Speaking of hot in Canada, there is an interview with Sen. Inhofe on Hotair.com that references Canada's role in Kyoto and the changing face of the debate on man made global warming.

http://hotair.com/archives/2007/09/14/new-vent-sen-james-inhofe-an-inconvenient-senator/

Tell y'all something about Hamilton. Recently I looked into getting some retail space for a little business. We're talking $10 to $20 a square foot anywhere reasonable. "Reasonable" includes empty space where you build your own fittings and run your own power/plumbing/whatever.

Plus tax, utilities, etc. etc. et bloody cetera. God help you if you try to hire somebody legit. Under the table or forget it.

There are convenience stores going out of business around here. One doesn't normally see that.

Meanwhile the whole of downtown from King St. to the lake is a post apocalypse don't-go-there zone. The business rents are cheaper, sure, but there's no parking and no foot traffic except for the mutants who populate the place. Why? I don't know, but I expect city council had a hand in it.

Canada's economy is now driven by mineral extraction and its currency is a Petrodollar.

All Canadians, in effect, have been given a raise compared the rest of the world and imports should be much cheaper.

The other side of the rising Petrodollar (on par by the end of this monty?) is its eventual effect on the Ontario manufacturing industry, especially the auto sector.

When the dollar rises from 68 cents to 97 cents US, that effectively increases labour costs to the manufacturer 29 cents. According to my calculations, that a 42.6% increase.

How much longer Canadian car dealers can justify selling their products for 25% more than their US counterpart with an even dollar remains to be seen, but it does not bode well for Buzz Hargrove.

Bottom-line, a lot of wise Ontarians are moving out west while their homes are stil worth something.

Right now, the west is facing labour shortages everywhere.

A couple of million Ontarians who want to work and are willing to move out west will drastically alter the political power in this country. And, it will hollow out Ontario into even more of a welfare state than it is now.

It could get ugly.

Not surprised(happy though) to see Vancouver on there. We are simply running out of room.

So does the Saskatchewan NDP get some credit for the hot economy, or is this one of those times that a ruling government only gets blamed when it's going bad?

the bottom line . .

"The seven fastest-growing cities in Canada are all in the West, the Conference Board of Canada said yesterday in a new study."

Meanwhile Dulton does his best to kill the Ontario economy with the full support of Buzz "I cant organize a frik'n Honda plant to save my life" Hargrove.

top seven . . . and it only going to get better.

Payback for decades of being ignored and scorned is gonna be way cool.

Interestingly all the new hot property markets are out west and all have more secure property deeding law and enforcement than Onterrible and Dioneville.

Now that the contempt for private property has become open in the areas run by fabian socialist kleptocrats, we see a migration of capital, skills and property to areas where private land ownership and property rights are held in somewhat higher regard by governments of these jurisdictions.

The money and human migration west are seemingly a result of economic migrants but the underlying causes makes this a refugee migration from soviet styled property control regimes to democratic commonlaw jurisdictions.

Industry should look at the strong dollar as an excellent opportunity to improve productivity. We've relied on favourable exchange rates for far too long, and as a result have fallen well behind the U.S. A strong dollar means Ontario industries can modernize production by importing new manufacturing technology at a much lower cost than in the past.

Kelowna 10.8% (last five years)

Especially on the prairies, does rural depopulation account for a lot of the big city growth ?

I know this is way off topic and, I am sure you have seen this Kate, but I thought I would attach a link
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070914/belinda_Stronach_070914/20070914?hub=Canada

No two tier healthcare unless you are a Liberal MPI guess.

S-Jim, use 'reader tips' (just a tip)

I have been looking at housing prices on line this morning and discovered that you get far more house for your dollar in Calgary, Edmonton, Langley, Kelowna or Vernon than you do in Saskatoon.

I think Saskatoon is going to have a huge drop in housing prices over the next year.

I live in White Rock (obviously)and there ain't a whole lot more space in these parts to put those migrating Easterners. We're d**ned near full up. the infrastructure is decaying and needs urgent attention before we start putting in too many more sub-division (they'd be awfully small ones anyway in White Rock).

If we'd taken the money we've P**SSED away on the STUPID Olympics and put it into infrastructure and hospitals we'd have been a lot better off.

Sorry to belleyache.

So does the Saskatchewan NDP get some credit for the hot economy, or is this one of those times that a ruling government only gets blamed when it's going bad?

On this site, to ask the question is to answer it.

In other news, I hear Brad Wall is now complaining that Saskatoon is still not enough like Calgary: he wants the Bridge City to have a lower growth rate now, to emulate Alberta.

As for Saskatoon... does a 4.7% increase on zero count as an increase ;-)

Saskatchewan can't help but to succeed. It missed the boom by about six years and it only now is getting dragged along with the momentum generated by B.C. and Alberta.
When the commodity boom ends, Saskatchewan will be hurting...unless they elect the Sask Party and they are able to free people to succeed.

Toronto's a bit unique though for this comparison to mean much (and so are Montreal and Vancouver to a lesser extent). After all, if these numbers are just for Toronto, that doesn't really tell one much about the growth of the city's economy, because plenty of people work in Toronto, but live in Mississauga, or Brampton, or Markham, or Vaughn, or Oakville, or Oshawa...

I mean, when you look at the top 20 municipalities in Canada, 10 of them could be considered (in a way) as parts of Toronto, Montreal, or Vancouver (Toronto [proper], Montreal[proper], Mississauga, Vancouver [proper], Brampton, Surrey, Laval, Markham, Vaughn and Longueuil) with apologies to those cities, and no offense intended. So, in a sense anyway, OF COURSE Saskatoon, Calgary, Winnipeg, Edmonton and Regina are growing faster, as they are not completely surrounded by other large 200,000+ municipalities that can accomodate the growth moving to their region.

If you live in the southern half of Alberta and you live in a large municipality, you live in Calgary. Same with Edmonton in the North. Toronto is surrounded by 4 more top 20 municipalities and 10 of the top 50. So that makes things a bit different.

"If we'd taken the money we've P**SSED away on the STUPID Olympics and put it into infrastructure and hospitals we'd have been a lot better off."

Yea right, like pay the nurses and civic workers more money. I question the value of the Olympics but I think it will be another boom just like Expo 86 was. Calgary also experienced the same after the olympics there.

It never ceases to amaze me how lefties wanr all this money spent on health, education etc. but the fail to realize than in order to get that money you need a healthy vibrant economy and that requires investments like the olympics.

Horny Toad

LKO:

If you look at paragraph four of the story, it defines metro area.

That would mean Toronto's numbers include all the adjacent burbs.

The fact remains the day of reckoning for the Ontario manufacturing industries is soon at hand, as also mentioned in the story.

Waving pom-poms will not change the course of economic history.

I'm pleased that the people of Saskatoon are enjoying some economic growth, but let's get a grip, shall we?

Toronto's GDP is about 127 billion; Saskatoon's is 8.3 billion. 2.7% growth in Toronto is over $3 billion; 4.5% growth in Saskatoon is less than $500 million; that's an accounting error in Toronto. And, as others have pointed out, if you include Vaughan, Markham, and Mr. and Mrs. Sauga, the GTA GDP is moving along at quite a nice clip, thank you.

Toronto has its problems - a succession of loony mayors, an electorate that continues to support Liberals of all stripes, stifling traffic, and no decent ski hill within a five hour drive - but it still represents over 10% of Canada's GDP (and nearly 20% if you include the GTA). Wishing for Toronto to fail is like wishing for Canada to fail.

As I said, I'm glad other parts of Canada are experiencing growth, but let's not forget where the locomotive is.

Thanks "set you free", you're right it DOES say census metropolitan area. Of course, in a way (as Kevin B suggests) that makes the numbers perhaps even less meaningful when presented as a percentage.

In terms of population, a 4.7% increase in Saskatoon is an addition of less than 10,000 people. An increase of 2.7% to the Toronto CMA is 138,000 people. I think it's probably good that Toronto isn't increasing by 4.7% a year. Where would we put an extra 250,000 people every year!?!?!

It's true that waving pom poms won't change the course of economic history. Of course, it won't make non-renewable resources any more renewable either.

LKO:

There are no guarantees in life.

Enjoy the ride while you can.

...yeah well adding 6 more people to the city census doesn't mean it's growing

;-)

When this same western migration explosion was happening in the late 1970s, the Trudeau Liberals were plotting to deliberately curtail the economic expansion of the West.

This malicious, mean-minded Liberal committee to stifle the West's growth was headed by one Bruce Rawson.

Gee, I wonder if the Liberals would do that again if central Canada put the Liberals back in office?

The high birthrates are correlated to percentage of Native population in each city. Natives have the highest birthrate of any ethnic group in Canada.

Horny Toad...comparing the Calgary Olympics is pie in the sky. They are the ONLY Olympics in modern times to actually make money,not go decades in debt. B.C. had better hope the economy explodes way up,or they are in worse kaka then even the dippers could do!

No scientific observation to be sure, but three of the NOT cities are from Ont. My Ont friends tell me that province is declining compared to rest of provinces. That is the most telling thing I can see here.

All Canadians, in effect, have been given a raise compared the rest of the world and imports should be much cheaper.

You would think so since much of the products for sale are from American companies. However I haven't seen much of a price decrease. Something is not right.

Toontown:

My son tells me there's plenty of bargains to be had on ebay.

I admit, when the Saskatchewan NDP first announced its bold plan to tow the province away from its original location in middle of the Arctic Ocean, and moor it next to Alberta so it could get some spillover from the boom, I was skeptical. But it's really paid off. So, credit where due. Thank you, NDP!