Canadian Capitalist

A Canadian Personal Finance Weblog

Entries Tagged as 'Canadian Interest'

Quick Tip: Don’t let your Aeroplan Points Expire

July 17th, 2008 · 12 Comments

If you are an Aeroplan account holder, keep your account current by making at least one transaction every year. Even if you don’t fly frequently, you can collect Aeroplan points at Esso gas stations by swiping the orange card with a magnetic stripe. If you don’t have the newer cards (don’t forget to call Aeroplan [...]

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Tags: Canadian Interest

The Green Shift: A GST by Another Name

June 19th, 2008 · 26 Comments

It seems that few people have any clue on what Stéphane Dion’s “green shift” will end up costing the average Canadian family. The National Post’s Political Editor sums up this opinion, writing:

It remains at heart largely a leap of faith. Mr. Dion says he can make it work, and you have to be willing to [...]

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Tags: Canadian Interest · Mailbag

Dion’s Green Shift Plan

June 19th, 2008 · 24 Comments

The Federal Liberals unveiled their Green Shift Plan today:

We will cut taxes on those things we all want more of such as income, investment and innovation. And we will shift those taxes to what we all want less of: pollution, greenhouse gas emissions and waste. We need to make polluters pay and put every single [...]

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Tags: Canadian Interest

Quick Tip: Order Your Credit Reports

June 17th, 2008 · 24 Comments

It is a good practice to order your credit report periodically and check for any inaccuracies. I tend to do it once every two years even if I have no intention of applying for a loan of any sort. There are three major credit bureaus in Canada, but I only bother with the first two:

Equifax: [...]

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Tags: Canadian Interest

Tax Freedom Day 2008

June 15th, 2008 · 30 Comments

It’s an annual tradition for me to write about the Tax Freedom Day (June 25th in 2005, June 23rd in 2006 and June 18th in 2007) and rant about our high taxes. The Fraser Institute estimates that, in 2008, Tax Freedom Day fell on June 14th. The Institue’s report is a useful reminder of the [...]

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Tags: Canadian Interest · Taxes

The Conservative Tax Trick

June 10th, 2008 · 17 Comments

Talk about a pot calling the kettle black! The Federal Conservatives are running ads on radio slamming Stephane Dion’s, yet-to-be-unveiled, carbon tax calling it a “permanent new tax on everything”. Despite Mr. Dion’s claim that the proposed tax will be revenue-neutral, the Conservatives are claiming that Canadians will end up paying an extra tax on [...]

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Tags: Canadian Interest

Ideas for Your Tax Refund

April 27th, 2008 · 21 Comments

The nice thing about NETFILE is that if CRA owes you a refund, you can expect to receive it by direct deposit in about eight business days. I owed the CRA a bit of money this year but my wife got a big refund and we wondered what to do with it. Jon Chevreau writes [...]

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Tags: Canadian Interest

Bank of Canada slashes rates, Big Banks Do Not Follow

April 22nd, 2008 · 12 Comments

The Bank of Canada followed up its previous 0.5% reduction in interest rates with another cut of the same magnitude today. At this point, it looks like our central bank is expecting to lower rates even more as it noted that “some further monetary stimulus will likely be required”. You can read the full text [...]

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Tags: Canadian Interest

And the Lipper goes to…

April 16th, 2008 · 6 Comments

You can’t make up things like this if you tried. Jonathan Chevreau recently wrote about the second annual Lipper awards that gives new meaning to celebrating mediocrity. In addition to four overall awards, thirty (30) Lipper Awards were given to mutual funds in each of the 1 year, 3 year and 5 year categories and [...]

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Tags: Canadian Interest

Opting out of Telemarketing Calls

April 8th, 2008 · 14 Comments

Is there anything more annoying than telemarketers who seem to have the uncanny ability to call at the most inconvenient times? It is no wonder that the Do Not Call registry in the US has become so popular and the Canadian list is slated to become operational in late 2008. But political parties, print media, [...]

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Tags: Canadian Interest