High gear

Good morning. You can finally breathe easy, Raps fans. After officially being traded to the Toronto Raptors last week, Kawhi Leonard has inked a two-year, US$115 million contract extension that will keep him with the team through the 2028-29 season — no fake tree-planting schemes required. 

It’s hard not to fantasize about what could have been if he had only done this seven years ago, but alas, the past is the past. And if the Raptors can score another ring in the next three years, we’ll never have to think about it again.

Today’s reading time is 6½ minutes.

Markets: Canada’s main stock index hit a nearly three-week high yesterday as investors reacted positively to Donald Trump’s comments in his UN General Assembly speech about resolving the conflict with Iran. Though Trump also said he might “annihilate” Iran, so… 🤷

Once Canada’s most valuable company, BlackBerry has carved itself a new niche that can’t be upended by the iPhone.  

What happened: The Waterloo company has closed a landmark US$100 million-plus deal to supply its new automotive software, Alloy Kore, to trucking software platform Coretura. The company says it’s planning to roll out the new software to customers later this year.

Catch-up: BlackBerry once commanded 20% of the smartphone market, but after the iPhone took over the world, it struggled to redefine itself. Since peaking in 2008, its stock has plummeted over 95%. 

Why it matters: BlackBerry’s automotive software is in roughly one in seven of the world’s vehicles, but only generates about US$10 per car that it’s in, sources told the Globe and Mail. The company says that with Alloy Kore, it could triple revenue per vehicle.

Bottom line: The glory days of the BlackBerry as a status symbol aren’t coming back, but with a pivot to a less-sexy — yet fast-growing — sector, the Canadian company has paved the way for a comeback.—LA

B.C. Premier David Eby calls a snap election. Just two days after Conservative leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay resigned, Eby announced that British Columbians will head back to the polls on October 24, two years ahead of schedule. While many speculate that the NDP would call an election to take advantage of the embattled Conservatives (who have had over a dozen MLAs depart in the last four months), Eby claims the race is needed to empower his government to take on Donald Trump’s tariffs. (CTV News)

Ottawa offers equity to Indigenous groups along the Trans Mountain pipeline route. Groups who invest in the pipeline would reportedly receive a $2.5 million lump sum as well as a 15% combined equity stake in the project. There’s no set price at which the 15% stake would be offered, though each eligible Indigenous group would be provided low-cost debt to fund the purchase. The feds have promised Indigenous groups a stake in the pipeline since 2019. (Globe and Mail)

OpenAI says it will bring in third-party groups to evaluate safety. The AI giant is planning to tap outside evaluators to vet its new models earlier in their development. Anthropic’s CEO Dario Amodei has called for all AI companies to bring in third parties to evaluate cutting-edge models, and has now brought in consulting firm Accenture to test the safety of Anthropic’s new products. (Bloomberg News)

📡 What else is on our radar: 

At DeGroote, learning goes beyond the classroom. It's hands on.

This month, McMaster’s McLean Centre for Collaborative Discovery opened its doors to students. This 10-storey building dedicated to community/industry partnered learning. It is designed around how work actually happens, where students build, test, fail, adapt, and try again alongside faculty and industry partners.

The learning hubs are already buzzing with activity. You're invited to see it first-hand. Join us on October 6 for the grand opening celebration:

Take in views from the top floor that look out over the whole campus and city.

Register, bring a colleague, and see what a business school looks like when it's built for the way you work now.

🤝 Meet Greta Dopp. If you’re a Peloton member, you may have already seen her teaching yoga, pilates, and other movement classes from the fitness company’s studios in New York City. What you may not know is that she's also Peloton’s first Canadian instructor. We caught up with her to talk about how one becomes a Peloton instructor, what goes into a great fitness class, and her best advice for people struggling to stay consistent with their workouts.

Tell me about the process for becoming a Peloton instructor. How did you get the job?

It was actually a DM. It landed in my message requests on Instagram, and to be honest with you, it looked borderline shady. I was like, this has got to be fake. It was a message from one of the recruiters, and it was like, "Hey, we're looking to grow our fabulous team of instructors. Do you have time to hop on a Zoom call?" And I'm the kind of person that has time for everyone. At the end of the day, if it's really shady, I just hang up the phone. 

So we got on a call, and that's how it all started. The ball started rolling. I realized, oh, this is for real. He was like, "If you're interested in sending over an audition tape,” so I sent over an audition tape, and it was both fast and slow at the same time. They liked the audition tape. They were like, "We want to move forward." But then there was the interview process, and quite a few different auditions I had to do after that as well.

Music is a big part of Peloton. What goes into your process for building a soundtrack for a class?

I take way too long, for sure. Music for me is everything. We have to get the rights to certain music, so I don't have access to all of Spotify. That means I have to search through a lot of different things to find what I like. Music is such an emotional thing for me, and in my classes, I want it to feel more like an experience than just a workout. So I'm really particular about how I curate a playlist: starting a little slower, then moving into stuff that’s pretty heavy, actually, beat-wise. Music for me is like a power-up, you know? So I'm pretty particular about it. It's a lot of EDM, though. A lot of EDM, or trappy rap.

For people who want to become more fit but struggle with consistency, what would you recommend they try? What's the secret?

Take it in tiny, bite-size chunks. Find something you enjoy. I know that's the typical cheesy answer, but it's a huge part of my ethos. You don't need to wreck yourself to make it work. You can do a 10-minute traditional Pilates class where you don't break a sweat, but after class you're like, oh, now I can sit at my desk and I feel more mobile in my spine. That feels good. And then that gives you more energy to carry on and do something after work. Chasing the optimization and the metrics and lifting the heaviest you can: that definitely has its place. But when you're just starting off, find something you like to do, where you're like, "That was fun." That's a really great place to start to fall in love, because then you start to get the endorphins, and then you fall in love with the feeling.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity. Read the full Q&A here. 

Cashing in on Canada’s defence spending spree might require a helping hand.

What happened: Fredericton-based defence startup incubator Vimy Forge has a new partner in Toronto's MaRS Discovery District. The longstanding Canadian innovation hub will help Vimy Forge with its goal of showing startups how to get a foothold in the defence world.

Zoom out: It’s well known that Canada is boosting its defence spending and wants to put much of that cash into domestic companies. However, there’s a dearth of big firms ready and able to use all that funding — a void that startups and dual-use companies are trying to fill. 

Why it matters: A report from the Business Development Bank of Canada and Icebreaker found that companies in fields like IT and construction trying to get into defence are facing sizable barriers to entry — that’s where programs like Vimy Forge can come in and potentially work some magic.—QH

📱 2.8 million. Global downloads that Meta’s new Muse AI app netted in its first 12 days, outpacing the performance of ChatGPT over the same period after its launch. Uptake has been quick, but security experts have criticized the AI assistant for a zero-day vulnerability that can put users’ accounts and data at risk.

^{*This is sponsored content.}

Make way for the mini-crossword, the daily sudoku, Codebreaker, and Who’s Who!