📈 Hardest fall

Good morning. We hope that you’ve recovered from Boxing Day shopping and are ready for another year-end edition filled with thrills, chills, and spills! Today, we’re looking at the biggest news items of March and April, and bestowing the (dis)honour of Hardest Fall.

—Quinn Henderson

China goes after Canadian canola. The U.S. wasn’t the only front in the trade war. Our second-largest trading partner slapped tariffs on $3.7 billion worth of agricultural products, including 100% tariffs on canola, a top export. The levy was a direct response to Canada’s 100% tax on Chinese-made EVs. Now, after years of icy relations, Canada is working hard to get back on China’s good side, and hopefully see these levies dropped. (Mar. 21 Edition)

We started caring about Greenland’s sovereignty. Canada wasn’t the only target of Donald Trump’s annexation threats. The semi-autonomous territory of Denmark also found itself in the crosshairs. In a show of support our editorial team (no joke) bought “Greenland Is Not For Sale” hats. As for Greenlanders, they were defiant, freezing out JD Vance and voting in March for a party that supports a gradual path to full independence. (Mar. 11 Edition)  

Ontario approved Canada’s first new nuclear plant since the ‘80s. Ontario Power Generation got the OK to start building a small modular reactor (SMR) at the Darlington nuclear site in Clarington. SMRs, which deliver less energy than traditional reactors but have enhanced safety features, are the hot new thing in nuclear. Ontario’s SMR will be a test case for their wider viability as more places (even the moon) consider going nuclear. (April 8 Edition)

RIP Pope Francis, hello Pope Leo. Francis will go down as one of Catholicism’s most consequential modern leaders, espousing progressive (for the Church) stances on issues like climate change and LGBTQ+ rights. His death at 88 created a fork in the road for the conclave: continue down this path or turn back. When the black smoke cleared, Francis’ ally Robert Prevost became the first American pope, taking the name Leo XIV. (April 25 Edition)  

Liberals complete a historic comeback. This time last year, the Liberals were dead in the water, down over 20 points to the Conservatives. Until, that is, Mark Carney won the party’s leadership and Donald Trump’s “51st state” talk scrambled the political landscape. In the end, Carney’s Liberals fell two seats shy of a majority, Pierre Poilievre (briefly) lost his seat, and the NDP lost official party status as Jagmeet Singh resigned. (April 29 Edition)

Winner: The Hudson’s Bay Company. Once upon a time, the HBC had some eight million square kilometres of land under its dominion. At the end of its historic 355-year run, all it had was $1.1 billion in debt and an outmoded business model that hemorrhaged market share to both lower-cost and luxury competitors. It will live on, in a way, with Canadian Tire buying the IP for $30 million and selling its iconic point blankets. What will happen to all the retail real estate it occupied is still undecided (though we do know Ruby Liu won’t be a part of it). 

Runner-up: The condo market. Go to any major city in Canada and you’ll see towers full of glass shoeboxes known as condo buildings, built during a boom time for real estate with the promise of easy ROIs for investors. This year, the condo market began to bottom out as potential homebuyers rebelled against their cramped living spaces and cheap designs. In Q1, Toronto and Vancouver condo sales fell 75% and 37%, respectively, compared to 2022.  

Runner-up: Canada’s EV ambitions. A combo of low demand and auto tariffs put a damper on Canada’s dreams of becoming a global EV hub. Northvolt’s proposed $7 billion battery plant in Quebec went belly up after the Swedish startup filed for bankruptcy; Honda paused construction of its $15 billion EV plant in Ontario for at least two years; Stellantis moved EV Jeep production to Illinois; and GM stopped making its BrightDrop electric van in Ontario.

Animated epic Ne Zha 2 became the fifth-highest-grossing film of all time, besting Star Wars: The Force Awakens, but falling just shy of Titanic. It also became the first non-Hollywood production to earn US$2 billion, the first animated film to earn $2 billion, and the first film to earn $1 billion in one market. It was just one sign this year of China’s growing cultural power.

🚬 $32.5 billion. Settlement of a decades-long Canadian lawsuit against three tobacco giants found liable for causing diseases for ~100,000 Quebecers between 1950 and 1998. It went to smoking victims and their descendants, a charity, and the provinces and territories.

🤖 US$40 billion. Size of the funding round secured by OpenAI in March, led by investment giant SoftBank. It’s the largest venture capital raise ever, and three times more than the previous record for a private tech firm. The raise valued OpenAI at $300 billion. 

🇰🇵 US$1.5 billion. Value of crypto assets stolen in the ByBit hack, potentially making it the largest heist of all time. The FBI believes the heist was orchestrated by North Korea. The nation might rank low in civil liberties, but it's the undisputed global leader in crypto hacking. 

Congratulations to the winners of last week's cartoon caption contest and thanks to everyone who submitted!

Want to see this week's cartoon and try your hand at another caption? Click here and give us your best witticism.

Even during the holidays, The Peak’s Saturday Crossword is putting in the work. Will you?

And of course, the daily sudoku is also reporting for duty.