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.