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• Relief at the pump. Are you driving more?
  

  Holiday motorists are getting a break this season as the price of gas dips to a four-year low across much of the country.

  The average price of gas stands at 74.9 cents a litre, according to Calgary-based consulting firm M.J. Ervin's weekly survey, released Tuesday. That's down 1.4 cents from a week ago.

  The last time Canadians saw prices this low was December 2004 when gas averaged 74.5 cents a litre.

  
  Read full story.

  Are you driving more because of the low prices? How do low gas prices affect you?

• Who is your pick for top newsmaker of 2008?
  

  Stephen Harper has been named Canada's 2008 newsmaker of the year in a survey of news organizations by the Canadian Press.

  "By dint of sheer news volume, Prime Minister Stephen Harper was a heavyweight in 2008," the national news agency said Tuesday.

  The Conservative prime minister was picked by nearly half of the newspaper editors and broadcast news directors in this year's poll, taking 64 of 133 votes.

  Who do you think was Canada's top newsmaker of the year?

• Happy Holidays? Are you spending Christmas at the airport?
  

  With more snowy weather blasting some of the country's largest airport hubs, getting home for Christmas might only be a dream for some Canadians.

  Pearson International Airport in Toronto and the Vancouver airport were both reporting delays Wednesday morning as travellers continued to try to reach their holiday destinations.

  Are you stuck at the airport for Christmas? Share your stories.

  Has anyone gone out of their way to make sure your holiday in travel purgatory is not as bad as it could be? Let us know

• Did you pay for Air Canada's On My Way storm service?
  

  In April, Air Canada introduced a service called On My Way that offers waylaid travellers access to customer service representatives who will help arrange for complimentary hotel accommodations, car rentals and complimentary meals. The service,which costs an extra $25, must be ordered when tickets are first purchased.

  
  Did you purchase the extra service, and has it come in handy during recent flight delays caused by winter storms across Canada?

• Trapped for the holidays?
  

  Are you stuck at the airport or have your holiday travel plans been delayed?

  How are you killing time?

  Share your experiences and submit photos of how you get through the wait.

• Terrifying flight: were you on it?
  

  An Air Canada plane dropped and rocked violently for half an hour as Halifax-bound passengers screamed, cried, vomited and held on for dear life on Sunday night, but that was just the start of their ordeal.

  As of Monday afternoon, many of the more than 100 passengers on Air Canada flight 1124 had been lying and sitting on the floor of the Ottawa airport among piles of suitcases and duffel bags since 1 a.m., and there were no assurances that they would make it home for Christmas.

  If you were one of the people on this flight share your experiences with us.

  
  

• This year as a Canadian, what are you proud of and what are you embarrassed of?
  
• How's your consumer confidence level? Has all the media coverage on the economy been a factor in how you feel about your own situation?
  

  Canadians are adopting a bleak recessionary mood, even though the numbers are not that grim, an economist says.

  The Conference Board of Canada reported Monday that its index of consumer confidence has reached the lowest level since the recession of 1981-82. Yet the actual economic indicators are not that bad in Canada, compared with the United States, Europe and Japan, said Glen Hodgson, senior vice-president and chief economist.

  "The bad news is out there," but now "it's become very personal," he said.

  Full story

  How's your consumer confidence level? Has all the media coverage on the economy been a factor in how you feel about your own situation?

• Are you university educated, new to Canada and having trouble finding work?
  

  University-educated immigrants living in Canada for more than a decade found it increasingly difficult to get work in their areas of expertise between 1991 and 2006, Statistics Canada reported Monday.

  The search for work became more challenging not just for recent immigrants — those in Canada less than five years — but also for well-established ones living in the country between 11 and 15 years, the agency reported.

  "The proportion of long-term immigrants with a university degree in jobs with low education requirements" rose steadily over the decade and a half surveyed, the report said.

  Jobs with low education requirements include clerks, truck drivers, salespeople, cashiers and taxi drivers, StatistiAre you university educated, new to Canada and having trouble finding work? Tell us your storycs Canada said.

  The study also found that long-term female immigrants fared worse than their male counterparts.

  Full story
  
  Are you university educated new to Canada and having trouble finding work? Tell us your story.

• What do you think of the new Senate appointments?
  

  Prime Minister Stephen Harper named 18 people to the Senate on Monday, filling all the vacancies in an effort to balance out the Liberal-dominated chamber before the possibility of an election in the new year.

  Among those appointed to seats in the upper house were former broadcaster Pamela Wallin, Olympian Nancy Greene Raine and CTV personality Mike Duffy.

  Read the full list.

  What do you think of the new appointments? Who would you have liked to see in the Senate?

• What would you give up to keep your pet?
  

  A growing number of Americans are giving up their dogs and cats to animal shelters as economic turmoil takes it toil on the bond between owner and pet.

  From the Malvern, Pa., man who turned his two dogs over to help pay for his mother's cancer treatments, to the New York woman who euthanized her cat rather than keeping it alive with expensive medications, rising economic anxieties make it increasingly difficult for some pet owners to justify spending $1,000 a year or more on pet food, veterinary services and other costs.

  Read the full story.

  What would you give up to keep your pet?

• Tell us your baking struggles and successes. Is there a recipe you've been struggling to perfect?
  

  Kitchen stories.

  Christmas usually brings about a flurry of baking, of pulling out cherished recipes passed on by your gramdma, given to you by a friend or perhaps plucked from last year's Christmas cookbook that you never had time to crack open until now.

  And sometimes those recipes just don't turn out. Maybe it's a forgotten ingredient or a missing step, or the humidity. Or maybe your cooking chops are rusty because life is so darn busy.

  Tell us your baking struggles and successes. Is there a recipe you've been struggling to perfect?

• Stuck at the airport? Share your coping strategies
  

  Are you trapped at the airport and stuck in travel purgatory? How has the experience been, have the airlines been helpful?

  Share your experience.

  How do you cope? Share your stories and strategies.

• Planes, trains and automobiles: What's the best place you've been stranded?
  

  If you have been stranded over the years or if you're stuck in an airport right now, we want to hear from you.

  Tells us about your experience. Did you have a comfy chair? Was it warm? Or, was it just down right miserable. Share your story