30M Americans have poor opinion of Canada

A new Gallup poll showed that more than 30 million Americans have a poor opinion of Canada as a result of the division between the two countries over the American invasion of Iraq and insulting remarks last year about President Bush by some high-profile Canadian politicians. This indicates in my opinion the herd mentality of many Americans despite the general image that Americans are independent-minded, progressive and that they can intelligently analyze the global situation. And that opposition to the Bush war strategy and the White House policies should not be interpreted as anti-American campaign. It sounds and looks like third world organized religion in the land of plenty.

The poll result seem to tie up with the US state department’s scathing report which singled out Vancouver as one of the two Canadian "hubs" for organized criminals who are using Canada’s lax immigration laws to traffic in people. Toronto was named as the other hub as a major transit point and destination for human trafficking.

On the positive side, there’s a lot of flower power in Canada. According to the Canadian Economic Observer, floriculture has grown from a $44 million business into a $1.0 billion industry. It now represents nearly 13 per cent of total farm crop receipts. The boom was brought about by the increased efficiency and quantity of modern greenhouses, the popularity of gardening as a hobby amongst baby boomers and urban dwellers and the robust housing construction. The top five in the Canadian floriculture market are: Ontario, British Columbia, Quebec, Alberta and Maritimes.

Exciting news came from Alberta. An Alberta researcher may have found the perfect remedy to help people fight the common cold. And that’s by taking the herbal remedy echinacea. Earlier studies of echinacea initially did not confirm its cold-fighting properties till recently. Echinacea is a flowering plant that grows wild in some parts of North America and has a number of varieties.

However, more clinical tests will have to be done to provide final proof of the herb’s health claims.

It never occurred to me that the concept of mult-screen cinema, commonly known as the modern cineplex was a Canadian creation. Nathan (Nat) Aaron Taylor, the father of cineplex and a film-industry pioneer died in Toronto last week at age 98. The late Mr. Taylor apparently first experimented on his novel concept in Ottawa in the late 1950s with just two cinemas in a single location, then to Burnaby, British Columbia (three screens), then Mississauga, Ontario (four screens), Toronto (five screens) and then in 1979, he opened an 18-theater complex in Toronto. It was the world’s first authentic multiplex that can accommodate 1,600 people.

Just like anything revolutionary and innovative, the film industry at the time said that the cineplex idea won’t work and a crazy concept. But Taylor persisted in an era when the film industry was in deep trouble because of television’s novelty. His argument was simplistic, a film does not need a giant cinema house with lots of seats to fill. Only one American theater owner took his challenge then and eventually became a multiplexing millionaire like Taylor. Cineplex today has become the standard for the urban and suburban moviegoing lifestyle.

Economist, lecturer, consumer marketing consultant and writer Elliot Ettenberg has written a new book, "The Next Economy: Will You Know Where Your Customers Are?" According to the author, North America is going to face an economic transition and change as the aging baby boomers begin withdrawing from the workforce. The crunch is the coming of the Generation X (about 16.4 per cent of the population) who comes after the boomers. The problem is that the X people don’t spend and don’t have a lot of money to spare. Many of them are still at home with their parents.

Ettenberg said that the saving grace is the next category, known as the tweenies. They spend freely, have plenty of parents and grandparents who give them money. Marketers must prepare for the 20-year challenge because it will take some time for the tweenies to hit its real spending capabilities. The supposedly new company has a fancy name—Customer-Centric. It’s about knowledge, about focusing on and anticipating customers demands. Simply marketers must focus on wants and not needs.