In an interview with Mazda Motor Corporation president and CEO Takashi Yamanouchi, the Globe and Mail quotes the Mazda boss confirming that the subcompact Mazda2 (Demio in other markets) will be sold in Canada.

“I’ve just decided,” Yamanouchi told the Globe and Mail.

While it would appear to the average consumer like a simple decision, with no subcompact model yet offered on the Canadian market, it appears that the brand’s executive team has wrestled with the decision for some time.

“There has been a lot of discussion about that,” added Yamanouchi. “There is concern it would cannibalize Mazda3 sales. We need it to be incremental.”

Dealer pressure to offer variety to its buyers eventually won out, critical in a market that sees 50-percent of all passenger car sales comprised of subcompact and compact models.

No body-style has been spoken of, although a hatchback is expected. Such a move would also help differentiate the model from Ford’s Fiesta, which is built on the Mazda2 architecture. Ford may offer a hatchback too, but for the time being has only announced a four-door sedan variant.

Why Canada and not the US? First, Mazda’s share of the Canadian market equals about 5-percent, whereas the brand doesn’t even convert 2-percent of American buyers to the zoom-zoom way of life. Part of the automaker’s success is a general penchant for smaller more economical vehicles in Canada, something Mazda does very well. The need for entry-level models is critically important in Canada, so much so that automakers have gone to great lengths in order to satisfy the unique Canadian demand.

Acura has long made a rebranded Honda Civic now dubbed CSX, while Volkswagen reincarnated the previous generation Golf and Jetta models with City monikers and dropped their prices significantly in order to get in on the action. Toyota brought its Yaris to Canada first, dubbing it Echo Hatchback before the current Yaris became available on both sides of the 49th parallel, while Pontiac’s G3/Wave and the Suzuki Sprint+ variant have been part of Canada’s small car staple for years. Even smart’s fortwo first made it in Canada before taking on the US. So why haven’t other automakers caught on?

Oftentimes there are good reasons for car companies to abstain from a booming market segment despite what looks like an obvious error in judgment, and the reasons often include safety and/or emissions regulations not being met. Such issues have kept Ford’s Ka and Fiesta from entering North American markets, as well as Mitsubishi’s Colt subcompact, just to name a few. When it came time for Mazda to redesign its popular Mazda2 hatchback, the Canadian division made sure its needs were considered so that the brand could gain a footing in one of the fastest growing automotive segments in the country.

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The Calgary census metropolitan area registered the fifth highest 12-month decline in new house prices in August, according to Statistics Canada.

The federal agency’s New Housing Price Index, released today, indicates contractors’ selling prices dropped by 6.3 per cent in Calgary from August 2008 to August 2009.
The biggest decline was in Edmonton at 11.4 per cent followed by Victoria (10.0 per cent), Vancouver, (7.8 per cent) and Saskatoon (7.6 per cent).

Nationally prices fell by 3.1 per cent in those 12 months.

On a monthly basis, prices rose by 0.2 per cent in Calgary from July while in Canada they rose by 0.1 per cent.

Statistics Canada said the largest year-over-year declines remained in Western Canada “where prices decreased from highs registered in late 2007 and the beginning of 2008.”
“Over the past few months, some builders in Alberta and British Columbia have offered lower prices, bonuses and incentives to motivate sales in the face of weaker market conditions,” added the federal agency.

Among the surveyed cities, the biggest year-over-year gain was experienced in St. John’s at 7.5 per cent followed by Quebec City at 6.3 per cent.

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ISLAMABAD–Pakistan is moving ever closer to a bloody confrontation with the Taliban, which is teaming up with ethnic rivals in a bold series of attacks in the country’s crowded cities.

Militants from the heart of Pakistan joined forces with Taliban insurgents from the remote Afghan border region to carry out the audacious weekend assault on army headquarters, the army said Monday – an ominous development as the fourth major attack in just over a week killed 41 people at a northwestern market.

But the military said the spate of attacks will not deter its plans for a new offensive against the insurgent bastion of South Waziristan.

The prospect of militant networks from across Pakistan cooperating more closely could complicate a planned offensive against the Taliban in their northwest stronghold, a push seen as vital to the success of the faltering U.S. war effort in Afghanistan.

New details about the alleged leader of the 22-hour attack on army headquarters in Rawalpindi, some 15 kilometres from the Pakistani capital, underscored the bonds among the groups. Officials said Mohammad Aqeel, a former member of the army medical corps, had ties to the Taliban as well as two Al Qaeda-linked militant groups in Punjab, Pakistan’s dominant and most populous province.

Just weeks ago, there were hints of optimism in the battle against Pakistan’s Islamist insurgents. The military said it had routed the Taliban from the verdant Swat Valley. A CIA missile had killed the Pakistani Taliban’s chief – so shaking the group, U.S. and Pakistani intelligence officials said, that his likely successor was killed in a duel for the top spot. Bombings slowed.

But that successor, Hakimullah Mehsud, is alive, a military spokesman said Monday. And as a spate of grisly attacks during the past week has proven, so is the Taliban.

“They have been able to regroup, and they now feel confident to take on the Pakistani state in the cities,” said Hasan-Askari Rizvi, a professor and security analyst in Lahore. “They want to demonstrate that they have the initiative in their hands, rather than Pakistani authorities. So it’s a real kind of war.”

Pakistani military officials said they would not be deterred by the insurgents’ new show of force.

Pakistan’s air force has been pounding South Waziristan in the last day, a prelude to a possible ground campaign, military officials said. Hundreds are reported to have fled in expectation of an attack. Military spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said the South Waziristan offensive will proceed whenever the army decides to launch it.

The Punjab connection is significant because it means the Taliban may be spreading their influence beyond their traditional base of ethnic Pashtuns in tribal areas on both sides of the Afghan border. Ethnic Punjabis, by contrast, dominate the army and the major institutions of the Pakistani state. Al Qaeda is primarily Arab.

The Taliban said their Punjab faction carried out the attack in that province – the first time they had referred to such an outfit – and vowed to activate cells outside the Pashtun heartland of the lawless frontier region.

“This was our first small effort and a present to the Pakistani and American governments,” Taliban spokesman Azam Tariq said. Tariq said the group was seeking vengeance for the killing of its leader in a CIA drone strike.

Monday’s suicide blast took place in Shangla, a Pashto-speaking area of the Swat Valley. The attacker was targeting a military vehicle, but most of the victims were civilians.

Punjabi militant groups have long existed, but in the past, they were nurtured by intelligence agencies to focus their attacks on Pakistan’s archrival, India. Their alliance with the Pashtun-dominated Taliban indicates they are now “up for hire” and represent yet another foe, military analyst Shuja Nawaz said.

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Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte said Tuesday his mission was accomplished after a 10-day trip to the International Space Station where he hosted a global web broadcast that featured rock stars and politicians.

The Canadian billionaire, dubbed the first clown in space, said his $35 million (U.S.) trip was an effective “marketing tool to put the One Drop Foundation on the map.” The non-profit group promotes access to clean water worldwide.

Among those appearing on the Oct. 9 broadcast from Earth were former U.S. vice-president Al Gore, U2 and Shakira. Laliberte had billed his trip into space as a “poetical social mission.”

“Mission accomplished,” Laliberte told reporters at the cosmonaut training centre outside Moscow. “I still have to evaluate the impact internationally, but so far it looks like a great success.”

The one-time stilt-walker and fire-eater, who wore a bulbous clown nose during his stay aboard the International Space Station, said he experienced only one scary moment during the his return trip to Earth, as the Soyuz capsule re-entered the atmosphere and plunged toward the planet.

Laliberte landed in the barren northern steppe of Kazakhstan on Sunday with NASA astronaut Michael Barratt and Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka, who spent six months aboard the space station.

At Tuesday’s news conference, Barratt pointed out that he was for a time one of two physicians aboard the orbiting laboratory. “Having two doctors aboard was a bit dangerous for the crew,” he joked in Russian.

Padalka jokingly told reporters that the crew aboard the space station enjoyed “complete freedom and democracy, except for anarchy,” during Laliberte’s stay there.

“Surprisingly, everything went smoothly,” he said adding that the crew ate lunch in the Russian segment of the space station and dinner in the U.S. segment.

The mammoth station consists of 10 modules built by the United States, Russia, Canada, Japan and the 18-member European Space Agency.

Laliberte may be among the last space tourists for several years, with NASA planning to retire its shuttle fleet next year. After that, it would rely on Russia to ferry U.S. astronauts to the station – meaning fewer extra seats for trips to the orbiting lab.

“The crew now consists of six people, and all the seats have been taken by professional cosmonauts,” the head of the cosmonaut training centre, Sergei Krikalyov, said Tuesday.

In June, Google co-founder and Russian native Sergei Brin said he paid $5 million to reserve a flight in 2011 to the space station.

Quebec-born Laliberte, 50, founded Cirque du Soleil in 1984, and is worth an estimated $2.5 billion.

He is the second of three Canadians to orbit the Earth in the same year. Robert Thirsk has been aboard the space station since May, and Julie Payette was there in July.

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