No Goans among the 28 South Asian Candidates
There are at least 28 South Asians in the battlefield and their strength in the Parliament is set to go up by at least five or six more. The just dissolved parliament had two Liberals MPs (Gurbax Malhi and Herb Dhaliwal) and three Conservative MPs (Rahim Jaffer, Deepak Obhrai and Gurmant Grewal) of South Asian origin. The new one will have increased their number to 10 at the very least.
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Job Outlook Good For Canada
Solid Canadian hiring climate to continue into third quarter according to latest Manpower Employment Outlook Survey
TORONTO, June 15 /CNW/ - The staffing picture remains strong for job seekers for the third quarter of 2004 as Canadian employers anticipate a healthy job market reported the latest Manpower Employment Outlook Survey.
According to more than 1,700 Canadian employers polled for the survey, 31 per cent expect to add staff while six per cent plan to reduce the number of employees for the July to September period, resulting in a Net Employment Outlook of 25 per cent. Sixty per cent anticipate no changes and three percent are unsure of their hiring intentions.

Let qualified immigrants work
From: The Toronto Star
This is an edited excerpt of an editorial from the Vancouver Sun.
If there is a single issue on the immigration file that the next government in Ottawa needs to address, it is this: Remove all the unnecessary hurdles that are keeping thousands of qualified immigrants from fully participating in our economy.
The Liberals, the Conservatives and the New Democrats all promise to do exactly that. It is a promise that must be kept - and quickly.
Regrettably, none of the parties is telling us exactly how they will go about achieving the goal of getting immigrants to put their skills to good use here.
According to recent studies, the domestic supply of electrical engineers, software engineers, financial analysts, accountants, nurses, doctors, teachers, business managers and tradespeople will not be able to meet our demand.
The Conference Board of Canada says that 1 million skilled jobs will go unfilled over the next two decades if the country doesn't increase its talent pool.
Canada admits more than 220,000 immigrants annually - many of them with advanced technical or professional skills. But too many of them cannot put their skills to good use.
Why? Because provincial licensing agencies - whether for engineers, doctors, nurses, teachers or veterinarians, to name a few - are reluctant to recognize foreign credentials and work experience.
Those fortunate enough to obtain licences to practise here often find that employers, too, are quick to discount the foreign work experience of recent immigrants.
As a result, many immigrants are not getting jobs for which they are qualified, even in fields such as nursing, where we are experiencing shortages. The immigrants lose, taxpayers lose and the Canadian economy loses by underutilizing the pool of labour we have at our disposal.
If there is political will, Ottawa, the provinces, regulatory agencies and business associations can find a way to break through the barriers that are dashing the hopes of immigrants and keeping our economy from functioning at full capacity.
More needs to be done to stop the provincial licensing bodies from killing the dreams of qualified immigrants.
We are not suggesting that these agencies approve anyone who applies.
Careful evaluation of the qualifications of doctors, nurses and teachers is necessary to protect the public interest. But the mandate is too often putting unnecessary roadblocks in the path of qualified immigrants.
Foreign-trained doctors shouldn't be operating a corner store. Highly qualified nurses shouldn't be babysitting. Engineers with professional designations shouldn't be driving cabs. Accredited accountants shouldn't be waiting tables at the local restaurant. And qualified teachers shouldn't be selling perfume at the department store.
So a concrete plan to stop this waste of human resources should be a priority for the next federal government, whichever party has the privilege of forming it.

This is an edited excerpt of an editorial from the Vancouver Sun.

Hot Housing Market in Toronto
Toronto Star - June 22, 2004
Excerpts
TONY WONG BUSINESS REPORTER
If you bought a home in the Toronto area over the last 10 years, congratulations. You just doubled your investment.
According to a study of the 20 biggest Canadian housing markets, released yesterday by Century 21 Canada, Toronto homeowners have much to smile about. But not as much as those in some other markets.
"I guess what the survey is saying is that rising house values aren't just a Toronto phenomenon. This is happening all over the country, and in a big way," housing analyst Will Dunning said in an interview.
The 104 per cent return in Toronto however, failed to beat the S&P/TSX composite index, which saw a return of 131 per cent over the same period.
An earlier study by Dunning, covering a 20-year period, also concluded that in the long term, the stock market will invariably beat the housing market.
However, once you factor in having to pay rent, housing becomes an attractive alternative.
"If you could live in a cardboard box, then the stock market is the way to go. But housing has a dual purpose, which makes it attractive because you have to live somewhere anyway," said Dunning.
Century 21 also calculated the return on investment for those who did not buy their homes outright but, instead, placed a down payment and took a mortgage on their home. Using a $20,000 down payment as an example, the company calculated what kind of returns homebuyers would have received.
"People typically don't buy their homes outright; they put a down payment first and then they leverage that money," said Century 21 president Don Lawby.
Based on this calculation, the winners were typically in the smaller markets. Over the past five years, buyers in Ottawa would have seen a 512 per cent return on their $20,000 investment, while someone in Peterborough would have seen a 357 per cent return. Big cities such as Vancouver and Toronto would have seen more moderate returns of 50 per cent and 126 percent, respectively.

Prime Minister Martin Makes Personal Guarantee to Reduce Waiting Times for Health Care
CAMBRIDGE, June 16 /CNW/ - Prime Minister Paul Martin today personally guaranteed to Canadians that he will tackle health care waiting times the same way he did the deficit.
"I give you my word: I will bring the same energy, drive and determination to tackling waiting times for health care that I did to eliminating the deficit," Martin told a crowd at the Cambridge Rotary Club.
"I'm here to tell you it can be done."
As Finance Minister, Martin spearheaded the turnaround of Canada's sagging economy, eradicating the $42-billion deficit his Liberal government inherited in 1993 from Brian Mulroney's Conservatives.
Under Martin's fiscal leadership, Canada has gone on to record an unprecedented seven consecutive balanced budgets, the best record in the G7; pay down more than $50 billion in debt, saving $3 billion a year in interest payments; bring interest rates to a 40-year low; and create more than 3 million new jobs.