Alberta chooses remain

Good morning. The president of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers issued a startling alert yesterday, warning that the province’s strategic maple syrup reserve “has been reduced to zero” amid high demand and low investments. 

As funny as the phrase “strategic maple syrup reserve” is, this sticky situation has serious economic ramifications. It’s estimated that the maple syrup industry contributed $1.21 billion to the GDP last year (as well as to countless delicious breakfasts).  

Today’s reading time is 5½ minutes.

Markets: Tech stocks bounced back after their worst week since Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff announcement last year. Meanwhile, a hawkish speech by Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem made investors nervous that an interest rate hike could be coming sooner than expected, weighing on the TSX.

Albertans have overwhelmingly rejected a referendum on separation.

What happened: With more than 1.5 million ballots counted, 76% of voters had opted against holding a binding referendum on the province leaving Canada.

On the other nine: Results were much tighter — and turnout lower — on the other nine questions.

Why it matters: The result — and the margin of victory, if it holds as all ballots are eventually counted — is a blow to Alberta’s separatists, who were hoping for a tighter result to give their cause greater credibility.

Zoom out: The outcome could spell trouble for Smith’s United Conservative Party (UCP). Separatists account for a large share of its membership, and there are early indications they may now opt to split from the party.

Our take: Separatism in Alberta has existed for a long time and isn’t going to disappear now. But if this margin of victory holds for the remain side, the result is a major setback for people who want to split up Canada.

Toronto-founded Nvidia challenger Tenstorrent raises US$1.5 billion. Tenstorrent — which specializes in cheaper, customizable GPU alternatives — secured a $6.2 billion valuation in its latest funding round. The company has attracted takeover offers from larger chipmakers like Intel and Qualcomm but has opted to challenge Nvidia as an independent firm. (BetaKit)

Inflation hit 3.1% in September. Higher gas prices drove Canada’s annual inflation up slightly last month, with Canadians paying ~28% more at the pump in September compared to the same month last year. Some good news (kind of): grocery prices only increased by 1.7%, the smallest annual increase in nearly two and a half years. (Reuters)

Canadian news outlets sue Anthropic. A group of publishers that includes the Globe and Mail, Postmedia, Torstar, and The Canadian Press has filed a copyright lawsuit against the AI company in Ontario, alleging it has used their collective work to build its flagship model, Claude. The outlets claim Anthropic has continued to scrape content from their websites without permission to provide up-to-date news stories to users. (The Canadian Press)

📡 What else is on our radar: 

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The longest line at TIFF this year wasn’t to gawk at Jacob Elordi — it was for a video store. When the Criterion Collection opened its first-ever store in Toronto as a limited engagement, it sold about 7,000 discs in just 10 days. Now, the team behind the stunt has a permanent location in downtown Toronto, joining similar concepts in Calgary and Vancouver. Today’s story gets into what's fuelling the comeback of physical media. Just don’t call it a Blockbuster.

▶️ Click here to read the full story

"There's a balance between ensuring that we are removing problematic bet types but also ensuring that we don't just move activity into the illegal market," NBA executive vice-president Scott Kaufman-Ross told ESPN, referring to new betting restrictions. The league has ordered its partner sportsbooks to stop offering certain kinds of bets and a distinct type of parlay construction.

Why it matters: The restrictions are primarily aimed at fighting parlays (which are made up of multiple smaller wagers) focused on a single player where every wager bets on the under (a player failing to achieve a certain outcome). The NBA has faced several scandals involving these wagers and the participation of active players. With the new season starting today, the NBA is trying to repair its growing reputation as one of the most gambling-addled leagues.

AI companies are hoping to paint over their PR problems with some good ol’ fashioned philanthropy. 

What happened: Anthropic has pledged to donate 5% of the company’s shares to a new public benefit fund focused on mitigating some of the negative impacts of AI. The fund, which would be worth ~US$100 billion at Anthropic’s targeted IPO valuation, would make direct donations to non-profits as well as populations most affected by the technology.

Why it matters: Between doomsday warnings and job displacement fears, public perception of AI isn’t exactly positive at the moment. Top labs like Anthropic are now trying to quell some of that backlash with some sweeping philanthropic promises. 

Big picture: AI companies are positioned to be the driving forces of philanthropy over the next decade, and will have an outsized impact on the causes they deem worthy of their capital. Based on Anthropic’s current pledges and employee donation matching program, the company could soon become one of the world’s largest charitable vehicles.—LA

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🪧 97%. Share of the more than 9,000 Unifor-represented Stellantis workers in Ontario who voted in favour of a strike mandate as bargaining with their employer remains stalled. The union isn’t yet in a legal strike position, but the result allows it to get the ball rolling should disagreements over the fate of Stellantis’ Brampton plant come to a head.

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Giddy up! It’s time for today’s mini-crossword, the daily sudoku, Codebreaker, and Who’s Who.