Blog

  Few sporting stories have the power to bridge political and cultural divides. Typically, stories about sport tend to be about one of two things: stories of victory or of scandal. We can collectively celebrate the accomplishments of Canadian tennis prodigy Genie Bouchard or we can collectively abhor the racist remarks by disgraced owner Donald [...]

Yesterday, we discussed how urbanization was affecting the developing world; for the most part, these nations are encountering these levels of urbanization for the first time, and thus the effects of the process have been exacerbated. A tremendous amount of strain is being placed on these nations’ infrastructure, in addition to an upward pressure on [...]

Do you remember the year 1978? You may have been alive; you might have just been an infant. To refresh your memory, in 1978, Pierre Trudeau was the Canadian Prime Minister, Saturday Night Live had just entered its third season, and the Toronto Maple Leaf’s Stanley cup drought was only 11 years young. On the [...]

Hello and welcome back! We hope you all enjoyed your quasi-long weekend. It is now back to reality, our brief blogging hiatus is officially over.   Last week, our attention was drawn to the opening of a new, innovative, all-sports website. Its not just the website itself that was so intriguing. We were drawn by [...]

  For those who doubt the competitive zeal in the world of business today, look no further than the examples outlined in yesterday’s blog post: Facebook attempted to expand their offering with a smartphone, Apple bought Beats audio for their online streaming business and premium headphone brand, Google bought a ‘smart’ home appliance maker, and [...]

Few markets are as cutthroat and competitive as the international smartphone market, and its two dominant players – Apple and Samsung – are currently engaged in a global battle for dominance of the market. They have filed lawsuits, launched attack-ads and spent millions of dollars in order to create a superior device for the consumer. [...]

  On Tuesday, Stephen Harper made a long-awaited announcement, approving the highly controversial Northern Gateway Pipeline project. At face value, the announcement seems like a massive victory for Canada’s Oil Sands, and a crushing defeat for its environmental opposition. It turns out, however, that the federal government’s approval does not necessarily mean the pipeline will [...]

Like many others, the staff at MacNicol and Associates enjoy starting off our day with a warm cup of coffee and some morning reading. Well, we usually enjoy it. David Ignatius’ Op-Ed in the Washington Post made for a particularly poor start to our morning. Just read the first two sentences:   “Let’s look at [...]

It was 8 days ago that John Oliver’s 13-minute evisceration of FIFA went viral on YouTube; the clip raised doubts about the legitimacy of the World Cup, and fears emerged about disaster in Brazil. Skepticism and concern would appear to be short lived, however, as Robin Van Persie’s aerial header – merely 44 minutes into [...]

Thursday night, Ontario voters took to the polls to elect a new Provincial legislature. To the surprise of many, Kathleen Wynne and her Liberal party emerged victorious with a strong majority at Queens Park. While Wynne had frequently topped the polls during the 40-day campaign, few had predicted that any party would form a majority [...]