Jim Boyko's Predictions 2017

Attendance: 16 (including 3 guests, PDG Ralph Jones, Mary Curcio, a guest of President Basil, and Dorothy Wong of Toronto City Mission who is considering club membership.)

 

Anthem: Gord Brown

Grace: Mike Mushet

 

- Gerd presented a cheque to the Club for $8,900 from Park Property Management, the results of them asking their contacts to direct their Christmas gifts to our Rotary Club.

- President Basil made the following announcements:

- The 2017 Christmas Party is scheduled for Friday, December 8^th at Scarborough Golf Club.

- Our Prez congratulated President Elect Mike Mushet on his recent election win, and thanked Mike for volunteering to serve our Rotary Club as President for Rotary year 2017-18.

- Rotary Foundation Chair Madhavi is investigating a suitable project to celebrate Rotary International Foundation’s 100^th anniversary and will make a presentation to the Club at the appropriate time.

- Our luncheon meeting next week will be a pub style lunch with our honourary members. Please join us and let Gordon Brown know of your attendance by responding to his email.

- January is Rotary Awareness Month, so all members are encouraged to wear their Rotary pins and to be prepared with a 15 second Rotary speech for appropriate situations during the month. Prospective Rotary members are everywhere.

 

The Marbelous Draw was conducted by Jim Boyko and was won, and  lost, by the syndicate, composed of high flyers, Gerd Wengler and Mike Mushet.

 

Sgt-at-Arms Jim Boyko (today’s triple threat) levied the following fines and Happy Bucks:

- The syndicate was fined an amount equal to their consolation prize.

- Mike bought a fine exemption for next time.

- Al Meredith was fined for verbally abusing our Prez during his announcements.

- All members who thought the Leafs were going to make the playoffs were fined because this position was contrary to our speaker’s upcoming 2017 predictions.

- Emmanuel enjoyed his visit to the Rotary Club in Dauphin, Manitoba. It is a very close Rotary Club where the Mayor is a member and has appointed 7 Rotarians to his cabinet.

- Barry Smith rose to thank Emmanuel, thinking that he was the speaker, and was soundly fined.

- Dhanni tossed in five happy bucks.

 

Program:         Jim Boyko’s Yearly Predictions

 

Our very own prognosticator, Jim Boyko, was introduced by President Basil.

Jim started his presentation by reviewing his 2016 predictions. He did very well with his Sports predictions, predicting that the Leafs would not make the playoffs, the Raptors would make the playoffs, the Blue Jays would make the playoffs but not the World Series, and the Superbowl champs would be the Denver Broncos led by Peyton Manning, which was very hard to predict in early January. So, Jim was perfect in his 2016 sports predictions.

On the political front, Jim also rightly predicted that Mayor Tory would have some problems implementing issues, controlling spending and finding revenue sources, but he did not predict that the Scarborough one stop subway would be approved, but wonders how we’ll pay for it.

At the provincial level, Jim predicted that Kathleen Wynne would have a lot of challenges, spending being a major problem, and those issues are now coming home to roost.

Federally, Jim predicted that it would be a positive year and positive vibe, but look out for the future, and that is basically where we are at present.

U.S. politics were very hard to predict last year, so Jim failed to predict Donald Trump’s win... as did most of the rest of the world! Editor's note: Homer predicted this in 2000.

Internationally, Jim predicted that Putin would cause problems for the lame duck Obama administration, and he did by supporting the Assad regime in Syria, which resulted in cancelling out Jim’s other prediction that Assad would be toppled.

On the economic front, Jim successfully predicted that the dollar and interest rates would stay low, that unemployment would remain the same, and that the world economy would remain stagnant. He was wrong about the stock market remaining flat, but his stock market picks were all winners.

Jim then made his 2017 Predictions:

- In Sports, Jim predicted that the Leafs will not make the playoffs, the Raptors will make the playoffs and may go all the way, the Blue Jays will not make the playoffs, and New England will win the Super Bowl.

- In Politics, Jim predicted that Mayor Tory will maintain stability but will have major budget challenges, Wynne’s problems will get worse as the 2018 election gets closer, but Patrick Brown and the new NDP leader will have to get to work, since they are currently both M.I.A.  On the Federal stage, Justin has a long list of election promises to carry out, and his greatest challenge will come from Trump’s protectionist policies. As for the next Conservative Party leader, Jim predicted that Peter MacKay will take it unless Trump’s Presidency is successful, which will boost Kevin O’Leary’s chances here. In the U.S., the HUGE black swan is Donald Trump and what will result from his presidency. Jim predicts that the Republicans, who control both houses, will pass loads of right wing legislation and dismantle Obama’s left wing legacy. Internationally, Jim predicted that Putin will revive Russia (but, as a side note, said that Putin is “wonderful”, so that he doesn’t hack our website. LOL!) In Germany, Merkel’s popularity is suffering from the refugee crisis, but Jim predicts that she will win the next election after a bit of a battle. In the Middle East, Trump may undo the Iran nuclear arms deal. So there will be lots of reasons for uncertainty.

- Jim’s Economic forecast for 2017 is as follows:

- The Canadian Dollar will stay low;

- The Unemployment rate will remain stable;

- Interest rates will remain low;

- The U.S. stock market will suffer a major correction;

- The Canadian stock market will remain stable;

- Canada’s economy could be adversely affected by a U.S. trade war;

- Stay defensive. Cash is good as are oil stocks such as Suncor and Enbridge. The top stock market picks would be Northland Power, Inter Pipeline, bank stocks such as RBC and TD, Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. (Owner of Mac’s and other convenience stores), and Firan Technology Group  (FTG Toronto).

- Jim added as a postscript that something will happen to get North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, out of the way, because he’s too dangerous.

 

 

President Basil  thanked Jim for another very interesting presentation noting that his record on predictions is improving, and presented Jim with another glass... but no bottle.

 

The Meeting was terminated