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Category Archives: Canada
Cambridge is a Great Place to Live & the United Way is Making it Better
Cambridge is a fantastic place to live. Divided neatly in two by the mighty Grand River, it has beautiful neighborhoods and lots of great places to work, (like Worldline for example). Tons of recreation both inside and out, there are also great restaurants, fabulous shopping and due to its central location, easy access to all the great things the rest of Southern Ontario has to offer.
It’s why it’s one of the fastest growing communities in all of Canada.
Yet Cambridge, despite all those positives, also has a shocking number of its population living in poverty.
One in eight children fall into that category.
That’s why organizations like The United Way of Cambridge and North Dumfries are so important to the community. They set a very aggressive $2.3-million fundraising goal for 2013 and local residents and businesses are getting behind their all-important mission. There are 24 separate local agencies who rely on money raised during the annual campaign, collectively helping one-in-three members of the Cambridge community.
United Way Volunteers with Worldline President Roy Graydon
Worldline is working with the United Way and its partner agencies, like the Food Bank, with a number of fundraising campaigns. This morning we had a company breakfast featuring two United Way workers who were explaining the importance of their organization to Cambridge as a whole.
Alex Lourenco is on a three-month “loan” to the United Way from her regular job working on the floor at Walker Exhaust (which is a very cool thing for them to do by the way). She explained how all money raised is directed to the United Way’s three priorities:
All That Kids Can Be
Poverty To Possibility &
Healthy People, Strong Communities
Alex was followed by Divya Handa, who emigrated from Kenya thirteen years ago, and after very tough childhood, is a recent Honours BA graduate and is currently working on a Masters degree – all with the help of various United Way programs and agancies.
Each of our communities has disadvantaged or underprivileged people living in them. They are all our neighbors and each one of them can benefit from the United Way. Please log onto Unitedway.ca and see how you can help in your community.
Worldline Sets a Record: A September to Remember…
Out with the old…
…and it ain’t even done yet.
Worldline has been going about its business quietly and steadily for a full decade now, providing the best telecom services possible for the fairest price, and over that time it has developed a very satisfied customer base.
However the key work in there is “quietly.” Relying on a non-traditional marketing strategy, the company has been experiencing steady consistent growth, but it was decided that in 2013, that was all going to change. For the first time on the company’s history, and actual marketing budget was created. Actual marketing dollars were set aside to help build the business, create awareness and develop the brand and a marketing team was built.
…in the the New
Over these past few months we’ve changed the logo and the look. We’ve introduced our Super Hero Kids, we’ve been holding contests, sponsoring sports franchises, putting up billboards, and put together a comprehensive social media presence.
It’s been a ton of work, but if you are going to try to compete with The Big Three, you can’t simply rely on providing a great service, you have to be prepared to shout out about it a little bit.
So we did, and here we are.
With a week to go in September, we’re having our best month ever with getting new customers on board.
By a lot.
From all over Canada, we’re signing up customers to our Home Phone and Long Distance Packages, our Unlimited Internet options and to our Unlimited High Speed Internet & Digital Home Phone Bundle, and the feedback has been both terrific and inspiring.
Signed up with @WorldlineCanada today so I can start saving some money!! #bringiton #rogerslostacustomer
— Mummyto_1 (@mummyto_1) September 21, 2013
Saving money for people is one thing, saving them from the aggravation of having to deal with indifferent and sometimes brutal customer service, or being gouged by confusing and ever changing contracts for a service that has become for most of us an absolute necessity, is another.
Worldline made a decision as a company in 2013 to aggressively enter the Canadian telecom marketplace for a whole bunch of reasons.
First, it’s just good business, which is good for us and especially great for our customers.
But second, and perhaps more importantly, we, as a company, were sick and tired of having so many Canadians getting ripped off, when they had a perfectly viable option in Worldline, that they simply didn’t know about.
Of course, we’re just getting started. What we’re seeing now is a direct result of the last few months work.
What we have planned for the future, and I do mean just around the corner…
…well, it’s going to be really something.
So stay tuned, and to all our new customers, welcome on board!
Be Happy! We’re Number 6!
(CBC Sept 9. 2013) Canada has some of the happiest people on the planet because of long life expectancy, high average income and robust social ties, according to a survey sponsored by the United Nations in which Canada ranked sixth.
And it appears our cold, harsh winters make us merrier, not morose, since the only people who say they feel happier than Canadians are citizens of fellow northern nations, in order: Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, Netherlands and Sweden.
The United States ranked 17th in the report, trailing the United Arab Emirates, Panama and Mexico. Libyans were in the middle of the pack in 78th, while the globe’s most sorrowful citizens reside in West African neighbours Benin and Togo.
“One thing that struck me this time is that of the 150 countries we look at — and we’re measuring a period roughly from 2005 to 2010 — is how many had significant increases or decreases — 60 had big increases but 40 had a big decrease,” co-author John Helliwell, professor emeritus of economics at the University of British Columbia, told CBC News.
Overall, the world is getting happier, the report says, though there are stark regional contrasts.
While people in Latin America and the Caribbean are more content — by seven per cent since 2007 —residents of the Mideast and North Africa, many of whose countries have been racked by political turmoil in recent years, are 11.7 percentage points more miserable.
“The Arab Spring wasn’t good for a lot of people in those regions,” Helliwell said. “But the major declines were the countries that were hardest hit in the euro crisis — i.e. Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal.”
The happiness rankings are largely based on the so-called life-evaluation results from the Gallup World Poll, conducted in more than 150 countries every year since 2005. The poll asks people to describe their happiness on a scale from zero to 10. The average happiness level in the 2013 World Happiness report was 5.1. Canadians scored 7.48, below Denmark at 7.69 but well above Togo at 2.94.
The paper’s authors say six factors account for three-quarters of the differences among residents of surveyed countries:
- GDP per capita.
- Life expectancy.
- Perceived national corruption.
- Freedom to make life choices.
- Generosity of fellow citizens.
- Having someone to rely on in times of trouble.
However, they emphasize that while the most cheerful countries on the planet are also some of the wealthiest, income is a less important contributor than things like personal freedom and social supports.
Jens Norlem, who lives in Denmark, told CBC News he wasn’t surprised his country led the rankings, which he said is a national point of pride.
“It’s a very equal country,” Norlem said. “There’s not a lot of very rich people and there’s not a lot of very poor people. There’s a very big group of the middle class. And people have a high level of education, so people participate very much in elections and stuff like that.”
However, Norlem said, what sets Denmark apart from a country like the United States is simple peace of mind.
“You feel that you have confidence in the system — in the governmental system and in other people also,” he said.
“It’s a very typical thing here that if you walk up to people in the street and ask them a question, they’ll try to help. They wouldn’t think, ‘Who is this person coming up to me? He’s probably trying to rob me.’
“Which I guess is a bit different in the United States, just taking an example, where lot of people have guns and try to protect themselves, so they can shoot anybody coming up to them.”
The report, co-edited by Helliwell with Jeffrey Sachs, a professor of development and health policy at Columbia University in New York, and London School of Economics professor emeritus Richard Layard, suggests more countries use citizen happiness as a measure of progress, citing the South Asian kingdom of Bhutan, which has developed a Gross National Happiness Index and aims above all to maximize it.
Helliwell said this year’s report, created under the aegis of the UN Sustainable Development Research Initiative, is meant to be a kind of blueprint for governments to consider.
“It’s so the objectives of governments should include happiness,” Helliwell said. “It’s important we have the science and the measures there so they are taken and understood. The report is intended to play into discussions about world development goals for 2015 to 2030.”
Other countries using happiness levels or similar measures of wellbeing to gauge policy include Brazil, Britain and New Zealand, the study says.
Is The Big Three telecom ‘Fair for Canada’ campaign working?
Campaign by Bell, Rogers and Telus sparking some backlash
By Mark Gollom, CBC News
For several weeks now, the big three telecommunication firms — Bell, Rogers and Telus — have joined forces and waged a public relations blitz to win the hearts and minds of Canadians.
Their ‘Fair for Canada’ campaign seeks to rally the public to their side and “stand up for fair competition in Canada.” And they warn of the consequences of the federal government giving U.S.-based companies like Verizon Communications an unfair advantage to bid on valuable wireless spectrum.
But some telecom analysts question the effectiveness of the campaign, charging that their message is a tough sell to many wary consumers who have little love for their cellphone providers.
“[The telecom providers] haven’t paid attention to the fact — whether it’s reality or not — that the perception is they’re taking advantage of Canadian customers in the pocketbook and taking liberties with customer service,” said Mark Blevis, a digital public affairs analyst.
“So they haven’t built a relationship with the Canadian public. They’ve now turned to the Canadian public to come to their aid.”
Blevis did some analysis on the online response to the campaign and found that an “overwhelming number of people” have been critical of the campaign. It has given an excuse for those to complain about their providers’ service and many welcome Verizon, hoping a fourth carrier will provide lower prices.
The website and Fair for Canada slogan has been mocked. A few days after the Fair for Canada crusade kicked off, two counter-campaigns called Real Fair For Canada and Four for Canada launched. And a two-minute video showcasing the concerns of Bell, Telus and Rogers employees has been parodied and criticized.
Meanwhile, a poll by Forum Research a found that 57 per cent of Canadians support Verizon entering the Canadian market, and a majority believe its presence will lead to lower rates and better service.
“Canadians have sniffed this one out. They can tell what the big three are trying to do and it’s not going over well,” Blevis said.
“If they had inspired Canadians to protect the Canadian marketplace, that may have worked. Instead what they tried to do is get Canadians to protect them. And by all accounts, Canadians are not prepared to do that for the big three.”
For the full article click HERE