Browse "Business & Economics"

This article was originally published in Maclean’s magazine on January 27, 1997. Partner content is not updated. That, of course, is the pitch many mutual fund investors want to hear - and one the financial services industry is only too happy to pump out. But savvy investors know that in the markets, big returns often go hand in hand with big risks.

Muzak.

National Bank of Canada The National Bank of Canada, with head offices in Montréal, is a Canadian chartered bank which commenced operations in 1979 as a result of the merger between the Banque Canadienne Nationale (founded in 1859 as the Banque National; merged 1924 with Banque d'Hochelaga and new name adopted 1925) and The Provincial Bank of Canada (founded in 1861). In 1981 it purchased Laurentide Mortgage Corporation, which specialized in mortgage...

The National Energy Program (NEP) was an energy policy of the government of Canada from 1980 through 1985. Its goal was to ensure that Canada could supply its own oil and gas needs by 1990. The NEP was initially popular with consumers and as a symbol of Canadian economic nationalism. However, private industry and some provincial governments opposed it. A federal-provincial deal resolved controversial parts of the NEP in 1981. Starting the next year, however, the program was dismantled in phases. Global economic conditions had changed such that the NEP was no longer considered necessary or useful. The development of the oil sands and offshore drilling, as well as the rise in Western alienation and the development of the modern Conservative Party of Canada, are all aspects of the NEP’s complicated legacy.

The National Farmers Union, founded 1969, was a voluntary organization of farm families. The NFU is democratically structured to assure members full control at all levels.

National income, strictly, is a money measure of the incomes received or accruing to residents of a country as owners of the agents of production, during a specified period of time.

Nationalization is the takeover of ownership and control of a privately owned enterprise by the STATE.

The Navigation Acts were a complex set of British laws dating from 1651 and 1660, regulating British and later imperial shipping and trade to foster economic and naval power.

This article was originally published in Maclean’s magazine on February 23, 1998. Partner content is not updated. Steven Hudson learned early about the power of performance-based compensation. As a teenager in Scarborough, Ont., he took a job at a bingo hall for seniors, pushing a refreshment cart up and down the aisles. The more chips and popcorn he sold, the more money he took home.

This article was originally published in Maclean’s magazine on November 8, 1999. Partner content is not updated. On May 5, hundreds turned up in their finest for the première of the National Ballet of Canada's revamped production of Swan Lake. Yet, as fabulous as artistic director James Kudelka's $1.6-million production was, an equally remarkable performance had taken place before the dancing ever started.

Canadian newspapers and broadcast stations depend heavily on news agencies for a regular supply of news from outside their immediate geographical area. One-third to one-half of news and editorial content comes from news agencies, also called wire services or press associations.

PHILLIP CRAWLEY came to Canada in 1998 with a simple mission: kill the upstart National Post.This article was originally published in Maclean's Magazine on November 1, 2004

The Nine Hour Movement was an international phenomenon, taking place in Canada between January and June 1872. The movement’s goal was to standardize shorter working days.

Its principal activities are in mining, manufacturing, forest products and oil and gas exploration, with its subsidiary, Noranda Sales Corporation Ltd, handling worldwide sales. Noranda has properties in Canada, the US and overseas, including South America and Australia.

Nortel Networks Corporation, or simply Nortel, was a public telecommunications and data networking equipment manufacturer. Founded in 1895 as the Northern Electric and Manufacturing Company, it was one of Canada’s oldest technology companies. Nortel expanded rapidly during the dot-com boom (1997–2001), purchasing many Internet technology companies in a drive to remain competitive in the expanding information technology (IT) market. At its height in 2000, the company represented over 35 per cent of the value of Toronto’s TSE 300 index. It was the ninth most valuable corporation in the world and employed about 94,000 people worldwide at its peak. But Nortel soon entered an extended and painful period of corporate downsizing, and in 2009, the company filed for bankruptcy protection in the largest corporate failure in Canadian history. Shareholders, employees and pensioners suffered losses as a result. Company executives, however, were paid a total US$190 million in retention bonuses between 2009 and 2016. Nortel sold off its assets for a total US$7.3 billion. Those assets were scheduled to be distributed to Nortel’s bondholders, suppliers and former employees in 2017.