(Street Life is a regular feature that focuses on what's playing in the stock market.)

* ACT I: The Home Run Telus (TSX:T) $45.21 Up about 750 per cent (since July 2002).

When new CEO Darren Entwistle began his makeover of Telus six years ago, he became one of the favourite targets of analysts and the media as the stock swooned. Yet, the much-maligned boss stuck to his guns on the controversial acquisition of Clearnet Communications, battled through a messy labour disruption and forged ahead with his aggressive strategy of expanding eastward and going head-to-head with Bell Canada. How has he fared while shaking the foundations of this once-stodgy organization? Well, let the stock chart and its spectacular uptrend tell the tale.

* ACT II: The Bomb Nortel Networks (TSX:NT) $3.47 Down about 97 per cent (since its peak price of $124 in June of 2000).

Nortel, once the darling of Bay Street investors, represents one of the greatest stock crashes in Canadian history.

At its peak in 2000, Nortel's market cap represented almost one-third of the value of the entire TSX exchange, or about the same percentage as the weighting of energy stocks on the TSX these days. As a result, the meltdown of Nortel stock has also coincided with the smashing of many retirement nesteggs in Canada. Besides a blood-red balance sheet, the telecom company has also been plagued by credibility problems caused by continuous restatements of financials and its revolving door in the executive suite.

* ACT III: The Midas Touch Goldcorp Inc. (TSX:G) $34.80 Up about 520 per cent (five-year run).

For years, the gold bulls have been trumpeting Goldcorp as a wise investment vehicle in a gold bull market because the company is unhedged, meaning it takes full advantage of a rising gold price. You want proof? Exhibit 'A' is Goldcorp's stunning run since the gold price started to move out of its doldrums five years ago. While the gold price has doubled in five years, Goldcorp shares are up 521.4 per cent and the company has become Canada's second largest gold producer with a two-million-ounce target for 2006. Canada's largest gold producer, Barrick Gold (TSX:ABX), which has been roundly criticized for its hedging program, is up only 33.4 per cent during the same five-year period.

* ACT IV: The Oilpatch King Canadian Natural Resources (TSX:CNQ) $66.51 Up about 430 per cent (three-year run).

While most of the major Canadian oil companies have merely doubled since oil and gas stocks started to heat up three years ago, CNQ has been the envy of the oilpatch with mind-boggling returns. The company has assembled a broad spectrum of oil and gas properties, including the mammoth Horizon oilsands project in northern Alberta. CNQ is the pride of Murray Edwards, who started the company from scratch in 1989 with a $100,000 investment. Today, Edwards owns about two per cent of the company, whose market cap has swelled to more than $34 billion on the back of surging oil prices. As Edwards told Forbes magazine recently, "$60 oil masks a lot of sins."

* ACT V: The Dot-Com Nightmare Wi-Lan Inc. (TSX:WIN) 67 cents Down 99.3 per cent (since peaking at $94 in February '00).

Most observers of the dot-com crash would concede the dubious award for the biggest tech meltdown to Nortel Networks (TSX:NT) but Wi-Lan's fall from grace has been even worse. Six years ago, broadband wireless technology was all the rage and Wi-Lan, as one of that technology's pioneers, was the stock everyone caught up in tech mania had to own, particularly in Calgary. More recently, Wi-Lan's stock has been continuously breaking new lows as the company sells off some of its broadband wireless product lines. The most telling blow, from a shareholders' perspective, may have been the resignation of Hatim Zaghloul from Wi-Lan's board. The company founder and former CEO once likened the caretaking of shareholder dollars as "the worst slavery one could imagine.”

Well, if you're a stockholder with $90-plus shares, you may beg to differ.

* ACT VI: The Income Trust Gusher Peyto Energy Trust (TSX:PEY.UN) $26.85 Up about 225 per cent (since converting to an income trust on July 1, 2003).

Some of the shine may have come off the oil and gas trust parade amid tanking natural gas prices, but Peyto's performance since its conversion to the trust model is nothing short of remarkable. Besides the attractive capital gains Peyto has been able to generate for unitholders, the oil and gas company has also made five distribution increases that have provided an overall 87-per-cent distribution boost. The current monthly distribution is 14 cents per unit. Peyto, the pride of CEO Don Gray, boasted earnings of $161.6 million in 2005 compared to $73.8 million in 2004.

* ACT VII: The Sweet IPO Tim Hortons Inc. (TSX:THI) $36.21 (opening price on trading debut) Up 34.1 per cent (from $27 price for initial public offering).

If you were among the doughnut-crazed retail investors who piled into Tim Hortons when the shares opened for trading because you didn't have an opportunity to purchase the IPO, you probably had that sinking feeling of rolling up the rim on a Tim's coffee cup and being told to 'Please play again.' On the other hand, if you were among the 16 per cent of retail investors who were fortunate enough to get a piece of the IPO or the institutional investors who got the lion's share of the prize, you made a tidy 34.1 per cent at the opening bell. Which kind of tells you everything you need to know about just how fair, or unfair, the investing industry is. By the closing bell on the opening day, the shares were down almost nine per cent from the opening bell. The new offering traded 17.6 million shares on the opening day.

* ACT VIII: The Penny Jackpot Habanero Resources (TSXV:HAO) $1.28 Up 540 per cent (past year).

Habanero turned itself into an oilsands play just as the market was primed for a fresh play on the heels of spectacular runs by small-cap companies such as UTS Energy (TSX:UTS) and Connacher Oil & Gas (TSX:CLL). Shares in Habanero surged on a recent announcement that the Vancouver-based company had secured interests in two separate oilsands prospects in the Peace River and Athabasca areas. Habanero also has various other oil and gas projects in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Texas. The company has also taken advantage of German investors' appetite for Canadian energy stocks by interlisting its shares on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.

(Stock prices are based on results through April 4, except where noted.)

(Gyle Konotopetz can be reached at gyle@businessedge.ca)