From “Rupert’s Land” to Fifth Avenue: Founded in 1670, Hudson’s Bay Co. began primarily as a fur trading business, occupying some 40 percent of what is now Canada and a significant portion of what became Minnesota and North Dakota. With the iconic retailer turning 350 this year, I wanted to revisit a company I used to cover and take a peak at where it might be headed next.
I wrote a lot about this company’s modern day operations over the years, some of which can be read here as well.
Read MoreFor the most part, market reports can be pretty formulaic. Stocks rise, stocks falls. The loonie goes up, the loonie goes down. But once in a while, things get a little bit more interesting, like when markets react to the first Bank of Canada interest rate hike since 2010, or when the TSX notched its longest weekly winning streak in more than two decades. The latter just happened to be the very last story I wrote for Reuters.
Read MoreCanadian apparel company Roots Corp has set a price range of C$14 ($14.00) to C$16 per share for its planned Toronto initial public offering (IPO), seeking to raise about C$200 million, according to a term sheet of the deal seen by Reuters on Monday.
Read MoreJake Gyllenhaal put his “heart and soul” into “Stronger”, a film about Jeff Bauman, who lost his legs in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, and in the process found inspiration and a special kinship with Bauman. Plus additional bylines and secondary stories from the 42nd annual Toronto International Film Festival.
Read MoreIn “Gaga: Five Foot Two”, director Chris Moukarbel captures the artist hidden behind the outrageous costumes, revealing a woman unafraid to express her vulnerabilities and exercise her agency.
Read MoreSears Canada, which in 2012 was spun off from U.S. retailer Sears Holdings Corp, filed for creditor protection in June, 2017. After being in operation since 1953, the retailer finally shuttered its doors on January 14, 2018. Over the years, I checked in on Sears Canada amid a revolving door of CEOs who struggled to turn the business around, and followed the beginning of its demise during the summer of 2017. Here is some of that coverage.
Read MoreI started covering financial technology, aka “fintech” around the start of 2017. Everyone was talking about “fintech”, blockchain, distributed ledgers, digital identity, AI, machine learning. I was carving out a fun new beat, learning a ton and some of the stuff was fascinating. But alas, 2017 was also the year Home Capital, an alternative mortgage lender in Canada, saw a run on its high-interest savings accounts, and it was all hands on deck to help out. My other beat, retail, also turned into a bit of a beast, as Sak’s owner Hudson’s Bay faced shareholder discontent and Sears Canada filed for creditor protection. Here are some of the fintech and blockchain stories that managed to see the light of day before things went off the rails.
Read MoreBarely over 100 words, this kind of story was what Reuters used to call a “brite” (though sometimes the stories themselves could get kind of dark) - cute, odd, unusual snippets of news. Anyway, I include this one here, not because it was a literary work of art, but because I am just enough of a Star Trek dork to be nerdily proud of my headline, which somehow passed muster with the editing desk.
Read MoreVenture capital-backed investment in Canadian financial technology companies hit its highest level in almost two decades last year, even as the flow of funds into major fintech markets like the United States declined, according to sector data.
Read MoreSecrets and high fashion fuel the fires of revenge in “The Dressmaker”, a period film about a sophisticated woman who returns to her small-minded Australian town to seek retribution against those who sent her away as a child accused of murder. Plus additional bylines from the 40th annual Toronto International Film Festival.
Read MoreWhether it was see-through yoga pants, Chip Wilson’s faux-pas about women’s thighs, or a string of forecast-beating results, Lululemon always gave us something to write about. From the Wilson family’s post-Lulu retail venture, Kit and Ace, to roller-coaster stock rides, here’s a sampling of my stories over the years on all things related to the athleisure wear company.
Read MoreIt has been more than 25 years since a young Ethan Hawke stepped on his desk to salute his teacher, portrayed by Robin Williams, in “Dead Poets Society.”
Read MoreThe interview was supposed to start, but pianist Seymour Bernstein was not quite ready. He held up his iPad to take one more picture of actor-director Ethan Hawke before he was satisfied. “I think that captures the part of you that I’m very fond of: unassuming and full of affection,” Bernstein told Hawke, showing him the photo. Perhaps my all-time favourite interview.
Read MoreBritish class and privilege are seldom associated with hooliganism and uncontrolled violence, but Danish director Lone Scherfig pairs the two in a new film about the debauched excesses of an exclusive Oxford University dining club.
Plus: A Minute With: Max Irons on class divide, all-male banter
Read MoreBurger King’s proposed $11.5 billion acquisition of Canada’s Tim Hortons may offer big tax benefits to the U.S. fast food chain but the real tax winner is likely to be its controlling shareholder, 3G Capital.
Read MoreMore than eight months after an extreme winter began snarling North American rail traffic, a Reuters analysis of industry data shows delays lingering, raising the risk of a second winter of chaos on the rails.
Read MoreA pink Barbie-branded SUV that seats two toddlers offers a surprising glimpse into the myriad problems that jammed up Target Corp’s supply chain when it set up shop in Canada, and the challenge facing Target’s new Canadian head.
Read MoreTom Carter found himself homeless, jobless, with little money and 6,000 miles (9,656 km) from home after answering a job posting on Craigslist that turned out to be a scam. He stayed anyway, found a teaching job in China, and eventually saved enough to embark on a 35,000-mile (56,325-km) two-year journey to every corner of China that inspired his 600-plus page photography book, “China: Portrait of a People.”
Read MoreHow do you make a compelling film when your lead character is trapped by a boulder and unable to move for most of the story? Director Danny Boyle, coming off the success of the Oscar-winning film “Slumdog Millionaire”, rose to the challenge with his fact-based feature, “127 Hours”, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. Plus a look at the last days of apartheid, and additional blogs posts.
Read More
