The long awaited opening of Tim Horton’s certainly signifies the continued economic growth and prosperity our community is experiencing. This “Canadian” institution signifies that the booming Alberta economy has arrived and with the highway development that is occurring, the face of Wainwright is changing forever.

This prosperity is, in part, evidence of the Bank of Canada’s economic report card that was released last week. The report indicated that Canadian economy was performing “stronger than projected”. This was tempered of course with the fact that the Canadian dollar is at or above par against its sickly US counterpart which they advised would be a “drag on the economy” to the end of the year. They were still projecting growth to be 2.6% to the end of the year 2007 and 2.3% growth in 2008 which, with inflation, estimated at 2% is still positive. Housing prices in Canada continue to increase while those in many parts of the US continue to fall and as for the TSX - the benchmark of the Toronto Stock exchange is supposed to outperform the S& P 500 for the fourth year in a row indicating that Canada’s real economic growth is outpacing the US.

What does all this mean to my investment portfolio and how am I going to manage it? The short term answer is DON’T PANIC when we likely see some uneasiness in the markets as we head into a period of uncertainly fuelled by a weak US economy and US election in Nov 2008, (those Americans sure know how to drag it out… at least if Steve Harper has to go to the polls within the next week, our Canadian election will be over by Christmas). The surprising strength of the Bank of Canada’s economic predictions in part is explained by the fact that the developing world is driving the demand for our resources while decreasing our reliance on the US.

PlanWright Financial’s philosophy is to start with a sound financial plan that includes a long-term solid investment philosophy, review and revise it as necessary when life changes, but not to obsess over short term fluctuations we have no control over them. Like the construction of the Tim Horton’s that we have been watching intently for the last several months, we’ve seen periods of tremendous development, setbacks and periods apparent inactivity that made us wonder “When will it finally be ready?” Our patience, however, has been rewarded as we order our first “double double”.

October 24, 2007