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16 saturday april 12 2003 economist sun stouffville suntribune v dolls put face to canadian identity j8ysimone joseph staff writer kathryn gallagher morton knew she wanted to make a different doll than the massmarket variety the dolls available on the market or that you see on saturday morning television mostly emphasize glamour fash ion or the need to be cool and encourage girls to act older than they are she said the success of the anne of green gables dolls which her company newmarketbased avordea traditions inc had been designing and marketing since 1988 spawned her idea to create her own line of canadian dolls our characters are meant to be both an inspiration to and a reflection of canadian girls from coast to coast to coast it made me notice how hun gry canadians are for something that is ours she said adding she also recognized the increasing popularity of highquality dolls in europe and the united states but she had many questions what would her characters be like would they be historical or modern which factory would she choose who would she use as a model she spent about 10 years researching her idea often put ting the project on hold while she worked on other company busi ness ms morton who has an mba and a bachelor of social work made a habit of writing down all her ideas and constantly revising her 50page business plan early on she researched statistics canada information to get a feel for the canadian popula tion so she could create dolls that would represent different parts of the country our characters are meant to be both an inspiration to and a staff photobill roberts kathryn gallagher morton left owner of avonlea traditions inc shows off the line of maplelea girls dolls which were modelled in part on lexi marion 12 reflection of canadian girls from coast to coast to coast ms morton said she brought in highquality dolls from the us to sell at her company two months before christmas thinking they would lead to questions about what peo ple liked about the dolls how they would improve them and whether they would be interested in a canadian doll while people were impressed by the american dolls they seemed even more interested in the possibility of a canadian doll exactly what she had hoped another step in the process was focus groups ms morton asked york region women to gen erate characteristics for the dolls using a focus group of mothr ers ms morton hoped to find out what they wanted to see in the dolls and discover what their daughters played with we were setting out to make a doll that wasnt just a doll that girls wanted but a doll that parents want for their girls ms morton said she asked girls how they played with their dolls and if they thought it was important to have a canadian doll specialty store owners were asked what they were interested in selling which marketing supports they needed what kind of packaging appealed to them which products sold well in their stores and which types of promotions worked a big challenge was finding a factory to produce the doilswith canadas small market in compar ison to the us few dolls were developed and there were few off shore factories that could produce the highquality product she wanted the last canadian com pany to make vinyl dolls went out of business in the early 1990s about the time she began looking for a suitable manufacturer after two years of searching she finally found a factory in asia in2000 the next challenge was design ing the dolls ms morton and her produc tion manager went to modelling agencies to go through profiles finally deciding to model the dolls face after lexi marton of aurora to find a sculptor they asked around and finally found one in their own back yard unionville since the company wanted to produce a unique doll with specif ic features ms morton avoided what is called a stock mould since the dolls were meant for girls eight to 12 it was necessary see chapter page 18 residential real estate back to normal by jeff mitchell staff writer an illusion of weakness in canadas housing market belies the health of a sector that should continue to be solid throughout 2004 insiders say as long as interest rates remain low properties will be bought and sold said jim hill a real estate agent with prudential renascent realty in keswick i think we have this hot market as a result of low interest rates and i think we have low interest rates as a result of 911 mr hill said adding an economic lull resulting from americas war on iraq may linger for months if thats the case i think the rates are going to stay down and our real estate market will remain good i while the number of resales is down from last year when a redhot market set records for new home sales and resales last month saw 6986 single fam ily dwellings change hands the second- highest figure ever recorded for the month according to toronto real estate board treb figures released wednesday sales were down 8 per cent from last years remarkabl7602 for march while the average price for the boards area rose slightly to 290185 newmarket remax agent diane mitchell said she has not seen the slump in listings and sales witnessed in other markets in fact relatively few listings of resale homes meanwhen a prime piece of property comes on the market vendors and agents are seeing multiple bids ms mitchell said if youre not getting an offer in a couple of weeks something is wrong she said deals on resales are closing in an average of 32 days in the gta if youre looking at resale its still a really good market for people to put up their homes ms mitchell said meanwhile new home sales in february returned to levels to which builders were more accustomed prior to last years boom locally markham led the way in see investors page 17 expose yourself to art f fifthrihualmrtuc hosted by the varley volunteer committee date loea ftjekttii call fi8 47f 3611221228 kerb presenting sponsor promotional spenior v yvv i our thanks to i wiwnwwwi