Canada report

By JIM FOX

© St. Petersburg Times, published August 6, 2000

Political foes join forces for election

Two political foes who battled for the leadership of the new Canadian Alliance party will work together to try to overthrow the two-term federal Liberals in the next election.

Stockwell Day, 49, who was named leader of the right-wing party last month, has asked ex-rival Preston Manning, who headed the former Reform Party, to be his senior adviser.

Manningwill draft Alliance policy on science and technology, an area the party says the Liberals have neglected.

Former Reformers, including Alberta's Deborah Grey and Diane Ablonczy, remain in high-profile positions in Day's shadow cabinet as critics of the government.

Airline seeks solution

Acknowledging major problems, Air Canada chief executive Robert Milton said the airline will hire 2,000 workers by the end of the year to improve service.

The added staff and other measures are needed to deal with delays and service disruptions caused by rapid growth and the takeover of Calgary-based Canadian Airlines, he said.

Most of the new staff will be perform customer service functions for call centers, airports and in-flight operations.

In brief

A Montreal teenager known as "Mafiaboy" pleaded not guilty to 64 computer-hacking and denial-of-service charges. The 16-year-old also faces mischief charges after CNN's web site and others were crippled last February. The latest charges concern other major Internet sites, including Amazon, eBay and Dell.com.

Press baron Conrad Black is getting out of most of his newspaper business in Canada with the sale of 200 publications to Can-West Global Communications Inc. for $3.5-billion (Canadian). The deal with Black's Hollinger International Inc. gives CanWest, Canada's second-biggest private broadcaster, big-city dailies from coast to coast, key Internet properties, trade magazines and half interest in the National Post newspaper.

Britain's Queen Mother, who turned 100 years old Friday, will be given the title Honorary Companion of the Order of Canada, the country's highest honor.

Facts and figures

The Canadian dollar slipped and stock markets rose Friday after Statistics Canada reported employment gains have disappeared as the jobless rate rose to 6.8 percent in July from 6.6 percent in June.

The dollar ended the week at 67.14 U.S. cents while the U.S. dollar was $1.4894 Canadian.

The Toronto Stock Exchange 300 Index was up 154 points at 10,568 points Friday while the Canadian Venture index was higher at 3,352 points.

There's no change in the Bank of Canada key interest rate of 6 percent or the 7.5-percent prime lending rate.

Lotto 6-49: (Wednesday) 2, 3, 12, 27, 31 and 47; bonus 11. (July 29) 5, 12, 19, 35, 37 and 43; bonus 2.

Regional briefs

An election fraud case against British Columbia's New Democratic government was dismissed in the province's Supreme Court Thursday. Help B.C., a citizens group, claimed the socialist party misled voters and committed fraud in the 1996 provincial election by incorrectly saying there was a balanced budget.

A massive oil spill from a ruptured pipeline is threatening the municipal water supply in Chetwynd, in northeastern British Columbia. Booms were placed across the Pine River to try to block the 12-mile-long slick from reaching the town's water intake pipe.

Toronto politicians have decided to send the city's trash out of town but many residents of Kirkland Lake in northern Ontario aren't happy. Millions of tons of garbage a year will be shipped by rail to fill an abandoned open-pit mine. The town council voted to accept the garbage because it will create jobs and benefit the community economically.

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