Insights

Over 40 Charitable Organizations Benefit from Canadians' Generous Spirit.

Source: Bloomberg, Calgary Hitmen, ATB Capital Markets

In today’s chart of the day, we are taking a look at the number of bears tossed at the annual Calgary Hitmen Teddy Bear Toss game against WTI prices going back to 1995 (inception of this charitable initiative). As seen from the chart, the early days of the initiative (from 1995-2014) show a strong correlation (R-squared value of 0.86) between WTI and number of bears tossed, as Canadians benefiting from a booming industry spread their wealth to those less fortunate. Since 2014 Calgary has struggled with a cyclical downturn in its most important industry, but charitable Canadians have managed to step up and break the teddy bear-WTI correlation, with an R-squared of 0.28 since 2014.

Charitable Donations Remain a Focus for Canadians Despite Downturn
While the correlation does not hold up post 2014, we see this as a positive, with Canadians stepping up and setting two record tosses since then. The first record was set on December 6, 2015 with 28,815 bears collected, and the second record came on December 3, 2018 with 29,635 bears collected. A video of the 2018 bear toss and highlight reel goal can be found here.

This Year the Toss will be a Little Different, but we Hope Canadians Step Up Again for an Important Cause
All bears collected are donated to hospitals and charities with over 40 local charities benefiting. To-date, the Hitmen have collected over 400,000 teddy bears. This year, with no WHL hockey, the Hitmen are hosting a three-day event from December 4-6, for socially distanced curbside drop-off at the Calgary Saddledome. We are encouraging our Canadian readers to help continue to ‘buck the trend’ and demonstrate the resilient spirit associated with all Canadians and our oil and gas industry.