Canada 3000 hopes to fly by spring

With Air Canada having a virtual monopoly in the country, failed Canada 3000 Airlines could be flying again next spring.

Former Canada 3000 president Angus Kinnear said he hopes to have 10 planes back in service by the end of May and 15 flying over the next two years.

Once Canada's second-largest airline, Canada 3000 went bankrupt last November months after buying Royal Airlines and CanJet Airlines.

"A lot of people have found out how high air fares have gotten without having competition and they would like to have the opportunity again to fly on reliable airplanes at an economical air fare," Kinnear said.

Analysts are skeptical that Kinnear will be able to make a go of a new enterprise as the terrorist attacks in the United States resulted in an industrywide slowdown.

Another obstacle is new competition from Air Canada, with 80 percent of the domestic market, as it launched the Tango no-frills service just after Canada 3000 folded.

Air Canada has slashed fares for two weeks by up to 40 percent on domestic and international routes to boost sales.

Day expected to run for party leader

Stockwell Day is expected to announce Monday in Montreal that he will seek to return as leader of the Canadian Alliance party.

The beleaguered Day resigned as Alliance leader last month, fulfilling a promise that ended a mutiny within his party over his leadership. He agreed to step down and hold a leadership vote in March.

Day, 51, upset Preston Manning, founder of the Reform and Alliance parties, in the first Alliance leadership race in July 2000.

Also seeking the job are members of Parliament Dianne Ablonczy and Grant Hill, former Reformer Stephen Harper and Enza Anderson, a Toronto transvestite.

News in brief

Montreal Mayor Gerald Tremblay is trying to appease suburban opponents bitter over their municipalities being merged into a megacity on Jan. 1. The former Liberal Cabinet minister held an open house at Montreal City Hall on his first day on the job while former suburban mayors vowed to continue their fight to bring down his administration. The merger combined 28 Montreal island municipalities into a city of 1.8-million residents.

Retired Prince Edward Sen. Heath MacQuarrie, 82, has died at his home in Ottawa. MacQuarrie, who represented Hillsborough as a Conservative member of Parliament from 1957 to 1979, retired from the Senate in 1994.

Facts and figures

Canada's dollar was lower at 62.58 cents U.S. while the American greenback returned $1.5979 Canadian before bank exchange fees.

There was no change in the Bank of Canada key interest rate of 2.25 percent or the 4 percent prime lending rate.

Stock markets were higher Friday, with the Toronto Exchange 300 index at 7,820 points and the Canadian Venture Exchange 1,066 points.

Lotto 6-49: (Wednesday) 8, 9, 15, 22, 26 and 39; bonus 30. (Dec. 29) 25, 26, 34, 36, 43 and 46; bonus 9.

Regional briefs

Another New Brunswick child has tested positive for E. coli, but health officials say there's no link to other recent cases, including a youngster who died from the deadly bacteria in Saint John. In Regina, the number of confirmed cases of E. coli after an office party rose to 14. One person remains in the hospital.

Smoke from a controlled brush fire near one of Alberta's busiest highways linking Edmonton and Calgary continued to cause problems for drivers on Friday. Highway 2 was reduced to one lane in both directions near Ponoka as fire crews tried to burn the troublesome blaze out. Smoke from the same fire triggered a 14-car pileup on Wednesday.

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