An unemployed man with an advanced finance degree who was despondent over his own financial problems shot and killed his wife, three children, mother-in-law and then himself in an upscale home in a gated community, police said Monday.

After Monday's dizzying downdraft, index futures point to a modestly positive open on Wall Street while European bourses are higher despite ongoing worries about the bank industry.

Conservative Leader Stephen Harper will unveil his long-awaited election platform in Toronto on Tuesday as the campaign enters the home stretch amid mounting economic worries.

Child poverty in Canada is at the same level as it was in 1989, the year Parliament pledged to eliminate the problem by 2000, says a quality-of-life report card released Tuesday.

Ask a pollster, an academic and two political organizers whether polls drive voter preference or if voter preference drives the polls and you invariably arrive at conflicting views of how such tallies will effect ballot casting on Oct. 14.