North America: Investments: Brimelow asks, Time to say Oh! Canada?

Peter Brimelow an investments writer for MarketWatch, thinks Canada may well be a prime location to which one could do well to migrate one's investments, should Stephen Harper be elected on January 23. Well, he has caveats, and his originating article is entangled in a registration form - but I found the same thing on Yahoo! Finance.

In the article, Brimelow cites Dennis Gartman:

Canada's very much on the alert mind of Dennis Gartman of the well-regarded Gartman Letter, a daily institutional service. Gartman's noticed that Harper and his opposition Tories are doing unexpectedly well in the election campaign -- which in Canada can often be very volatile -- and may displace the governing Liberal Party, perhaps even winning with an outright majority.

And that could matter a lot. As Gartman reports it, the Conservatives last Friday "took one of the most courageous positions we've seen in quite a long while, pledging to cut corporate taxes and eliminate capital-gains taxes for individuals. The position was put on the table by the leader of the Tories, Mr. Harper, and therefore is all the more serious."

Gartman acknowledges that any such tax cut is "likely to be not to be enacted until early '07... if even then." All the same, "this is a huge change in sentiment," he adds, calling it "the most pro-capital legislation we've seen put on the political table in Canada in a very long while and it is worthy of our respect ... indeed our admiration."

As for the investment angle, Gartman's conclusion is thus:

"Perhaps we need to look to other Canadian energy assets, and perhaps we need to look even more strongly at Canadian energy trusts As Keynes said, 'When the facts change, I change." The facts regarding investment in Canada have not yet officially changed, but ... perhaps they are about to do so!"

There's some political garbage on the page as well, Brimelow's not Gartman's. But, all in all, should Harper be elected, there will ensue a barrage of investment attention to Canada, I predict. Whether increased captial (of our own, and from the USA and the rest of the world) will add up to a reduction of child poverty (for instance), remains to be seen. Harper seems well pointed in the direction of a compassionate conservatism. I'm hoping. - Owlb