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The author discusses four important issues in 2005: bank mergers, governance, climate change, and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. All eyes will be on Liberal Finance Minister Ralph Goodale in 2005 as the now perennial Canadian issue of bank mergers drags into yet another year without any meaningful move from the government. The prospect is so worrying that David Dodge, the governor of the Bank of Canada, recently stepped into the policy debate again and urged the government to resolve the merger question. Advocates like the Canadian Coalition for Good Governance have been turning up the heat on execs they consider overpaid. The Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants introduced regulations in 2004 requiring companies to account for the cost of stock options. The European Union Greenhouse Gas Emission Trading Scheme gets underway in January 2005. What's more, U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair is promising climate change will be high on the agenda at both the G8 summit and in the EU parliament (Blair heads up both these bodies in 2005).

Presents an interview with Canadian businessman, Red Wilson. Educational history; Time spent at Labatts in London and what he learned from working closely with Jake Moore, who was running Labatts at the time; Thoughts on his career.

On the outskirts of Ottawa, Ontario, over a million square feet of commercial real estate stand empty, a stark reminder of the city's high-tech bust. The point where Merivale Road, famed for big-box stores, runs into the old Highway 16 is about as far from downtown Ottawa as it sounds. Looming over it all is the more or less brand spanking new Canadian headquarters of JDS Uniphase Corp. According to a company spokeswoman, JDA chief executive officer Jozef Straus has put headquarters-all 900,000 square feet of it up for sale or rent. Its two buildings have 388,000 square feet that Nortel Networks, which has slimmed down its Ottawa workforce from 18,000 to less than 6,000, is anxious to sublet. Nokia has handsome masonry on a sleek 160,000-square-foot building over on Solandt Road, in the heart of Kanata's high-tech district. It borders the 18th fairway of the golf course that its landlord, Mitel and Newbridge Networks founder Terry Matthews, recently built. And it's just around the corner from the construction site for Matthews' Brookstreet Hotel, which resembles a cross between a long-deposed European dictator's tomb and the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp.'s idea of class. Another survey done by Royal LePage Commercial puts the vacancy rate at 7.9%. But more revealing are estimates for the west end, the epicenter of the high-tech industry, at least when it was generating some seismic activity.

Profiles BCE Inc. chief executive officer Michael Sabia, successor of Jean Monty. Information on BCE, one of Canada's largest corporations, and the most integrated telecommunications company in North America; Financial struggles of BCE after the planned global expansion through international carrier Teleglobe failed; Biographical information on Sabia; Outlook for BCE monopolizing Canadian telephone business; Expectation Sabia will emphasize business in Western Canada; Outlook for his success.

Focuses on the Canadian company Roots, who designed the Team USA Olympic outfits for the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City, Utah. Popularity of the USA team berets that helped the company's public relations; Plans to open more Roots stores, in addition to a New York City location, in the U.S.; Core customers of Roots according to chief executive officer Marshall Myles; Challenges for Roots of selling in the U.S. apparel market in light of the economic downturn.

Profiles a number of investment analysts, including Perry Caicco, Brian Piccioni, Hari Sambasivam, Tom MacKinnon, David Beck, Scott Lamacraft, Maureen Howe, and Rob Wessel. Business experience of the analysts; Their strategies for investing; Expertise of the analysts in a number of industries.

Ranks the top 100 wealthiest people in Canada as of December 31, 2001. Kenneth Thompson, a publisher; Galen Weston, in the grocery business, retail, and real estate; Business activities of the Irving family; Bernard Sherman of Apotex, Inc.; More. INSETS: Wealth creators;Dearly departed;Bubbling under.

Discusses the connection of computers in a household through a network to get online without any delay. Growth in demand for residential networks; Availability of components of a computer for home owners; Requirements to be considered before connecting computers in a network. INSETS: SECURING THE AREA;EASING THE PATHWAY.

Focuses on the efforts of Ottawa-based Bird Satellite Communications Inc. to compete against Telesat Canada for Canada's satellite positions, as of May, 2001. Biographical information regarding Richard Stursberg, the firm's president and chief executive; Partnership between Bird and New York-based Loral Space and Communications Ltd.; Perception that Telesat holds a monopoly in the industry; Financial prospects of Bird Satellite Communications.

Examines the efforts of Canadian-based Nortel Networks Corp. to develop an all-photonic telecommunications network. The role of Chief Executive Officer John Roth in shifting Nortel away from voice network equipment and toward the Internet; The importance of Nortel's optical-network products to running the Internet; History of Nortel, originally known as Northern Telecom Ltd.; Challenges that Nortel faces in moving toward an all-photonic network.

Focuses on twelve sectors on the Toronto Stock Exchange 300 index, including biotechnology, communications and media, realestate, and oil & gas. Discussion of analysts' stock picks for 2001; Success of biotechnology stocks; Trend of mergers and acquisitions within the Canadian telecommunications industry.

Profiles Stuart Duncan, chairman of Canada's Inetcable.com, a hybrid satellite and Internet-based streaming video service. How Duncan and his brother founded pornographic television networks, the Exxxtasy Channel, Exotica and True Blue; Programming plans for Inetcable.com; Mention of the company's initial public offering.

Discusses the efforts of Futureway Communications Inc. to provide fiber optic cables to residents in Toronto, Canada. Discussion of the fiber optics which bring high-speed Internet connections to residential homes; Thought that using fiber optics for residential homes is too costly and time consuming; Other telecommunication companies competing with Futureway including Bell and Shaw Communications.

Reports on Gary Kain, chairman of Regional Cablesystems in Toronto, Ontario. How he created the sixth largest cable television operation in Canada; Strategies for growth and how he presents profits each year; Background on the business and how it has affected the strength of small town companies.

Focuses on the mutation of Nigerian midget goats and spiders, a development which has created silk-producing goats. Breeding of the goats; Background on Jeffrey Turner, the scientist who initiated the experiment, and Nexia Biotechnologies Inc., the company which funds it; Details on the strength and development of spider silk; How the silk can be used; Competing projects led by DuPont; Opposition by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).

Focuses on C-MAC Industries Inc., a multinational electronics manufacturer headquartered in Montreal, Quebec. Expected sales for 2000; Nortel Networks Corp.'s reliance on C-MAC for the design and engineering of new products; How Chairman Dennis Wood started the company.

Profiles Gateway Telecom Canada Inc. and chief executive officer (CEO) Jim Blumsom. Plans to establish a fiber optic network; Success at procuring funds with which to begin; Blumsom's lack of experience in the telecommunications industry; Description of office space; Business plan which includes competing with Bell Canada; Outlook for the company.

Focuses on several Canadian educators who have outstanding reputations in the field of high technology. Mohamed Elmasry, professor and director of VLSI Research Group, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering; Jim Wight, chairman of the Department of Electronics at Carleton University; Jacob Slonim, dean of computer science at Dalhousie University.

Focuses on the efforts of Jean Monty, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Bell Canada Enterprises (BCE) Inc., to make his company competitive in the Internet communication industry. BCE divestiture of Nortel Networks Corp.; BCE efforts at Internet content licensing and development; Outlook for BCE international growth. INSET: Meanwhile, across the Atlantic... by Andrew Wahl.

Focuses on Antoine Paquin who started Skystone Systems that designed semiconductors to drive the computer hardware used in high-speed fiber-optic networks. The purchase of Skystone Systems by Cisco in the 1990s; The goal of his company, Philsar Semiconductor Inc.; Biographical information. INSET: Look ma, no wires!.

Reports on the growing number of Canadian technology entrepreneurs that are incorporating their businesses in the United States. Why they are transforming their Canadian operation into a faux American corporation; Examples of companies straddling the border; Why some do not buy into the notion that you have to feign Americanism to be successful in the technology world.

Focuses on Sympatico, a Canadian Internet service and content provider, and the problems faced by chief executive officer Rudi Engel. Popularity with consumers, but lack of financial impact on its owner, BCE Inc.; Mistakes made in the past, including faulty marketing; The hope it places in better technology; Engel's focus on short-term problems.

Focuses on Ian Sutcliffe's company Mediconsult.com Ltd. which has become one of the most popular medical information Web sites on the Internet. What the site offers to visitors; The advertising dollars that the site is drawing in; Why Sutcliffe believes dealing with drug companies can be lucrative for him; What Sutcliffe will rely on to boost revenue. INSET: Our girl in cyberspace.

Profiles Leo Lax, one of the founders of Skypoint Capital Corp., a Canadian technology venture capital fund. Other technology-based venture capital funds in Canada; Focus of Skypoint as being telecommunications and data networking.

Features Cinar Corp., a supplier of educational supply materials which integrates popular cartoon characters from Cinar's entertainment operations. Information on Micheline Charest and Ron Weinberg, founders of Cinar; Development and growth of the company; Challenges and problems faced by the company.

Takes a look at the competitive local-service market for telecommunications in Canada. How the merger between AT&T Canada and MetroNet Communications Corp. has made it into a major force within this market; What prompted the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to decide to open the local market; The massive price-cutting that swept the residential market in 1998.

Focuses on New Brunswick native Cynthia Trudell who was appointed chair and president of General Motors subsidiary Saturn Corp. on January 1, 1999. The reception she has gotten from the company's workers; Trudell's career background; Industry reaction to her appointment; The challenges that she faces. INSET: The other woman, by Joe Chidley.

Highlights Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie of Waterloo, Ontario-based Research in Motion Ltd. (RIM) for their creation of a pager with two-way e-mail. The increase of RIM's TSE share price; The collaboration with NFB and Eastman Kodak Co.; Details about the version of the pager called BlackBerry, aimed at offices with servers running Microsoft Exchange network software.

Reports on agricultural biotechnology in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Work on genetic engineering in plants by a number of companies, the University of Saskatchewan, National Research Council's Plant Biotechnology Institute, and Agriculture Canada; Brent Zettl's Prairie Plant Systems Inc. trying to market the saskatoon berry; Details about the company and their efforts; AgrEvo Canada Inc. becoming the first company to market genetically altered plants in Canada.

Focuses on Celestica Inc., a maker of computers and other electronic systems based in Toronto, Ontario. Physical description of the company's headquarters; The plant's uniqueness; Comments of Celestica president Eugene Polistuk; Work the company does for Silicon Graphics among others; Number employed at the company's domestic and international plants; Trend toward standardization in the industry and its benefit to Celestica and its competitors.

Focuses on biotech company Hemosol Inc., in Toronto, Ontario. The company's efforts to produce a blood substitute; How fake blood can be sterilized, filtered and pasteurized to completely eliminate HIV and other diseases; Elimination of the need to match blood types; Estimates on global sales; Mention of Baxter, a medical products company; Warning of Dr. Thomas Chang of McGill University, who created the first blood cell 41 years ago.

Focuses on the merger of Montreal's Teleglobe with United States long-distance carrier Excel. Comments of Kenny Troutt, chief executive officer of Excel; Conditions of the merger; Career of Charles Sirois, chief executive of Teleglobe; Details of the merger; Opposition and criticism.

Profiles John Roth, chief executive officer of Northern Telecom in Canada. How he is addressing the demand for data communications; Efforts to position the company as a central player in the transformation of the Web; A focus group testing of Webtone. INSET: All talked out?.

Examines the business of JetForm Corp. as of April 1998. Focus on John Kelly, president and chief executive officer of the company; JetForm's large share of the market for software that allows corporations big cost savings by creating electronic forms; Its impressive growth rate; Speculation on whether the rate can be maintained; Financial data; Analysis.

Focuses on Ottawa software company Software Kinetics. The firm's creation of the world's first software system for recovering black box data from aircraft crashes and turning it into video recreations; Its plan to sell a version of the animation system to airlines and others who might use it for training, quality control and other purposes; Background of the company and its president, David Webster.

Studies Newbridge Network Corp. and its chief executive, Terry Matthews. Change in the value of the company's shares between October 1997 and February 1998; Scrutiny of Matthew's decision to hang the company's future on asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) networking technology; The event that created the opening for Newbridge; The force that moves Matthews and his company. INSET: Follow the leader.

Features Leonard Lee, founder and president of Lee Valley Tools Ltd., a tool retailer in Ottawa, Ontario. Lee's techniques in advertising in the company's catalogs; His strong opinions, such as the correct way to sharpen tools and knives leading to a best-selling book; The introduction of gardening contributing to sales growth; The use of mail-order houses in the United States.

Considers the fortunes of Canadian telephone company Bell Canada in 1997, following the ouster of President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) John McLennan. Hiring of Ron Osborne as his replacement as CEO; The company's loss of much of its monopoly; Evaluation of McLennan's tenure as top executive; Inflexibility as part of Bell Canada's management structure.

Profiles Canadian corporation iStar Internet Inc. iStar advertising as an Internet Service Provider; Why the company chooses to call itself a Network Service Provider; How the company did during the fiscal year ending in May 1997; Troubles with iStar in the electronic commerce market; The history of the company.

Presents information on the efforts of Canadian Roy Bryden with the company World Heart Corp., to create a self-contained, fully implantable artificial human heart. Their devise, the HeartSaver; Odds the company faces; Work of Dr. Wilbert Keon; Details on the HeartSaver; Difficulties behind bringing it to market; The cost problem with insurance companies.

Focuses on MDS Inc., a health and life services company in Toronto, Ontario. How MDS may appear as a biotechnology firm; The history of MDS; Comments from John Rogers, chief executive officer and president; Running a laboratory business; MDS' diversification strategy.

Presents information about the disease osteoarthritis (OA). Figure of Canadians afflicted with OA; Description of the condition of a person with OA; Probable reason for cartilage breakdown; Life style suggestions to prevent OA; Information on Synvisc, a drug for the relief of OA pain. INSET: New hip hooray (Information about new joints for OA treatment)..

Focuses on the Tour De France, in light of the 100th anniversary of the bicycling event. Mention of Didi Senft, who wore a Satan costume and encouraged cyclists to finish the race, and the tradition of riders for throwing their water bottles at him; Discussion of how one can follow the daily races with tour guides, such as Steve Bauer, who started a travel business in 1996 after retiring from racing; Details of trips offered by Steve Bauer Bike Tours Inc.; Price of a luxury cycling trip package from Butterfield & Robinson, which is based in Toronto, Ontario; Details of a tour offered by Trek, a bicycle company based in the United States; Statement that a major sponsor of the Tour de France can watch the race from a private helicopter.

Discusses the usage of technology in home appliances. Impact of using software and microchips in appliances on society; Communication between machines for easier work; Insulation of the circuitry by high-voltage power.

Reports on the merger of Canadian corporations Bell Canada International Inc. (BCI) and Thomson Corp as of October, 2000. Mention of so-called convergence, which is the integration of information, communication and entertainment; Hope that controlling the Web content that drives demand will replace missing revenue.