Canadian Data points & a Play:

Yesterday, Statistics Canada disclosed the March 2011 construction permit demands:  Up 17%.  This morning StatsCan announced that 58,000 jobs were created in Canada, of which about 13,000 were full time (BTW, for US readers that’s about equivalent to NFP printing 600,000 jobs – we know the market this morning is “hoping” for 185k).

The recent (this week) commodity price weakness will probably not change anything, being a metal & energy producer Canada is used to the wild gyration of commodities, and the productions companies of these goods, are well aware that nothing moves in a straight line.

A friend involved in the real estate segment was amazed by the construction boom in Ontario (where the majority of new construction permits were issued) where the $1,000 +sqf condo market is out of control.  This “ultra” luxury segment in Canada is being overbuilt and in their estimation will end in tears for someone.  Speculations are that rich investors are buying Canadian property as a hedge.  Bottom line Toronto is starting to behave like Vancouver, where rich foreigners have been buying bolt holes for years.  Implications for the Canadian real estate market are positive if foreign investors continue to look at Canada as a safe haven.

OK, enough crazy talk, last night I saw: À toi pour toujours, ta Marie Lou by Michel Tremblay, a giant among Canadian (Quebecois) playwrights.  First produced in 1971, when Tremblay was 29 years old, it is both fantastic and dated.  Fantastic because the word play between the four actors is impressive.  Only  a decade after the  quiet revolution which marketed the ending of the control of society by the Catholic Church, it is set in a poor blue collar household.

What intrigued in Tremblay’s play 40 years ago was his use of verbal iconoclasm to shock audiences.  Of course today its sounds a little more vulgar and not very shocking (although we are not so removed, as French Canadians, not to understand the social subtext), at the time, my guess, would be that nervous laughter greeted many scenes, whereas as today amusement seem to be more prevalent.  Tremblay’s thematic limits his characters’ verbal abilities since it is set in a poor blue collar household.  Despite these language limitations this meets all the criteria of a true Shakespearian tragedy, and the wordplay between the actors is truly impressive. 

Despite these “modern” limitation, the thematic remains valid today.  The play speaks of the human condition among the more desperate segment of the population. All four actors did a fantastic job, but then this is one of Quebec's most beloved play... you expect no less.  They were however let down by the direction and the staging which at time made the charter talk to the back wall of the stage -- I'm not deaf, but I could not quiet understand what the characters were saying, and the presence of water on the stage, just didn't get that.  Still a must see!