Sir John Templeton at the Canadian Club (full ~51-min speech)

Well, if you're interested in money today, this is the place you should be. Hi, I'm Peter Bromley. I'm your host for this lunch, the Canadian Club at the Royal York Hotel. We're broadcasting live, and there are 1,400 people watching this lunch as Sir John Templeton, who is founder of the Templeton Group of Funds, speaks to this well-heeled audience in one of the ballrooms at the Royal York Hotel. Sir John is going to be talking about, among other things, his investment vehicles, the economy, the failure of the stock market in October, and other things. But first, let's go up to the front, where the president of the Canadian Club will introduce our special guest.

As those of you who are members of the Canadian Club know, it is not our custom to introduce our distinguished head table guests. You will find their names listed in the folders on your tables. However, some of you may have noticed that there have been a few changes. On my left, the place of Mr. Burns has been taken by Sonia Barta, director of Barta Limited and a director of the Canadian Club of Toronto. And immediately beside her, Mr. Fell was not able to be with us today, and we are delighted to welcome in his place Mr. James Pitblado, chairman of Dominion Securities and a past president of the Canadian Club of Toronto. On my right, beside our guest of honor, instead of Maureen Kitts, we are pleased to welcome Arthur Labatt, president of Trimark Investment Management Limited.

And beside him, instead of Mr. Duff Scott, who has been taken ill, we have Mr. Bruce Clark, director of the Templeton Growth Fund Limited. Also at this time, I should like to thank our head table sponsors, the Bank of Montreal and McDonald's Restaurants of Canada. And I'd like to thank also the sponsors of our student table, Shell Canada Limited. Our students today come from Sir John A. Macdonald Collegiate, and I should like to ask them to stand and be recognized. Before introducing our guest speaker, let me say also that he has undertaken to answer questions following his address. You will find sheets of paper on your tables if you will jot down your questions and wave your arms in the air and do that as soon as possible, if you will.

Our staff will come and collect the questions so that they'll be here for Sir John Templeton when he is finished speaking. We all know that the way to make money is to buy low and to sell high. If most of us don't succeed in translating that piece of basic wisdom into spectacular capital gains, it's because most of us have a devilishly hard time identifying the highs and the lows, which is what distinguishes our guest speaker from most of us. As Sir John Templeton told an interviewer not long ago, and I quote, 'God gave everybody talents, and one of the talents he seems to have given me is common sense in terms of how to invest.' It's a talent that has paid off handsomely, not only for John Templeton, but also for the hundreds of thousands of individuals, quite a few of them here today, I suspect, who have delegated their investment decisions to one of the Templeton Funds.

If any of us had been astute enough back in 1954 to invest $10,000 in the then-new Templeton Growth Fund, and if that person had kept reinvesting their dividends, that person would now be a millionaire. The secret of John Templeton's success, he claims, is that he is a tireless bargain hunter. He seems to have acquired the habit some 50 years ago when he and his young wife furnished their apartment for all of $25. Now approaching middle age at 75, he's still on the lookout for opportunities to buy things cheap so he can sell them at a handsome profit once the bull market makes a return appearance. The extent to which he has been successful can be measured by the fact that assets managed by Templeton Funds are worth more than $10 billion, and that's after Black Monday.

And while I understand he is planning to retire at age 80 as chairman of his fund management company in the Bahamas, that's only so he can devote more time to what he does best, namely selecting investment opportunities for his clients. But John Templeton is more than a brilliant businessman and investor. He is also a very devout man who devotes much of his time and money to worthy causes. He established, for instance, a prize to be awarded annually to members of any religious denomination who have found new ways to increase man's love of God or man's understanding of God. It's worth approximately $440,000, which makes it the largest award of its kind in the world, worth more even than the Nobel Prize.

Another example is Sir John Templeton's gift of $5 million to found a new college at Oxford University, a college devoted exclusively to the teaching of business. It's in recognition of these contributions to education and religion and others like it that Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth has bestowed a knighthood on our guest speaker. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Sir John Templeton.

Thank you, Mrs. Sinclair, for that gracious introduction. It is a real joy for me to be with you here in Toronto today, to see so many old friends and new friends. I live in the Bahama Islands, but I have been coming to Canada several times a year now for 35 years, and have always had a warm spot in my heart for Canada and for Canadians. So thank you for inviting me. I'm honored that each one of you took the time to come to this luncheon. I promised to speak today on long-range investing. And I must emphasize that it is long range. This is a topic that can't be discussed without talking about the context of the world in which investing occurs. So let's just spend a few moments describing the context we find ourselves in now in Canada and what is likely for the future.

Much of the discussion we hear recently focuses on the effects of the decline in stock markets and the problems of America and of Canada and of the financial community. But remember, everyone has problems. Every person has problems. Every family has problems. Every nation has problems. Always has had and always will have problems. These problems are not always solved, and I've never been smart enough to know how to solve these problems, and some are never solved. But I can say that I believe there are less problems today than in any one of the 48 years since I became an investment counselor. Not that we don't have problems, but if you carefully consider each previous year, there were equally numerous and in general more serious problems than they are today.

To concentrate on problems makes people blind to the big picture. There's something strange in human nature that makes us want to dwell on bad news, on catastrophes, on problems. But what we really ought to do is to carefully think through the blessings we have. Because for every problem you or the nation has, there are ten blessings. We are blessed today as no other generation in history has ever been blessed. Just think about it. No longer are the people of the world terrorized by tuberculosis, leprosy, bubonic plague, yellow fever, smallpox, syphilis, diphtheria, diabetes, or polio. Life expectancy has doubled in the past 200 years in North America and possibly worldwide. Records are kept by Yale University that show that students now average 10 inches taller than they did two centuries ago, probably because of better health.

There has been great progress in the field of medicine. In fact, 50% of all that is known in the field of medicine has been discovered just in the last 20 years. And 90% has been discovered in this century. About half of all the medical research scientists who ever lived are alive today. For the first time in world history, there are more people now suffering from eating too much than from eating too little. Also for the first time in world history, there are more people suffering from too much entertainment than from too little. The number of words and pictures received over long distances has increased more than a thousand-fold in less than one century. The number of inspirational books published yearly is now about a hundred times as great as it was a century ago.

And most people can listen to a hundred times as much music as was ever possible before Thomas Alva Edison invented the phonograph. We live in a world and a time of spiraling progress. We are better educated, better fed, better housed than at any time in the history of the world. One of the great secrets of progress is to understand this good fortune and be thankful. To understand our blessings and to use them in accordance with God's purposes for His children. Never before in world history have 20 years gone by in which such a small fraction of the world's population has been killed in battle. The average of the past 20 years is less than one person out of each half-million. In these same 20 years, a smaller fraction of the world's people have died from starvation than in any previous 20 years.

When I was born in Tennessee, the uniform wage for unskilled men was only 10 cents an hour. Now the average North American factory worker earns 100 times that much. And even after adjusting for inflation, the increase in wages is more than tenfold. In my lifetime, the real consumption per person worldwide, that is the standard of living in real goods, has more than quadrupled. This is the first time in history that such quadrupling has occurred in the span of a single person's lifetime. Our children and our grandchildren may enjoy even more rapid progress than we have. A landmark for freedom was the publication in 1776 of Adam Smith's great work entitled "An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations."

In the 200 years of relative freedom that followed, the yearly output of goods and services has increased more than 100-fold. Before Adam Smith, there were fewer than 1,000 corporations on earth. Now, today, corporations are being created at the rate of 4,000 every business day. At the time Adam Smith was writing, 85% of the population had to work in agriculture just to produce enough food. Now, fewer than 4% of the people work on farms in North America and we produce great surpluses of food. To try to foresee the future, let us remember a few of the changes that have occurred just in my lifetime. When I was born 75 years ago, the highest salaried person in my county was paid less than $2,000 a year.

And the American federal debt at that time was less than $1 billion. In 1912, North America had no color film, no refrigerators, no radios, no transcontinental telephones, no fluorescent lighting, no traffic lights, no talking pictures, no plastics, no man-made fibers. Even after the great boom of 1929, there were still in North America no airlines, no Xeroxes, no telefax, no sports broadcasts, no antibiotics, no herbicides, no nylon, no frozen foods, no television, no transistors, no lasers, no genetic engineering, no nuclear energy, and no man-made satellites in space. Who back then could even imagine the variety of new blessings that could come in one lifetime? And who now can imagine the even greater new blessings that may be in store for our children?

In our studies, we find that the standard of living worldwide may progress even more rapidly and quadruple in only the next 40 years. Now the gross national product per person is 30 times what it was just 50 years ago in North America. And in the next 50 years, per capita production may grow another 30 times. That would mean an increase from 22,000 a year per person national income to more than two-thirds of a million dollars per year per person in Canadian dollars. We now enjoy a prosperity greater than was ever dreamed of before this century. Just in my lifetime, the number of miles of paved highway in North America has increased more than 100-fold. So has the number of people who own automobiles.

And the number of people engaged in sports has multiplied more than tenfold in one century. The number of students attending universities and colleges is more than 100 times as great as it was a century ago. John Naisbitt said recently, the available information is doubling about every two and one-half years. The people of the world now benefit from using more than 100 times as much electricity as they did just a century earlier. And in the developed countries, the number of miles traveled per person has increased more than 100-fold in one century. For the first time in history, North America now has more than one million millionaires in Canadian dollars. Indeed, there are now dozens of billionaires.

Through scientific development, enormous improvements have been made in the quality of vegetables and crops and also in the quantity produced on each acre of farmland. There has been a manifold increase in the quality and variety of garden flowers and ornamentals and vegetables. Not only is the standard of living increasing as never before, but the quality of life is increasing, and that increase is accelerating. How fortunate we are to live during this explosion of knowledge and explosion of communication methods. Will these trends continue? If we are able to preserve and enhance freedom, these trends should both continue and accelerate. I anticipate rapid change and ever-growing fluctuations.

Life will be full of adventure and opportunity. It will never be dull or routine. In North America, in this year alone, more than $160 billion will be dedicated to research and development. How great is that? It is more in one year than the total of scientific research in all the world's history before I was born. Another reason why I am optimistic about the future is the steady improvement in management skills. When I was born, there were only two graduate schools where you could study business administration. Today, there are about 600 in North America and about 800 worldwide. Indeed, business schools are attracting some of the very brightest adults and students. The number of business graduates is accelerating.

This year, more than 80,000 will graduate from Master of Business Administration programs in North America alone. That is a 170% increase over the number as recently as 1970. And the MBA programs still continue to grow at an accelerated pace. And great new blessings are apparent in the areas of health, entertainment, spiritual growth, and charity. In North America, more than $110 billion will be donated this year to churches and charities. In fact, each year, the generous voluntary giving by North Americans alone surpasses the total income of all the world's people in any year before Adam Smith. In my lifetime, natural scientists have studied spiritual matters as never before. The Templeton Foundation Prizes for Progress in Religion

Help focus attention on people who are doing new and original thinking in religion. And I regard spiritual progress as more important than progress in all other areas combined. It is encouraging that there are multitudes of new organizations working in the field of progress in religion, such as the American Scientific Affiliation, the Christian Medical Society, the Research Scientists' Christian Fellowship, the International Academy of Religious Sciences, the Center for Advanced Study in Religion, the Center of Theological Inquiry. The past century has witnessed the formation of the Council of Churches, the Friends Service Committee, the Association of Theological Schools, the British Council of Churches, the Association of Evangelicals, Church World Service, Campus Crusade, Youth for Christ, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, the United Campus Christian Fellowship, the Pentecostal World Conference, and the Zygon Journal of Religion and Science.

And additional spiritual research organizations are being formed almost every year. We should be overwhelmingly grateful to have been born in this century. The slow progress of prehistoric ages is over, and centuries of human enterprise are now miraculously bursting forth into flower. The evolution of human knowledge is accelerating, and we are reaping the fruits of generations of scientific thought. More than half of the discoveries in the natural sciences have been made in this century. More than half of the goods produced since the Earth was born have been produced in the latest two centuries. More than half of the books ever written were published in just the past 50 years. And more new books are published every month now than were written in the entire historical period before the birth of Christopher Columbus.

And it was only 60 years ago that our great astronomers became convinced that our universe is 100 billion times larger than anyone had ever thought before. Since I became an investment counselor 48 years ago, the number of people enjoying the benefits of share ownership has increased more than tenfold. The number of people in the world who will enjoy the benefits of pensions when they retire is more than 100 times as great as it was a century ago. And discovery and invention have not stopped or even slowed down. And who can imagine what will be discovered if research continues to accelerate, because each new discovery reveals new mysteries. The more we learn, the more we realize how ignorant we were in the past and how much more there is still to discover.

And now, what is the future for investors? Last fall, many investors discovered just how rapidly the stock market can decline. For some, it was a shocking experience. This experience, however, has not changed any investment philosophy of Templeton International. If you look back on the history of Templeton Growth Fund, you'll find that our success was built on bear markets, not bull markets. Through the years, we've faced wars, depression, bear markets, bull markets, and yet the fund still showed, as Mrs. Sinclair said, that $1 invested 30 years ago has now grown to about $110 if you reinvested your distributions. And that is after allowing for the recent financial panic. The problems we face today are no more serious and no more numerous than those in any of the past 30 years.

And our present studies indicate that the chances are better than even that investment performance in the next 30 years will be even more favorable than those results I quoted for the past 30 years. American share prices, as measured by the Standard & Poor's Index of 500 stocks, are now only 11 times the earnings predicted by the bottom-up method in the Institutional Brokers' Estimate Service for this year. This is approximately the same ratio as existed 30 years ago, and accordingly, it should be no more difficult to produce good investment results in the future than in the past. Another force that might lead to even better return is the possible shortage of shares. For 26 of the latest 30 years, there was each year an increasing quantity of shares available in North America.

However, in the latest four years, about one-eighth of all North American shares has disappeared because of acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, and now over 700 major corporations buying in their own stock. This new force, a possible shortage of shares, might cause share prices to sell higher in relation to earnings than was considered normal before. Therefore, the future 30 years may yield a better total return than the past 30. There are, of course, some important principles to observe. They have served our investors well for more than 45 years, and may I remind you of a few of these principles today? First, to buy when others are despondently selling and to sell when others are greedily buying requires the greatest fortitude but pays the greatest reward.

Second, to avoid having all your eggs in the wrong basket at the wrong time, every investor should diversify. Third, if you search worldwide, you will find more bargains and better bargains than by studying only one country. Also, you will gain additional safety by diversification. Fourth, if you buy the same securities as other people, you will get the same results as other people. The only hope for superior performance is to buy something different. Fifth, too many investors focus on outlook and trend, and therefore profit is made more by focusing on value, which is more difficult to do. Sixth, the time to sell an asset is when you have found a much better bargain. In the stock market, the only way to get a bargain is to buy what most people are selling because otherwise the price would never be pushed down to a bargain price.

Next, share prices fluctuate more widely than share values. So you need to sell when the prices are far above value so that you can buy back later when prices are far below value. Next, achieving a good investment record is a lot harder than most people think. And believe me, that's important. There's so many people enter into buying investments because they hear something simple, like this company's got a new product, or this company is going to grow. That's just the beginning of what you need to know to know whether that is the best bargain in the world. In conclusion, in Canada, you have had a great debate over freer trade between Canada and the United States. And if the trade agreement is ratified by the Parliament of Canada and the United States Congress, this can help to open up a new era of economic progress for both countries.

Included, of course, will be the great opportunities for investments. My friends, the future is endless, and God gives us the blessing of being in some small ways co-creators with him. My message to you today is that you should be overwhelmingly grateful to be living in the most glorious period of God's ongoing creative process. If you do not thank God each day for your blessings, your multiplying multitudes of blessings, then you have just not yet seen the big picture. Thank you.

Before thanking our guest speaker, may I ask for any questions that you may have? If you will identify yourselves, those questions will be collected. In the meantime, I have a couple here that have been handed to me, and perhaps we might begin with those. First one is kind of basic: Who should buy mutual funds?

Thank you. Since we are mutual fund managers, I'm prejudiced about this. I think that almost every investor needs the advice and the help of professionals. The field of investing has become so much larger and so much more complicated than it was in the past that it's too much to expect any one person to be able to pick the right investments, especially if they're trying to do it in spare time. And that's why mutual funds were born. The first mutual fund started in 1926. And since then, there has been a strong and steady growth in the amount of people investing in mutual funds, not only in North America, but in England, Germany, Japan, and many other nations. And I believe it's still in its infancy, that there will be many times as many investors and money invested in mutual funds 10 years from now or 20 years from now.

Because it gives you professional management at a low cost, wider diversification, and the convenience of not having to keep track of each individual investment yourself. There will be cycles. And of course, anyone investing in mutual funds should not do so with borrowed money because you might be forced to sell out in a bear market at the wrong time. So I think mutual funds are for every person. Even big pension funds are wise to invest in mutual funds if they are truly long-term investors. The next question is, what is your outlook for gold bullion in the near term and the long term? I think it will go up in price. Gold has always gone up in price in the long run. Throughout all of world history, people have turned to gold in times of crisis and in times of fear.

So that I think, in the long run, gold will be much more valuable than now. I do not think it's a bargain now. Let's take one comparison: stock share prices in North America are now a little less than double in the last 20 years, whereas the price of gold is 13 times as high as it was 20 years ago. So I believe, from this point forward, American share prices and Canadian share prices will reward you more quickly by price appreciation than gold. And meanwhile, while you're waiting, you'll get dividends, which gold doesn't pay. Next, what is the short-term, that is, three- to six-month outlook for North American equity markets? The answer is that no one has ever found a way to answer that. From a short-range viewpoint, share prices are determined mainly by emotions.

People get terribly excited, there are fashions in investments, and share prices can be way out of reason from a short-range standpoint. But when you look into the long range, then it's much easier. In the long range, you can be pretty sure that share prices are going to be far higher than they are now. And let me give you one reason why to think that. I said in my talk that we estimate the standard of living will quadruple in the next 40 years. But besides that, we worry about inflation. We think inflation will be just as bad in the future as it was in the past. And that is the same as saying that the cost of living will double about every 10 years. That is, in 40 years, it will cost you 16 times as much to live as it does now.

And if it's costing you 16 times as much for this standard of living, and meanwhile your standard of living is quadrupled, the gross national product will necessarily have to be 64 times as high as it is today. If that happens, it will be reflected in the sales volume of the corporations, and in the profits of the corporations, and probably in the share prices. So I would say that for a truly long-term investor, looking out 30 or 40 years, the future is amazingly favorable. And I advise all of you to prepare now, sometime this year, gradually and carefully, to participate in the next bull market, which either has just started already or may start this year. Next is a specialized question. Do you expect a decline in the Japanese share prices?

Maybe not all of you know that something has happened in Japan that we security analysts, any security analyst, would have said was impossible. 10 years ago or 20 years ago, you could not have persuaded any professional security analyst that any major nation would have all of its share prices average above 60 times earnings. And not long ago, Japanese share prices were 76 times earnings. And that is the big companies in the index. The little companies in Japan are even higher than that. So the question is a good one. Do you expect a decline in Japanese share prices? And I did say on the Wall Street Week television program on the 12th of August, I think within 10 years, at some time, there will be a time when the prices are no higher in relation to earnings in Japan than they are in America and Canada.

Now, at present, share prices in America and Canada are about 11 times expected earnings this year and 60 times in Japan. Now, I do not think it likely that Canadian share prices will rise from 11 times earnings to 60 times earnings. Neither do I really think it's likely the Japanese share prices will go down from 60 times earnings to 11 times earnings. Although, let me interrupt myself to say that when our mutual funds bought so many bargains in Japan 20 years ago, we never paid over three times earnings for any Japanese stock. I do not expect that to return. And incidentally, at that time, Canadian prices were 14 times earnings. I do not expect that to return. But I do think there will come a time when the price-earnings ratios are equal in both nations.

And that will mean probably meeting somewhere in between the present 11 times in North America and 60 times in Japan.

They go together, in a way.

Thank you. What is your view of the future prospects for inflation? I will put that aside because I already told you that we are estimating that the standard or cost of living will double about every 10 years, which is 7% a year inflation. Now, it won't be 7% every year. We may have some good years in which inflation is as low as 1%, but we also have some bad years in North America when inflation may get back as it did once to 20% a year. So there will be cycles and fluctuations in the rate of inflation, but averaging out to about 7% a year, which is the same thing as saying your cost of living will double about every 10 years. The next one is somewhat related. Several analysts have voiced some concern regarding the potential deflation becoming a reality in the economy.

I have a particular group of studies on that subject which may differ from many others, but our studies would indicate that you will never see a year of deflation. Not in my lifetime, not in the lifetime of anybody in this luncheon party, are you likely ever to see even one year of deflation. Now, that's new. America did have a terrific deflation for three years, ending in 1932, when, I could say, it now costs me 20% less to live than it did three years ago. Why will that not happen again? For a long list of reasons, which I'll try to make very quick. At that time, there was no provision for old people. There was no retirement income for old people. There were practically no pension funds of any kind.

There was no guarantee of bank deposits. There was no insurance on brokers' deposits. There was no unemployment insurance. And when banks failed, they were expected to liquidate. And as each liquidation occurred, it depressed the prices in the liquidation and caused other banks and brokers and so forth to fail. There was a cascading effect. That cannot happen again because we have built in these big stabilizers. But most important of all, the attitude of the public has changed. In those days, everyone said the government should keep its hands off and let the business cycle run its normal course. Now all of us in America and Canada feel that it's the government's duty to prevent deflation. And when you find even the slightest hint that there might be a deflation,

The voters are running to the legislators claiming, 'Do something!' And good economists can give you a dozen ways to stop deflation if you want to encourage inflation. And that will happen. So I believe that because of the political situation, you should not worry about a deflation. Now there will be cycles. Individual industries, companies, and so forth will go in cycles. But the total cost of living will not decrease even for one year. Now what does that mean? That means for your investments, you should not be worried about another 1929 or 1932. Instead, you should be worried about what will happen when the governments try to prevent that. And all the areas in which they try to prevent it means more currency outstanding, more inflation in the long run.

So what you need to do in planning your investments for truly long-term holdings is to buy those things that give you some hope that you will be protected against losing the value of your money in inflation, by inflation. I do not think you need to worry about any possible decrease in the cost of living. What would you consider a basic amount of money to invest in a mutual fund? $500. Most mutual funds accept small amounts, and all of our mutual funds accept amounts as small as $500, and that is to encourage more people to be thrifty. It's because of the mutual funds making this available that we now have 10 times as many shareholders as we had when I started. And it's a blessing. And I believe that mutual funds and you people who—some of whom distribute mutual funds—are doing a real public service by helping people to invest.

People become more thrifty if they invest. And goodness knows, thrift gives the person, your client, a feeling of safety, also a feeling of independence. And I also think it improves their self-esteem when you've persuaded them to be thrifty. So you're doing your friends a service by getting them into small investments, those that previously did not invest. Not only that, but you're doing your nation a service, because the more a nation saves, the more rapidly it will grow. And lastly, I think you're doing the whole of humanity a spiritual service, because throughout my life, there have been terrible conflicts between the owners and the workers. But if we are approaching a time when all of the workers are also owners, we will all have more harmony and brotherhood.

Miss Sinclair, you say our time is running out. All right. This one says, 'As a young investor, I am concerned with the future of Templeton International and the value of Templeton Mutual Funds after your retirement.' Thank you. I am pleased and honored that you think that would make a difference. For 48 years we have been searching all over the world to get the wisest possible security analysts into our organization. And it would be a sad thing to think we had wasted 48 years without finding some wise people. I can honestly say that we have the strongest team of security analysts we've ever had in our history. I do not intend to retire. I intend to be the coordinator of investment research as long as the Lord allows me to.

But it is true that if the Lord should call me unexpectedly, it might turn out to be a blessing for our shareholders.

Sir John, I think the size of this audience and the lineup outside this hall before the meeting speak for themselves. As a matter of fact, when I saw that lineup, I was reminded of the time when Peter Ustinov came to speak to us. And he said when he saw the lineup, he thought he was back at Lenin's Tomb. On behalf of all of us, I'd like to thank you for not only an eloquent but an inspired message. I am sure that all of us feel much better now that we have heard your optimistic forecasts and we will do our utmost to abide by some of the Templeton principles which personally I would summarize as diversify, diversify, diversify. It's been a great pleasure having you. We particularly appreciate your coming up from the Bahamas, where the weather, I gather, was beautiful, to Toronto, where it leaves something to be desired.

As a token of our appreciation, I'd like to present you with a copy of a book entitled A Day in the Life of Canada.

Thank you, Ms. Sinclair. It's a real joy.

I know you have many Canadian ties, and I hope the book will serve to reinforce them. Our meeting next week will have as our guest speaker the Honorable Michael Wilson, the Minister of Finance. This will be reserved seats only. I understand that tickets are still available, but they are going fast, so if you want to come, I'd suggest that you buy them as soon as possible. The week after that, our speaker will be Jacques Parizeau, who, as all of you know, I'm sure, is a leadership candidate of the Parti Québécois. It's Mr. Parizeau's only appearance in Toronto, to the best of my knowledge, during the leadership contest. Please note that that meeting is going to be held in the Sheraton Centre.

We could not get a large enough room, unfortunately, in the Royal York, but the ballroom in the Sheraton Centre will accommodate all the people who'd like to hear Mr. Parizeau. For those of you who are not members of the Canadian Club, let me point out that if you'd like to join now, membership is only $25, and you will be considered prepaid until the end of, at least for the full '88-'89 season, which I think is a unique bargain, particularly since the membership fees could conceivably go up this summer. I'm delighted to see you here. I hope you'll all be back next week and many times after that. This meeting is terminated.

Well, an interesting speech given by a person who is highly respected, obviously, in the financial and investment community, Sir John Templeton, who is founder of the Templeton Group of Funds. The 75-year-old Mr. Templeton resides in the Bahamas. And he came up to the cold but sunny Toronto to deliver what was basically an inspirational and positive message, spiritually based, definitely, which may be a surprise in this age of Wall Street movies and so forth. The gentleman, Mr. Templeton, basically looked at the past and cited the achievements, the enormous achievements the world has, has brought on itself in the areas of health and medicine and technology and entertainment. And then he looked at the present, and he said, among other things, that there are less problems today than there have been for each of the past 45 years that he's been in this business. So that's quite a tribute indeed. As for the future, he said that the standard of living and income

...will quadruple over the next 40 years, and the generally optimistic—the future is optimistic—is definitely positive. That's Sir John Templeton speaking those words, a person who's very well respected, since there are 1,400 people from the financial and investment community. Most of Bay Street, I'm sure, is down here at the Royal York Hotel this Monday afternoon. One of his messages, perhaps curiously, was the spiritual component. He said that we should be blessed and we should give thanks each and every day for the various and sundry achievements that we've had in the past 50 years and we're about to have over the next several decades to come. And again, to contrast this with a movie like Wall Street, where a large part, a major dramatic part in the play was speech given by the lead character about "greed is good" and "greed is great," it's quite a contrast to the usual messages we hear.

Uh, from the financial investment community, so John Templeton, who is founder of the Templeton Group of Funds, speaking here to fourteen hundred people at the Canadian Club in downtown Toronto. Now, for future meetings there, we will have Michael Wilson, the Finance Minister for the Government of Canada. He, of course, in two days' time is delivering a brand new budget to the Canadian people. He will be speaking about that budget next Monday at the Canadian Club at a joint meeting with the Empire Club. Further on, on the 22nd of this month, we'll have Jacques Parizeau, who is a leading contender for the leadership of the Parti Québécois in Quebec, in the province of Quebec. Now, for a rebroadcast of this special luncheon, watch Rogers Channel 10 at 11 o'clock tonight, and you'll catch all 1,400 people riveting this speech by Sir John Templeton from the Bahamas.

For the Canadian Club, I'm Peter Bromley. Thank you very much for watching. Have a good afternoon.