to a Canadian industry that already has a poor international reputation for pollution, expolitation and environmental disasters.

Suck it up and make a fair deal with Bolivia. After all Canadians pride themselves in being fair.

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Nice Job If You Can Get It

CEO's in Canada saw their pay raises go up by 39%! Not in base salary but in their shareholdings that they get as bonuses. And they get bonuses cause why? Well cause they are CEO's. Not because they produced anything. As the Globe and Mail reports.

In Canada over the last year average workers salaries increased by 3.1 % And despite the long boom for capitalism, that wage increase is the average over the past twenty five years according to Stats. Canada. In other words workers have not seen anything trickle down, but have remained steady making no gains in from the boom.

Dennis Entwhistle of Telus did quite well thank you, seeing as he stalled any compensation to Telus workers for five years and then forced them out on strike.
He more than doubled his bonus from 2004.

Hunter Harrison did quite well considering the major environmental disasters his company; CN had with record accidents and derailments in Western Canada last year. But I guess he earned his compensation by thwarting fines for those accidents and payouts to the folks affected by his companies toxic spills.

Executive Compensation

How much is too much?

CEO pay soared 39% in 2005; read Janet McFarland's live discussion transcript

Investors could certainly ask that question this year. A Report on Business survey of executive compensation shows that Canada's CEOs saw their pay soar an average of 39 per cent in 2005 compared with 2004 (itself a year of huge compensation increases) as stock markets and commodity prices rocketed higher.

While salaries and bonuses climbed a modest 6 per cent last year, CEOs saw their stock option gains climb 47 per cent over 2004. CEOs on average earned $1.8-million each from exercising stock options — a number that climbs to $4.5-million if only those CEOs who cashed out options are included.

(The ROB review looked at 247 of the 279 companies that make up the S&P/TSX composite index. The others have not yet reported their compensation data for 2005.)

Executive Compensation Report 2005

RANK	COMPANY	CEO	TOTAL($)	DETAILS
1	Precision Drilling Trust	Swartout, Hank	$74,824,335
Salary: $840,000 Bonus: $3,360,000 Subtotal: $4,200,000 4% chg Other: $15,589,000 Share Units: $0 Option Gains: $55,035,331 TOTAL: $74,824,335 New option grant: 403,038 ($3,345,215) Industry: Energy Legend
2	Canadian National Railway Co.	Harrison, Hunter	$56,219,496
Salary: $1,665,950 Bonus: $4,664,660 Subtotal: $6,330,610 2% chg Other: $1,710,324 Share Units: $20,931,213 Option Gains: $27,247,347 TOTAL: $56,219,496 New option grant: 250,000 ($2,136,051) Industry: Industrials Legend
3	Nortel Networks Corp.(1)	Zafirovski, Mike	$37,429,297
Salary: $305,785 Bonus: $0 Subtotal: $305,785 % chg Other: $28,698,591 Share Units: $8,424,921 Option Gains: $0 TOTAL: $37,429,297 New option grant: 5,000,000 ($10,695,000) Industry: Information Technology Legend
4	Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce	Hunkin##, John	$29,471,306
Salary: $750,000 Bonus: $0 Subtotal: $750,000 -81% chg Other: $2,250 Share Units: $28,719,137 Option Gains: n/a TOTAL: $29,471,306 New option grant: 0 ($0) Industry: Financials Legend
5	Talisman Energy Inc.	Buckee, James	$23,330,301
Salary: $1,104,300 Bonus: $1,988,000 Subtotal: $3,092,300 5% chg Other: $151,704 Share Units: $0 Option Gains: $20,086,292 TOTAL: $23,330,301 New option grant: 300,000 () Industry: Energy Legend
6	Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan	Doyle, William	$22,128,851
Salary: $1,151,020 Bonus: $1,279,450 Subtotal: $2,430,470 -14% chg Other: $165,412 Share Units: $7,672,916 Option Gains: $11,860,067 TOTAL: $22,128,851 New option grant: 225,000 ($5,351,334) Industry: Materials Legend
7	Magna International Inc.	Walker, Donald	$19,557,890
Salary: $195,795 Bonus: $6,061,090 Subtotal: $6,256,885 % chg Other: $35,600 Share Units: $13,257,872 Option Gains: $0 TOTAL: $19,557,890 New option grant: 0 ($0) Industry: Consumer Discretionary Legend
8	Power Corp. of Canada	Desmarais, André	$18,844,090
Salary: $906,000 Bonus: $700,000 Subtotal: $1,606,000 1% chg Other: $545,064 Share Units: $0 Option Gains: $16,693,025 TOTAL: $18,844,090 New option grant: 263,000 ($2,272,320) Industry: Financials Legend
9	EnCana Corp.	Morgan##, Gwyn	$18,162,456
Salary: $1,475,000 Bonus: $2,660,000 Subtotal: $4,135,000 2% chg Other: $159,171 Share Units: $1,916,000 Option Gains: $11,952,283 TOTAL: $18,162,456 New option grant: 150,000 () Industry: Energy Legend
10	Bank of Nova Scotia	Waugh, Richard	$17,180,536
Salary: $1,000,000 Bonus: $1,500,000 Subtotal: $2,500,000 -3% chg Other: $275,801 Share Units: $3,000,000 Option Gains: $11,404,738 TOTAL: $17,180,536 New option grant: 224,788 ($3,000,000) Industry: Financials Legend
11	Cameco Corp.	Grandey, Gerald	$16,567,579
Salary: $771,300 Bonus: $600,000 Subtotal: $1,371,300 -1% chg Other: $6,449 Share Units: $2,433,600 Option Gains: $12,756,231 TOTAL: $16,567,579 New option grant: 210,000 ($2,558,325) Industry: Energy Legend
12	Peyto Energy Trust	Gray, Donald	$15,512,035
Salary: $210,000 Bonus: $15,302,021 Subtotal: $15,512,021 14% chg Other: $0 Share Units: $0 Option Gains: $0 TOTAL: $15,512,035 New option grant: 120,000 () Industry: Energy Legend
13	TELUS Corp.	Entwistle, Darren	$14,096,690
Salary: $970,000 Bonus: $1,200,000 Subtotal: $2,170,000 54% chg Other: $149,635 Share Units: $4,473,780 Option Gains: $7,303,221 TOTAL: $14,096,690 New option grant: 140,200 ($1,693,616) Industry: Telecom Services Legend
14	Power Corp. of Canada	Desmarais Jr., Paul	$13,881,209
Salary: $906,000 Bonus: $700,000 Subtotal: $1,606,000 1% chg Other: $455,021 Share Units: $0 Option Gains: $11,820,187 TOTAL: $13,881,209 New option grant: 263,000 ($2,272,320) Industry: Financials Legend
15	George Weston Ltd.(2)	Weston, Galen	$13,443,682
Salary: $1,600,000 Bonus: $460,000 Subtotal: $2,060,000 -10% chg Other: $10,000 Share Units: $2,830,059 Option Gains: $8,543,633 TOTAL: $13,443,682 New option grant: 187,383 () Industry: Consumer Staples Legend
16	Sherritt International Corp.	Delaney, Ian	$13,254,590
Salary: $750,000 Bonus: $112,500 Subtotal: $862,500 15% chg Other: $331,405 Share Units: $0 Option Gains: $12,060,670 TOTAL: $13,254,590 New option grant: 0 ($0) Industry: Materials Legend
17	Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc.	Bouchard, Alain	$12,048,833
Salary: $850,000 Bonus: $424,307 Subtotal: $1,274,307 26% chg Other: $0 Share Units: $0 Option Gains: $10,774,500 TOTAL: $12,048,833 New option grant: 0 ($0) Industry: Consumer Staples Legend
18	Alcan Inc.	Engen##, Travis	$11,850,529
Salary: $1,817,400 Bonus: $4,240,600 Subtotal: $6,058,000 38% chg Other: $-1,044,265 Share Units: $6,836,756 Option Gains: $0 TOTAL: $11,850,529 New option grant: 450,100 ($6,058,000) Industry: Materials Legend
19	MDS Inc.	Rogers##, John	$11,730,988
Salary: $425,000 Bonus: $195,000 Subtotal: $620,000 -16% chg Other: $10,772,801 Share Units: $338,203 Option Gains: $0 TOTAL: $11,730,988 New option grant: 46,000 ($275,080) Industry: Health Care Legend
20	Imperial Oil Ltd.	Hearn, Tim	$11,497,563
Salary: $1,100,000 Bonus: $900,000 Subtotal: $2,000,000 7% chg Other: $418,028 Share Units: $8,302,498 Option Gains: $777,030 TOTAL: $11,497,563 New option grant: 0 ($0) Industry: Energy Legend
21	Canadian Tire Corp.	Sales##, Wayne	$11,259,253
Salary: $990,000 Bonus: $1,079,555 Subtotal: $2,069,555 -9% chg Other: $2,651,745 Share Units: $1,613,968 Option Gains: $4,923,994 TOTAL: $11,259,253 New option grant: 0 ($0) Industry: Consumer Discretionary Legend
22	Ivanhoe Mines Ltd.	Friedland, Robert	$10,875,000
Salary: $0 Bonus: $0 Subtotal: $0 % chg Other: $0 Share Units: $0 Option Gains: $10,875,000 TOTAL: $10,875,000 New option grant: 0 ($0) Industry: Materials Legend
23	Inco Ltd.	Hand, Scott	$10,715,736
Salary: $1,240,969 Bonus: $2,416,888 Subtotal: $3,657,857 12% chg Other: $161,791 Share Units: $2,436,903 Option Gains: $4,459,173 TOTAL: $10,715,736 New option grant: 54,000 ($800,789) Industry: Materials Legend
24	Onex Corp.	Schwartz, Gerald	$10,576,533
Salary: $781,300 Bonus: $9,795,248 Subtotal: $10,576,548 -15% chg Other: $0 Share Units: $0 Option Gains: $0 TOTAL: $10,576,533 New option grant: 0 ($0) Industry: Information Technology Legend
25	Paramount Resources Ltd.(3)	Riddell, Clayton	$9,981,976

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