I wanted to get in on all the Canada talk!
http://in.reuters.com/article/2015/05/2 ... E220150529Canada's economy contracted by the most in nearly six years in the first quarter, with business investment and exports both falling as the country grappled with a slump in oil prices.
Growth in March was also disappointing, suggesting a weaker handoff to the second quarter than anticipated.
Gross domestic product shrank at an annualized 0.6 percent rate in the first three months of the year, Statistics Canada said on Friday, well below the 0.3 percent growth economists had forecast.
The drop was significantly slower than the fourth quarter's downward-revised 2.2 percent growth, and was the worst performance since the second quarter of 2009, when the economy was in the grips of the global credit crisis.
It was also the first time Canada's economy has failed to expand since the second quarter of 2011, which saw zero growth.
Typically, two or more consecutive quarters of contraction are considered to mark a recession.
The data was slightly worse than the Bank of Canada's anticipation of no growth, though Governor Stephen Poloz had said the quarter would be "atrocious" as oil-exporting Canada felt the pain of cheaper crude.
In Canada, business investment dropped 9.7 percent on an annualized basis, as businesses spent less on nonresidential buildings, machinery and equipment.
Investment was hurt by a decline in activity in the mining, quarrying and oil and gas extraction sectors, which dropped 11 percent annualized, driven by a hefty slump in support services.
Exports of goods and services fell 1.1 percent annualized. Consumer spending held up relatively well, however, with household expenditures edging up 0.4 percent.
“I would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong." 
