PRESS DIGEST - Canada - Oct 27

Oct 27 (Reuters) - The following are top stories from selected Canadian newspapers. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

THE GLOBE AND MAIL:

- Faced with the resurgence of the H1N1 influenza virus, Ottawa has fast-tracked a vaccination program for pregnant women, signalling an urgency to safeguard at-risk Canadians in the coming weeks.

- Federal political parties are scrambling to stake out turf in the debate over the retirement savings crisis, with the opposition Liberals vowing they'd take a more activist role than the Harper government and Conservatives warning against costly new schemes.

BUSINESS:

- When Statistics Canada releases its monthly report on employment insurance tomorrow, notable will be the lack of information on the number of unemployed who have exhausted their Employment Insurance benefits.

This is frustrating the efforts of economists and also complicating public policy, because how can governments and support agencies respond if the full extent of the problem is unknown?

- Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney, a former international investment banker, is taking aim at his former counterparts on Wall Street and in the City of London.

In remarkably forceful comments Monday, Carney suggested bankers in the United States and Europe are suffering from hubris, have lost sight of their proper role in the economy, and can't be trusted to operate in the best interests of the financial system.

- When Michael Eisner left Walt Disney Co (DIS.N) four years ago, no less than the nephew of Walt Disney himself questioned whether the departing executive had run out of ideas.

Now Rogers Communications Inc (RCIb.TO) is betting millions of dollars that the former golden boy of the U.S. entertainment industry, who revitalized Disney in the 1980s and 1990s with titles such as The Lion King and The Little Mermaid, still has a few grand visions left in him.

NATIONAL POST:

- New York's mandate that fast-food restaurants post calorie information on their menus has changed consumer habits, the city said on Monday, contradicting a recent independent study showing no effect.

- A branch of Toronto's renowned Hospital for Sick Children is being criticized for funding an autism conference whose organizers champion the discredited belief that childhood immunization causes the neurological disorder.

FINANCIAL POST:

- Volatility came back to haunt North American equity markets Monday, sending stocks tumbling after an early morning surge as investors, who have been dithering over further gains for days, took confusion over the U.S. homebuyer tax credit as excuse to sell and lock in profits.

- Oil fell more than 2 percent to below $79 a barrel Monday on concerns that a sluggish economic recovery will keep fuel demand low.