Some winners — and losers — if the world does end Dec. 21

BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/GETTY IMAGES    Jay Blevins and his wife Holly Blevins and their children Samuel Benjamin Blevins, 7, Elliana Grace Blevins, 9, and Evangeline Joy Blevins, 4, pose with survival gear Dec. 5 in Berryville, Virginia. Jay Blevins and his family have been preparing for a possible doomsday scenario.

Tanya Talaga 
Global Economics Reporter 

There is an old saying that you can’t take it with you.

But if the world ends Friday, some of us could go “kaboom” with more money in our pockets than others.

At the top of the list are the doomsday preppers such as Ron Hubbard, whose company Atlas Survival Shelter is in over-drive completing orders. The Californian-based firm uses galvanized pipe to build escape hatches and safe-rooms. The shelters are blast-proof and built to last 200 years.

“I am the top news in the world right now when it comes to shelters,” Hubbard breathlessly told the Toronto Star, adding the TV show Inside Edition was on hold on the other line.

People buy Hubbard’s shelters for a number of reasons. “They feel the country will economically collapse in the next decade, they believe it is only a matter of time before terrorists get their hands on biological weapons,” he said. “They don’t feel like a bomb-shelter. They look like RV’s.”

Besides the usual list of profiteers such as those who sell survival kits, bottled water and packaged food that won’t expire for 25 years, towns such as Bugarach, France, Mount Rtanj, Serbia and Sirince, Turkey are experiencing tourist booms as people believe these tiny villages are mystical safe zones.

Closer to home, the Ontario Restaurant and Bar Association hopes the doomsday threat sends more people out to their establishments.

“One last toast before it all goes kaput,” says John Couse, owner of Lieutenant’s Pump on Elgin Street in Ottawa, about eight blocks away from the Parliament buildings.

The Royal Ontario Museum was also a winner after their exhibition, Maya: Secrets of their Ancient World. The ROM packed in 203,000 visitors from Nov. 2011 until last April, with 250 Mayan artifacts, sculptures, ceramics and masks.

And since the world is going to end, you might as well dress for it.

Shopzilla.com has some suggestions on what to wear to the party including black t-shirts for $27 emblazoned with the logo: “I’ll pay you back on Dec. 22, 2012.”

At Toronto’s Mountain Equipment Co-op, the jury is out as to whether or not they are making money on the Mayan end of the world.

“I think we are and we aren’t. For the last little, while the zombie apocalypse has been a trend. And there are always people looking for disaster kits,” said Eric Clifford, out-reach co-ordinator at MEC.

The King Street store sell first-aid kits, stoves and fuel, dehydrated meals, crank-powered flashlights and radios, tin-foil blankets, water purification systems and sleeping bags that can keep you warm up to -30 Celsius.

“We have what you need to survive, be it camping out in your living room or outside. We have a conscious membership that thinks, you never know, especially after Hurricane Sandy and the power outages.”

Not everyone, however, will prosper if the prophecies come true.

None of the seven candidates running to replace outgoing Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty will be winners. The leadership contest will be decided next month. The premier is the highest paid Ontario politician. Last year, McGuinty earned $208,974.

New Toronto Blue Jay R. A. Dickey, the former Mets knuckleballer, can be described as a big-time loser as he stands to collect the $24 million on his contract in 2014.

Also on the losing end is Montreal billionaire Stephen Jarislowsky whose firm Jarislowsky Fraser Ltd., is the major shareholder in the $15.1 billion Nexen bid that now must be approved by U.S. and British regulators. None of the shares have yet to change hands.