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Finance Minister Paul Martin’s mission was clear in delivering his annual fall economic update. Douse hopes that much new spending is in the works. Dismiss the argument that Ottawa can afford a big reduction in Employment Insurance premiums.

Mere hours before the official reopening of its fashion floors in Toronto’s Yorkdale mall last week, there appeared perhaps the perfect illustration of Eaton’s quest to remake itself. Downstairs, the array of cosmetics and fashion accessories was deliciously tempting.

Martin is ready to table legislation as early as February to make it easier for foreign banks to open branches here. They are now required to set up Canadian subsidiaries with enough assets to back up any deposits they take in at Canadian branches.

David Kent is in a combative mood. Seated at the desk in his book-lined corner office, the 48-year-old president of Random House Canada, a Toronto-based publisher, is taking calls and returning messages from business associates and journalists.

"I wasn't sure if he was running for leader of the party or president of Cuba," one Liberal backbencher whispered as Finance Minister Paul Martin wrapped up his one-hour, 20-minute budget speech to Parliament last week.

Caroline Armstrong is, in her own words, "an extremely organized person" - some might consider her a bit obsessive. Call it what you will, her attention to detail served her well during a 19-year career in customer service with Canadian Airlines.

The man is clearly frightened. Insisting on anonymity, he lowers his voice and lets loose a stream of criticism. As one of Canada's largest sellers of desktop computers, he rails against the "massive power" of Microsoft Corp.

An ardent baseball fan since the 1950s and a minority owner of the Montreal Expos, Mark Routtenberg concedes that even his passion for the Grand Old Game waned during the past year.

For Finance Minister Paul Martin, the question is not whether taxes should be cut, but by how much and how quickly.

On the newsprint wrapper in which the retooled Citizen arrived at the doorsteps of its 140,000 subscribers, Neil Reynolds, the brooding editorial wizard whom Black handpicked to direct the metamorphosis, laid out that agenda.

It was a sight to behold: men and women who have dumped all over the province's public electrical utility from the dawn of political time, running in rhetorical circles in an effort to persuade worried voters and nervous consumers that Ontario Hydro's decision to write $6.

There has been growth - but, lately, in the field of bad news (page 54). On Jan. 27, the company announced an after-tax loss in 1997 of close to $260 million. That figure, the firm acknowledged, included $88 million worth of reclaimed copper that Philip could not account for.

The press clippings are piled three inches high on a table in Michael Budman's Toronto office. The co-owner of Roots Canada Ltd. strides into the sunny room, stops to survey the pile, plucks out a picture that features Prince William wearing the red Roots Olympic hat.

Donovan Bailey might not seem the most likely witness on behalf of Canadian culture.

John Cabot could never have imagined anything like this. When the Anglo-Italian explorer arrived at the Grand Banks in 1497, the schools of codfish were so thick, they literally stopped his ships in the water.

They just have no taste. They don’t think of original ideas. - Steven Jobs of Apple Computer Inc. on Bill Gates’s Microsoft Corp.