After being grounded for five months, I got back on the road last week. Connor, Clark & Lunn was putting on an Investor Day in Toronto for their clients and that was ample reason to get me on a plane again. The time on the plane was the only part of the trip that didn’t totally fit with my recuperation program (can you say immunosuppressed?). Recognizing that, I wore a ‘SARS’ mask during the flights to avoid picking up a flu or cold. I felt a little geeky, but it appears to have worked.

What did I learn as I wandered through the streets and office towers of downtown Toronto?

• It’s not raining everywhere in Canada.
• Good times keep rolling. Despite it being late October, planes, hotels and restaurants are full. The strong dollar may ultimately impact Eastern Canada, but it still feels like boom times to me.
• Who likes the U.S. dollar? Nobody. Which is interesting in itself. Typically, memorable investment opportunities come out of times when there is a perfect consensus in the market (i.e. no dissenters). Certainly Toronto is wall to wall bears on the U.S. buck.
• Another dealer. When I went in to see Peter Loach, the Managing Director in charge of mutual fund research at BMO, we got the good news that the bank is going to add the Steadyhand Funds to their brokerage platform. When the two of us get the paperwork completed, investors will be able to buy our funds through BMO InvestorLine and BMO Nesbitt Burns. Yeah!
• Another yeah. How about this. An introverted, ex-steel analyst from Winnipeg was appointed Chairman of RBC Capital Markets. My friend Chuck Winograd gets the nod when Tony Fell retires. It's well deserved. He tells me he doesn't work as hard as Tony, but I'm sure he's close.
• Benchmark blues. Chats with a few portfolio manager friends affirmed the thesis of my Saturday Globe column. In the halls of the big asset managers, the focus on relative performance is as intense as ever. Success is being measured (and bonuses being paid) by how portfolios perform versus the index, not what their absolute returns are. As I said in the column, I can’t help but feel this fixation on the index is breeding mediocrity.
• Passionate supporters. I had the chance to meet a couple of our clients and a few prospective clients while I was in Toronto. It was gratifying to know that these investors are passionate about what we’re doing – our investment philosophy, fees and straight-ahead approach. I’ll be back in a few weeks and would love to meet more, whether they be supporters or skeptics.
• Walking past the Skydome. I’m pulling for a Lions versus Bombers Grey Cup. Unfortunately, my Bombers are fading these days.
• The PPN saga. The Business News Network gave me a chance on Thursday to rant once more on PPNs (Please, don’t buy these things!). I subsequently heard that the volatile markets of the summer have put a few PPNs in a pickle – they are already assured of providing no return when the term of the product is completed. I repeat: Don’t buy these things.
• Credit crisis breeds opportunity. Our Income Fund has performed well in a tough environment for bonds, but it wasn’t immune to the credit crisis. Given the fund’s structural bias towards corporate bonds, the widening credit spreads impacted its short-term returns. Having said that, I’ve been delighted to report that Connor, Clark & Lunn hasn’t got bashful. They have been using the dislocation in the market to add to corporates and increase the running yield on the fund.

That’s it. Nothing too profound. I’m back home. My wife still loves me and my doctors aren’t mad at me.