MaRS

Toronto General Hospital, 1895: Part of our heritage

In 2000, Toronto was the first North American city to launch a program designed to expose people to buildings in the city they didn’t normally see. Now in its eleventh year, Doors Open Toronto has expanded across the province into Doors Open Ontario. Other cities in North America such as New York and Denver have since started similar festivals.

This weekend, MaRS is opening its doors to the public for the fourth year in a row to give people at peek at what goes on in the labs and offices of 101 College. MaRS is well-placed for inclusion in the Doors Open mandate, which seeks to profile buildings of “architectural, historic or cultural and/or social significance.”  MaRS is all three.

How a US pout affects Canada

Over the weekend, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) announced that he would no longer participate in negotiations on the current energy bill. Being the only Republican Senator working on this legislation, along with John Kerry (D-MA) and Joseph Lieberman (I-CT), Senator Graham’s departure means the bill will face a much tougher fight to move through the Senate. Democrats were scrambling to save the bill on Monday, because without bipartisan support (i.e. one Republican Senator), another battle similar to the health care reform is expected.

So why did he change his mind?

What you should know about digital media

In May, Canadians will converge to Stratford for Canada 3.0 – Canada’s digital media forum.  The open invitation gathers individuals and organisations to discuss Canada’s role in the digital economy. The two-day event will cover all topics on digital media including infrastructure, regulations, commercialisation, and Canada’s competitiveness. What should Canadians accomplish at this forum?  Here are some highlights from last year’s forum.

Television: Now with 100% more social web!

TV: it’s not just on TVs anymore! It’s no surprise that viewers are using different devices to watch.

Do you ever watch television and surf the net at the same time? Then you might already be sharing your thoughts about TV programs on social networking sites such as Facebook or Twitter. Social TV, through which people exchange opinions about the content, is a fast-growing trend.

Celebrate good times, c'mon!

To shed further light on Kerri Golden’s excellent recent post, the stumbling block that has been removed in this case is the Section 116 – a series of tax requirements that imposed onerous restrictions on foreign investors in Canadian firms.

Faced with an undercapitalized Canadian VC sector and the Section 116 restrictions, our emerging companies were either forced into premature public listings (often via a CPC mechanism) or had to concede that it made no sense to develop a knowledge economy-oriented enterprise here.