Canada

Forty years ago, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney touched a hot stove. He announced that his government would partially de-index Old Age Security benefits from inflation, and very quickly, the smell of burning flesh began wafting through Ottawa. NDP MP Simon de Jong charged that Mr. Mulroney was breaking a “sacred trust” with Canadian seniors. “Two and a half million elderly Canadians are fed up,” barked Liberal leader John Turner. And outside of Parliament, a Quebec woman named Solange Denis pointed at Mr. Mulroney and said: “You lied to us. You made promises that you wouldn’t touch (OAS). It’s goodbye, Charlie Brown!” The Prime Minister backed down (though he did manage to implement a modest clawback for high-income seniors in 1989).

Almost a year ago, Canada’s Food Price Report projected that food inflation in 2025 would range between three and five per cent. We now stand squarely at four. For consumers, it’s been a bruising year. After months of relative calm, grocery prices have surged again since spring, driven by tariffs, weather disruptions, and a weakening Canadian dollar.

"Former Prime Minister Trudeau was simply terrible for grocery shoppers — truly terrible — and we’re still paying the price for decisions made long before Mark Carney came along. At least so far, I haven’t seen Carney make a single foolish decision affecting food prices… yet." https://t.co/wKRuFo00ac

— The Food Professor (@FoodProfessor) October 22, 2025

The Inuit of the far north helped solve the mystery of a doomed 19th-century expedition. Now Canada needs them to strengthen its claim to this newly contested region.

For centuries, death and disaster met those searching for the fabled Northwest Passage. The promise of a shorter sea lane between Europe and Asia, somewhere through the icelocked labyrinth of Canada’s Arctic Archipelago, lured explorers like Sir John Franklin to their doom.

Today, with sea ice melting fast, the Northwest Passage is open long enough to welcome thousands of tourists annually aboard large cruise ships. Nine are expected to dock this year at Gjoa Haven, an Inuit hamlet whose history is tied to the passage’s past and could help secure its future.

“The Northwest Passage goes through our communities, our land,” said Raymond Quqshuun, Gjoa Haven’s mayor.

Not that long ago, Canada was a nation of hope and promise. Sure, we had our troubles, but there was nothing we couldn’t do if we set our minds to it.

But after ten long years of promised hope and “sunny ways,” we have faced a decade of doom — much of it manufactured.

I have hope. I hope we aren’t made serfs by the WEF or ChiComs.