Every year the Gandalf Group conducts a quarterly survey of the the CEO’s of the top 1000 companies in Canada and reports it to The Report on Business, here are highlights of what they found:

1.  Overall confidence of the executives is very high, 76% forecast growth for the Canadian economy, they are even more optimistic about their own fortunes.  When asked about the growth of their own companies 90% forecasted growth.
2. No surprise here but only 21% forecasted growth for our US neighbours.  Which first of all begs the question…what are those 21% smoking anyway?
3. Interesting conclusion was that 75% of manufacturing executives are forecasting the effective disappearance of manufacturing in Canada.
4. Although manufacturing executives agree that they need the dollar to be about .10 cents lower then it is now, they also agree the government can do nothing to effect that change.  What they are asking government to do is lower corporate taxes, which they have done and continually pledge to do, and lessen the regulatory burden for the flow of goods.  This is of course dicey in an environment when the US is trying to strengthen security along our border.
5. I love this part, most executives feel that the new Bank of Canada governor should be focused on pegging interest rates at a level that keeps the economy going, NOT to only keep inflation in check, and then in general they should be moving our rates down in lockstep with the Americans.

I like when big business speaks because they are on the front lines and understand probably more what Canada needs to be competitive and grow, more then politicians who of course have way too many competing priorities.