Maclean's December 2023

When Maclean’s creative director Christine Dewairy showed me her design for this month’s cover, featuring a group of protesters on a rent strike, I thought she’d used an archival image. The rally looked like something out of a PBS documentary about 20th-century American or British history. Like most Canadians, I was only familiar with the idea of rent strikes from history books. In the 1930s and ’40s, labour leaders used rent strikes to advocate for rent control, public housing and building-code enforcements. Then, by the 1960s and early ’70s, many of the public housing units built earlier in the century had fallen into disrepair. Tenants with-held rent to protest landlords who were neglecting their buildings. But the photograph on the cover isn’t archival. It’s from a protest that happened this…

Whether it’s a bold red lip or a fresh-faced, natural style, our concept of beauty is ever changing. But evolution within the beauty industry is more than just skin deep—and more than ever, leading companies like L’Oréal Canada are thinking beyond the surface to take an inclusive and forward-thinking approach to the business. As beauty trends come and go, the real trick is striking a balance between feeling classic and timeless, but also of the moment. For L’Oréal Canada, marking 65 years of purposeful, empowered beauty is as much about embracing what looks good today as understanding where the world is going tomorrow. For An Verhulst-Santos, L’Oréal Canada’s first female CEO, who leads 1,450 employees from more than 80 nationalities and a portfolio of nearly 40 iconic global beauty brands,…

PREMIER LEAGUE Luc Rinaldi’s October cover profile of Alberta premier Danielle Smith left readers polarized—just like Smith does herself. Some people were unsettled by her extreme populist positions: Luc Rinaldi’s essay on Danielle Smith is telling. Despite Premier Smith’s privileged education and professional background, we face a naive leader unable to think critically. I watched as Smith stood beside Caroline Cochrane, the premier of the Northwest Territories, who desperately pleaded for support as forests burned. Even though the fires are the result of burning fossil fuel, Smith decided to halt the development of new wind and solar projects. Time is up—we demand leaders who accept this existential threat and who understand grandstanding to appease wayward political factions is of no consequence against the tragedy we face. Catherine Hammill Kincardine, Ontario…

AS THE WEATHER COOLS and the seasons change, we’re perpetually on the hunt for ways to stay healthy and strengthen our immunity. With kids back in school and daycare, and with many adults returning to the office, our immune systems have a lot to contend with. According to researchers, 70 per cent of the immune system is located in the gut. And studies are showing that taking care of your gut microbiota improves your immunity—particularly important during the winter season when we’re prone to more exposure to germs and viruses. Supporting your gut health helps your overall health Beyond digestion, the gut does so much more than we give it credit for. Gut health affects the functioning of our body, our mind and, as mentioned, our immune system. The immune…

LAST YEAR, HOCKEY CANADA was in hot water. That July, news broke that the organization had pulled money from its National Equity Fund—which includes player registration fees—to settle an alleged sexual assault case involving members of Canada’s 2018 men’s world junior team. The fallout was swift: faithful sponsors, like Canadian Tire and Tim Hortons, bailed, the entire board of directors stepped down, and Sport Canada temporarily froze federal funding. Even the Prime Minister weighed in: Canadians were right, he said, to be disgusted. Katherine Henderson was saddened too. In September, the devoted hockey mom and high-level sports exec—previously at the Pan and Parapan American Games—became the first female president and CEO in Hockey Canada’s history. In her most recent gig as CEO of Curling Canada, Henderson fought for (and won)…

MOST KIDS GO THROUGH a space phase. But mine kept going after I watched NASA launch its Gemini and Mercury spacecraft on TV. And it kept going after I joined my high school’s UFO club in Winnipeg. When I enrolled at the University of Manitoba, I opted for a science degree; I wanted to be an astronomer. I would have been happy to spend all of my days looking up. At the time, my professors were receiving tons of calls from civilians about UFO sightings. Convinced they were nonsense, they stopped picking up. I asked if they’d pass the calls along to me. All through my freshman year, I fielded reports from UFO spotters and sometimes even visited them at their homes. Their sightings were mostly things like stars and…