October 27, 2026

You never know what you’re going to get when you knock on the door and say trick-or-treat. As a child, I clearly remember hoping for a candy bar, but sometimes getting a bruised apple instead. When I was in high school, one of my pals had an older brother who was already marrying for the second time. It was a small, private affair and the little wedding party was invited back to my friend’s parents’ home for the dinner. It happened to be Halloween.

Guests were having too much fun, and too much of everything else, as they sat in the living room eating their dinners on their laps. A little ghost, or maybe a cowboy, rang the doorbell and called out a bright “Trick-or-treat!” An inebriated guest offered to get the door, opened it and as the little trick-or-treater held out his sack, the guest said “Trick!” And with that, scooped a helping of mashed potatoes and gravy into the bag.

You may wonder what that has to do with the boat business.

Well, we could consider the value of realistic expectations, or perhaps dealing with disappointment. But that’s all negative stuff. We have a trick-or-treat bag of positives to share and these can all help your business. Here are some examples.

This week Boating Industry Canada News Week Digest brings you information from Boating Ontario about available MarineWorx funding – real money to support your techs as they upgrade skills at Georgian College.

The ABYC in cooperation with the US Coast Guard, have a free online session on navigation lights and also, on integrating lead-acid and lithium-ion batteries in the same system. Those are great topics!

We know from our digital metrics that the Editor’s Message is faithfully read by many News Week Digest subscribers – there’s a long tradition there. I was going through old binders of our magazines and found this Editor’s column from December 2016 – ten years ago. BTW – our publications are almost all in digital form and available free online. Here’s a fun example as we head toward the U.S. Mid-term elections. Click here and enjoy: https://www.nxtbook.com/kerrwil/boatingindustrycanada/december2016/index.php#/p/4

Another thing you may not be thinking of is that we have a key selection of stock market listings for companies in the marine industry. It’s a fast and easy way to follow the share prices of Brunswick, Sea Doo, Johnson Outdoors, Malibu and others.

Then we have the Career Opportunities section that is available to anyone and a central place where any business in the marine industry can post their career opportunities for free. That benefits everyone. So does the section called, “Important Dates”. These are kept up to date by our people to help you plan ahead and to stay organized each year so you can decide what events are important to you and to plan ahead for them.

So, this is our trick-or-treat bag of useful things you can take advantage of. And, no surprises, no mashed potatoes!

Happy Halloween!

Andy Adams – Editor