If you’ve got a million loonies, grab a mini Thomson

He’s young(ish), he’s sexy (in a toque-wearing, Eddie Bauer kind of way), he’s talented and he’s dead. As a result, Tom Thomson is probably the hottest artist in Canada right now – and he’s going to get even hotter this month.

He was certainly already hot last year, the 90th anniversary of his death (at 39, by drowning – a death almost invariably preceded by the adjective “mysterious”), when five of his oil paintings sold at auction in Toronto and Vancouver for more than $1-million each, including buyer’s premium, marking the first time Thomson passed the million-dollar threshold already claimed by his old pal, Group of Seven founder Lawren Harris, as well as by J.W. Morrice, Paul Kane and a couple of others.

Not that paintings by Canadians other than Thomson haven’t sold for more. In fact, Thomas John Thomson, native of Claremont, Ont., isn’t even in the all-time Canuck Auction Performers Top 10. But when it comes to bang per buck per square centimetre, he’s the undisputed champ, the bluest blue-chipper of them all. This is because all five of last year’s high performers were oil sketches, painted on location in Ontario’s Great North woods, on rectangles of board smaller than a standard sheet of office stationery – 21.6 cm by 26.7 cm, give or take a millimetre or so. By contrast, the auction record for an oil by Lawren Harris – $2,875,000, also established last year, by Vancouver’s Heffel Fine Art – was for a painting on canvas measuring an impressive 81.3 cm by 96.5 cm.

Liberal carbon-tax plan splits NDP, Greens

OTTAWA — A Liberal green plan that would levy taxes on carbon use while offering a matching cut on income taxes split the political parties yesterday, setting up a potential electoral battle for Canada’s left-wing vote.

The idea, which is being touted as revenue-neutral, received support yesterday from the federal Green Party, but was criticized by the NDP’s Jack Layton, who argued that it would harm working class Canadians.

The Liberal idea would slap a carbon tax on usage of fossil fuel, while at the same time reduce income taxes to keep the government’s overall tax-take neutral.

The Liberals hope to announce the idea by this summer in an effort to reclaim the high ground on the issue of the environment. The extra tax would not apply to the price of gasoline at the pumps, but to most other greenhouse-gas-causing fuels, such as home heating fuel.

Aeroplan Income Fund to convert to a growth-oriented corporation

MONTREAL — Aeroplan Income Fund (TSX:AER) plans to reorganize from an income trust into a “growth-oriented, dividend-paying” public corporation, the loyalty program operator announced Friday.

Aeroplan said it expects its dividend will initially be 12.5 cents per share quarterly, 50 cents annually, compared with its current annualized payout of 84 cents per unit.

The reorganization, which is subject to approval by at least two-thirds of unitholders in a vote June 19, “will be a major milestone in our evolution as the global leader in loyalty management,” stated CEO Rupert Duchesne.

Aeroplan originated as the in-house customer loyalty program at Air Canada but expanded beyond just managing frequent-flier points for the airline and its customers. It was later spun off as a separate subsidiary of ACE Aviation Holdings Inc. (TSX:ACE.B) and eventually did an initial public offering at the height of the interest in income trusts..

Canada’s 83rd fallen soldier returns from Afghanistan

TRENTON, Ont. – The body of Canada’s latest fallen soldier, who died in an ambush in Afghanistan earlier this week, returned home Friday.

The remains of Cpl. Michael Starker, a 36-year-old reservist from Calgary, arrived at Canadian Forces Base Trenton in Ontario at 2 p.m.

After pallbearers loaded the coffin into a waiting hearse, Starker’s wife and family approached it with single roses in their hands.

Dalai Lama: Meetings with Chinese were respectful

BERLIN (AP) — The Dalai Lama said Chinese officials were “respectful” in meetings last week, but large differences remained over the causes of the recent unrest in Tibet.

In an interview published Friday with the German weekly Der Spiegel, the Dalai Lama was quoted as saying that his representatives and Chinese officials agreed to hold a new round of formal talks “as soon as possible,” following informal talks last weekend.

He added that a date would be fixed in the coming days.

“There were large differences over both the cause and the nature of the recent unrest in Tibet,” he said, according to the report. But “despite the differing opinions, both sides showed a readiness to achieve an agreement on a common way of proceeding in dealing with the problems at issue in Tibet.”

Boyko wonder

Craig Boyko was already famous in that semi-famous Canadian literary way even before his debut, a collection of stories called Blackouts, was published this year to universal acclaim.

Actually, make that Canadian acclaim: Boyko’s agent is still looking for a U.S. deal, always a tough sell, but especially so for a book of stories by a novice from Canada. Even McClelland & Stewart, Boyko’s publisher here, is taking a bit of a risk. As his editor, Anita Chong, notes, Blackouts marks the first time in five years that, Alice Munro and Margaret Atwood excepted, the company has published a short-fiction collection. And as a $29.99 hardcover no less.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Boyko’s pre- Blackouts claim to semi-fame came from his status as the “co-most-published writer” ever in the history of The Journey Prize Anthology, the country’s most prestigious annual showcase for short fiction, its selections culled from such literary magazines as The Malahat Review, Event and Descant.

With his high forehead, no-nonsense glasses and dry, precise speaking style, Boyko’s a young man of serious, attentive mien, if one leavened occasionally by a look of bemusement. When he tells you he was “never very athletically inclined” and spent a lot of his teen years playing video games, his slight frame seems a physical confirmation.

Cannes you help me out here, s’il vous plaît?

B ienvenue, Liz. In a couple of days, we are going to rendezvous at the Croisette for the 61st Cannes International Film Festival, to see cinema’s most glamorous stars and hallowed auteurs, not to mention free beach screenings of Dirty Harry and Blazing Saddles.

Elizabeth: I’ll bring the beans. I’m the junior officer, after all.

Liam: Otherwise, we’ll soon forget we’re in the beautiful playground of the rich, because we’ll be stuck in dark theatres for 10 hours a day. Atom Egoyan’s bringing his latest film, Adoration, about teens on the Internet. As well, Atom’s old collaborator Don McKellar wrote the screenplay for Fernando Meirelles’s Blindness. Clint Eastwood’s bringing Changeling with Angelina Jolie. And Woody Allen’s new film, called Vicki Christina Barcelona, with Penelope Cruz, Scarlett Johansson and Javier Bardem, is described as his sexiest film yet. Why does that make me feel queasy?

Elizabeth: Sexier than Deconstructing Harry? That defies the laws of the universe.