…TBWA Chiat/Day was actually the sole winner of Sears Canada’s recently awarded $75-million advertising account, but felt it couldn’t take on the entire account because of conflicts with Shoppers Drug Mart. Ammirati & Puris Lintas, which won a share of the business with Chiat/Day and Young & Rubicam, apparently came in second in the selection process.

…Vickers & Benson may be close to closing the sale of its agency to MDC Communications, the integrated communications company that also owns a piece of Ambrose Carr Linton Carroll and LBJ-FRB.

…Canoe is meeting with a trio of unnamed Toronto shops to get some help with its branding, and plans to name a new full service agency of record this week. The online news and information provider – which is part of Quebecor’s new media division – had announced it was prepping for an agency review sometime in early February. But the portal has decided against calling a full agency review, and is instead speeding up the process so it can start promoting a number of new initiatives in the coming months, according to Rosanne Caron, the Web site’s vice-president of marketing and research. Canoe recently dropped its AOR, Ambrose Carr Linton Carroll, because it wanted a shop that had offices in both Toronto and Montreal, in order to service its French-language Web site.

…The takeover of Cashway lumber stores by Boucherville, Que.-based Rona isn’t the only home improvement merger in the works. With Rona, Revy, Home Depot and Réno-Dép`t now all competing in Ontario, two players are likely to blow off their big-box holdings and realign themselves in smaller boxes. Observers have long said there’s only room for two big-box players in the market, and the survivors of the shakeout are expected to be those with the deepest pockets.

…Timberland isn’t doing so well with the sportwear shop it recently opened on the lakefront strip in tony Oakville, Ont. According to Glenn Stonehouse, president of Grafton-Fraser, the chain’s owner, the boutique format is a bust and won’t be expanded as the chain rolls across the country. He says its mall stores, however, are doing just fine.