How well do you know the BUSINESS of 2018?

From botched takeovers to pot legalization, test your knowledge of this year’s goings on

2018-12-22 -

In a Toronto speech in November, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley a) thanked Canadian taxpayers for financing this year’s $9.3-billion purchase and expansion by Ottawa of the Trans Mountain pipeline, to get landlocked Alberta oil to world markets b) thanked Canadians for this year’s taxpayer-funded corporate tax breaks requested by Alberta oil producers to modernize their operations c) claimed that Canadians “willfully” hold back Albertans’ prosperity by, among other things, insisting on upgraded environmental safeguards to protect the B.C. coastline from oil spills.

In October, Ottawa green-lighted the $40-billion (U.S.) LNG Canada megaproject, to supply Canadian liquefied natural gas to Asian markets. The project’s epicentre is an $18-billion (U.S.) marine terminal located in a) Kitimat, B.C. b) Churchill, Manitoba c) Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Labrador

China and India, major customers of LNG Canada on completion of that project, are estimated to suffer a combined 3 million deaths per year from conventional air pollution, mostly caused by coal, which the two countries mean to replace with natural gas. Economic losses due to premature deaths are estimated to equal what per cent of GDP in China and India? a) 0.3 and 0.17, respectively b) 1.5 and 0.9, respectively c) 9.9 and 7.7, respectively

In July, Tim Hortons announced it will open about 1,500 coffee-anddoughnut shops in a country not known for its love of java: a) Italy b) Brazil c) China

In August, which troubled airline poached as its turnaround CEO Ben Smith, 46, who as chief operating officer at Air Canada helped oversee a remarkable comeback at the Canadian carrier? a) Air France-KLM b) British Airways c) Lufthansa AG

In November, General Motors Co. said it will likely close its venerable Oshawa auto-assembly plant, a decision based on a) GM Oshawa’s high labour costs b) Canada’s high rate of corporate taxation c) GM’s complacency in failing to address until now its excess production capacity in North America, which will see it shutter several of its U.S. plants in tandem with GM Oshawa

In November, Bombardier Inc. said it had sold its Q400 turboprop business, marking an end to generations of plane-making in a) Dorval, Que. b) Downsview, Ont. c) London, Ont.

After a spate of erratic behaviour this year, Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk reclaimed his credibility with third-quarter results that revealed a) Tesla has been meeting production targets for its first mass-market allelectric vehicle, the Model 3, defying widespread skepticism b) in its first year, the Model 3 is already one of North America’s best-selling sedans c) Tesla’s latest financial results beat Wall Street expectations d) all of the above

Bayer AG’s blockbuster $63-billion (U.S.) takeover of Monsanto Co. a) is the biggest takeover by a German company of a non-German firm b) will diversify pharmaceutical chemicals giant Bayer into agrichemicals c) will drop the word “Monsanto” from the combined company’s name, removing one of the most vilified names from the world corporate landscape d) all of the above

10.

“We will not screw this up,” Michael Medline, CEO of Sobeys Inc., promised in October in announcing Sobeys’ $800-million acquisition of the Ontario-based Farm Boy grocery chain. Sobeys did cost its parent, Empire Co. Ltd., more than $2 billion in losses from its earlier, bungled takeover of a) Dominion Stores b) Canadian Safeway c) Oshawa Group

11.

Toronto-based Barrick Gold Corp.’s $6-billion (U.S.) blockbuster takeover of its peer Randgold Resources Ltd. caused furrowed brows on Bay Street because a) Barrick is already heavily indebted, at a time when interest rates are on a long-term rise b) Randgold’s assets are located in politically unstable regions of Africa c) the world gold price has slumped by about 40 per cent in eight years, with little reason to expect a price recovery d) all of the above

12.

In purchasing Norwegian sportswear and workwear maker Helly Hansen in May for a steep $985 million (Cdn.), which acquirer saw a good fit with its Mark’s and SportChek divisions? a) conglomerate Onex Corp. b) diversified retailer Canadian Tire Corp. Ltd. c) general merchandizer Hudson’s Bay Co.

13.

In the latest mass compromising of private data, world no.1 hotelier Marriott International disclosed in December that a hacking of reservations data at its Starwood unit (Sheraton, Westin and W hotels) has affected as many as a) 17 million b) 63 million c) 500 million of its guests

14.

In December, Ontario fired three members of Waterfront Toronto after the provincial auditor general criticized lack of oversight at the agency in its partnership with a U.S. tech firm to build a model “smart city” on city’s eastern waterfront. Waterfront Toronto’s tech partner in the proposed “Quayside” project is a) IBM Corp’s New Urban World affiliate b) Microsoft Corp.’s Digital Living division c) Google Inc. sister company Sidewalk Labs

15.

Leslie Moonves, who pioneered reality TV programs with Survivor and was legendary for his political survival skills, was forced out as CEO in September by which television network after he was accused by several women of sexual harassment? a) ABC b) CBS c) NBC

16.

Carlos Ghosn was abruptly ousted as chair at which automaker he rescued from insolvency, after his Tokyo arrest in November for alleged tax evasion? a) Nissan Motor Co. b) Honda Motor Co. Ltd. c) Suzuki Motor Corp.

17.

Complicit in Facebook Inc.’s longdelayed acknowledgement of its role as an abettor in Russian meddling in the 2016 Brexit referendum and the U.S. presidential election that year, and having apologized in November for her role in Facebook’s private-eye investigations of its critics including billionaire liberal activist George Soros, the company’s chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg has been “unfriended” by many members of which workplace feminism movement she founded? a) #MeToo b) LeanIn.org c) Time’s Up

18.

Who among these most powerful world bankers is now followed everywhere he goes by human-rights and environmental activists, who criticize his bank for, among other things, lending to Calgary-based Trans Canada Corp. and its controversial Keystone XL pipeline project? a) Christian Sewing, CEO, Deutsche Bank AG b) Jamie Dimon, CEO, JPMorgan Chase & Co. c) Tim Sloan, CEO, Wells Fargo & Co.

19.

In December, which leader scrapped a planned fuel-tax hike, giving in to the

gilets jaunes, or Yellow Vests, who waged a campaign of riotous protests against the hike? a) Emmanuel Macron, French president b) François Legault, Quebec premier c) Charles Michel, Belgian prime minister

20.

The Trudeau government has honoured a 60-year-old tradition of maintaining the independence from government influence of the Bank of Canada. By sharp contrast, Donald Trump has twice in 2018 publicly criticized the same monetary tightening policies at the U.S. Federal Reserve Board that Canada’s central bank has enacted. The chair of the U.S. Fed under pressure from Trump is a) Larry Kudlow b) Jerome Powell c) Steven Mnuchin

21.

Bitcoin, the cybercurrency, peaked in value at $19,511 (U.S.) in December 2017. By the following December, it had dropped in value by a) 17 per cent b) 43 per cent c) 82 per cent

22.

Canopy Growth Corp., based in Smiths Falls, Ont. and the world’s biggest publicly traded marijuana company, rode out the year’s volatile swings in pot-company valuations thanks to an August investment of $3.8 billion (U.S.) in the company by global beveragealcohol giant a) Pernod Ricard SA of Paris b) Constellation Brands Inc. of upstate New York c) Diageo PLC of London

23.

In October, the latest family feud in a G-7 country with a disproportionate number of family-controlled major enterprises went public when Frank Stronach, 86, and co-founder of autoparts giant Magna International Inc., sued his daughter, two grandchildren and others, alleging they mismanaged the family’s assets and conspired to wrest control of them from him. The lawsuit seeks … a) $38 million b) $127 million c) $520 million … in compensation and damages.

24.

Donald Trump claims the proposed U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) that is to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is “a model agreement that changes the trade landscape forever.” The consensus of North American economists and trade experts is that the USMCA a) is a significant improvement over NAFTA for all three countries b) is a better deal for the U.S. than NAFTA c) is practically identical to NAFTA, and overall slightly less beneficial than NAFTA in promoting prosperity in all three partner countries.

25.

With the formal signing of the USMCA in November, the new trade deal a) takes effect immediately b) takes effect July 4, 2019 c) begins a second lengthy phase of negotiations that will last at least a year, in which the U.S. has already sought changes, so that uncertainty about North American trade continues.

26.

Reasons to wonder if the USMCA will ever see the light of day include a) U.S. demands for changes in the supposedly agreed deal, already underway, both from the White House and from Democrats – tilting the USMCA even more in America’s favour – might force Mexico or Canada to reject it b) A possible defeat of the USMCA in the Democratic-controlled U.S. House of Representatives, by Democrats unwilling to hand Trump a rare victory ahead of the fastapproaching 2020 presidential election c) The fact widely known among USMCA opponents that its failure would simply mean reverting to a NAFTA that remains in place, has worked well for 25 years, and that only Congress, not Trump, can revoke d) all of the above

27.

Trump’s trade wars, calculated to reduce America’s trade deficit, have so far resulted in a) a narrowing in the U.S. trade deficit, to $8 billion (U.S.), in October, the latest period for which figures are available b) a narrowing in the deficit, to $17 billion (U.S.), in that period c) a further widening of the deficit, to $55 billion (U.S.), in that period, the highest monthly level in a decade

28.

Year to date, the U.S. trade deficit, at just over $500 billion (U.S.) as of October, is a) significantly lower than b) about the same as c) significantly higher than the cumulative total for the first 10 months of 2016 or 2017 29.

Though the Canadian news media refer to the proposed new trade deal by its U.S. name, its official name in Canada is the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) in English and, in French, the Accord Canada-ÉtatsUnis-Mexique (ACEUM), while in Mexico it is termed the Tratado entre México, Estados Unidos y Canadá (T-MEC) a) True b) False 30.

During the fateful 2016 Brexit referendum campaign, leading Brexiteer Liam Fox repeatedly claimed that U.K. negotiations for a new, post-Brexit trade deal with the EU would be “the easiest in history.” A year into those futile negotiations, which of the following explained that “Nobody pretended [Brexit] would be easy”? a) Boris Johnson, former U.K. foreign minister b) Nigel Farage, former head of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) c) Liam Fox, former top Brexit negotiator 31.

This year, experts in the U.K. and the European Union began using two countries whose examples Britain could follow in leaving the EU. One country has limited tariff-free access to the EU market. The other is a quasi-EU member, with full tariff-free access. The countries cited in these frequently discussed scenarios are a) Turkey and Iceland b) Canada and Norway c) Switzerland and Andorra 32. In a report this year, U.K. government economists forecast a best-case scenario for a post-“soft Brexit,” meaning continued access to the EU’s common market. Even under those ideal conditions, they said, Britain could expect average annual GDP growth in coming years of a) only 1.1 per cent b) just 0.7 per cent c) zero growth in British GDP for 15 years – that is, economic stagnation

33.

In November, Mark Carney, governor of the Bank of England (BoE) and former governor of the Bank of Canada, was vilified by Brexiteers as a treasonous foreigner. His BoE had just released its worst-case scenario for a post-“hard Brexit,” a complete U.K. severing of EU ties as demanded by Brexiteers. That “no deal” Brexit, the BoE predicts, would result in a) a Britain whose economy would shrink as much as 7.8 per cent, a bigger plunge than suffered by the Soviet Union before its 1991 demise b) a jump in inflation to almost 7 per cent (the current Canadian inflation rate is about 2.0 per cent) c) a near-doubling of unemployment, to 7.5 per cent d) a 30 per cent drop in house prices e) all of the above

34.

Canada’s reputation for having no enemies took a hit this year after all but which of the following incidents: a) Canada’s detention in December, at America’s request, of Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of Huawei Technologies Co., an act China has described as “extremely egregious,” raising fears in Canada of Chinese retaliation against Canada and Canadians in China. b) Canada’s urging of Saudi Arabia to release human-rights activists with strong ties to Canada, prompting Riyadh to sever diplomatic relations with Canada. c) Donald Trump’s claim in September that, with NAFTA, Canada is “ripping us off,” and has been doing so for years (“us” meaning the U.S.), and his threat to impose tariffs on Canadian auto imports that “would be the ruination of [Canada].” d) Objections by Italy’s new populist government to provisions of a CanadaEU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) that the previous Italian government ratified. e) Calgary’s decision not to bid on hosting the 2026 Olympics.

35.

Huawei Technologies is the world’s biggest supplier of a) advanced rocket systems, whose clients include the Canadian Space Agency b) networking gear for phone and internet companies, whose clients include Canadian telecom giant Telus Corp. c) satellite imagery equipment, whose clients include Canada’s Department of National Defence

36.

America’s demand for Meng Wanzhou’s extradition arises from a) a U.S. accusation that Meng used a shell company to violate U.S. trade sanctions against Iran b) a widespread fear in the U.S., Europe and Australasia that Huawei’s ties to Beijing pose a threat to national security c) Huawei’s reputation as a suspected vigorous thief of U.S. intellectual property d) the Trump administration’s determination to thwart China’s “Vision 2025” project to wrest leadership in artificial intelligence (AI) and other leading-edge technologies from the U.S. e) all of the above

37.

Canada is one of the few countries to have embraced Huawei, which employs more than 500 people in its Canadian operations, is among Canada’s biggest spenders on R&D, and has partnered on research with at least 10 leading Canadian universities. a) True b) False

38.

In mid-December, the Huawei Affair hit one of Canada’s hottest apparel stocks hard, causing shares of which firm with significant sales in China to drop almost 20 per cent in four days? a) Canada Goose Holdings Inc. b) Lululemon Athletica Inc. c) Roots Corp.

39.

In May, citing national-security concerns, the Trudeau government blocked the proposed $1.5-billion (Cdn) takeover by China’s CCCC International Inc. of venerable Canadian construction and engineering firm a) Aecon Group b) SNC-Lavalin c) EllisDon

40.

In July, Canada and Michigan broke ground on a bridge crossing at Windsor-Detroit with an estimated cost of $4.8 billion that will be the longest span of its kind in North America. The bridge is named for a) Wayne Gretzky b) Gordie Howe c) Bobby Orr