Innehållsförteckning för January 2023 från Maclean's

Early 2022 carried the promise of a JOYFUL, back-to-normal-ish post-COVID life. Then a tsunami of gloomy news dampened our optimism: inflation, climate disasters, the brutal Russian assault on Ukraine. The ugly political polarization south of the border crept northward—and a horde of trucks in downtown Ottawa led the charge. Some depressing trends are set to continue into 2023, but there are also many rays of hope. Canada is on the forefront of the fight against climate change, developing ingenious new gadgets and technology to reduce emissions. Drones and self-driving cars are going from sci-fi to mainstream. Hospitals will run on artificial intelligence, and Canadians will cope with exorbitant housing costs by devising clever living arrangements that come with the happy side effect of making us all feel a little less…

1 The highest-stakes election will be in Alberta Maybe by the time Albertans head to the polls in May, Premier Danielle Smith will be done dousing her political tire fires. She spent her first days in office walking back controversies, including an assertion that unvaccinated people are “the most discriminated-against group that I’ve ever witnessed in my lifetime.” She can probably count on the votes of those unvaccinated Albertans, but her broad appeal remains uncertain. The NDP is competitive in Alberta—in one recent poll, respondents favoured NDP Leader Rachel Notley by a 14-point margin. Elected to government in 2015, Notley lost to Jason Kenney in 2019, toughed it out in opposition, and might yet complete a phoenix-like comeback. 2 Trudeau will have a year from hell Justin Trudeau’s fight card…

Canada could be heading toward a population crisis. We’re getting older. Our birth rates are too low—10.15 per 1,000 people in 2022—and declining every year. We simply don’t have the taxpayer base to sustain our aging population or the workers to fill gaps across the labour market. In March of last year, job vacancies rose to record levels, with more than a million open positions across the country. We need people, not just in tech and health care, but across the economy. Fortunately, unlike countries such as Australia, New Zealand and the United States—which largely closed up their immigration systems during COVID and haven’t opened them back up again—Canada has done the opposite. We are now looking at upward of 465,000 immigrants coming in 2023, compared to around 350,000 the…

1 This recession will hurt after all It’s tough being Tiff Macklem. The Bank of Canada governor spent 2022 fighting inflation with single-minded zeal, raising interest rates at every opportunity. Now a different problem looms: a recession. Opinion differs on how severe the downturn will be. Expectations of an almost painless recession have given way to fears of a crash landing, to be felt most acutely in housing, with reduced home-building activity, and in manufacturing, which could grind to a halt. Trade with the U.S. will slow, people will buy fewer cars and appliances, and the plastic, metal and lumber industries will all feel the pinch. In other words, fasten and tighten your seatbelt. 2 More workers will unionize Forget the Great Resignation. This is poised to become the year…

Most Canadians have only become aware of the country’s severe health-care labour shortage within the last two years. The headlines have been alarming: emergency rooms are shutting down, and patients are waiting months to see specialists. Some have even tried to recruit physicians by putting ads in local newspapers. This crisis, which has been decades in the making, is still far from resolved. It could reach a breaking point in 2023. Physicians are extremely burnt out, and it’s no wonder why: a study from the University of Chicago found that if American primary-care physicians followed national guidelines for preventative, chronic disease and acute care, it would take them more hours than there are in a day (26.7) to see an average number of patients. You could just as easily apply…

1 We’ll battle more invasive species Yet another reason to fear the ravages of climate change: it can accelerate the spread of invasive species while making it more difficult for native ones to survive. Experts say there are more than 1,000 invasive species already in Canada, and the number is quickly rising. The sirex woodwasp, a black-bodied, wood-eating insect that’s native to Europe, only arrived in Ontario and Quebec in 2005. But a warming climate has helped it to flourish and outcompete local wasps, sucking the life out of evergreen forests and prompting panic in rural areas. The round goby eats the eggs and young of native fish and is spreading across Ontario. And the Eurasian milfoil—better known as the “zombie plant” because of how its parts split off, reproduce…

1 Sook-Yin Lee will take us back to the ’90s In 1996, Canadian radio host, musician, actor and film director Sook-Yin Lee split up with her boyfriend, the cartoonist Chester Brown. Fifteen years later, Brown published Paying For It, chronicling his post-breakup decision to pay for sex rather than deal with emotional entanglements. Now Lee is directing a feature film based on Brown’s memoir, in which her namesake character has a significant role. It’s quirky and irreverent and perfectly on-brand for one of the country’s most original multi-hyphenates, who also has an acting role in the upcoming The Incident Report, produced by madcap maverick Charlie Kaufman. 2 Dune: Part Two will stage a battle of the hunks When Canada’s auteur of moody action Denis Villeneuve signed on to make a…

When the pandemic hit in 2020, we saw loyalty programs shift priorities and focus on keeping their members engaged without flying, staying in hotels, or setting foot in stores. They adapted by providing more ways to earn loyalty currencies, adding more cash equivalent rewards like gift cards and statement credits, all the while enticing them with offers they could use from home. As we’ve emerged from two years of our altered lifestyles, we’ve seen loyalty programs keep the pandemic adaptations and evolve their programs to suit more walks of life. From converting Aeroplan points to Starbucks Stars and getting more value from American Express points when redeeming for statement credits, we’ve seen the programs that adapted new stay-at-home measures keep those in place. Instead of thwarting the programs, the pandemic…

GROCERY When rollout is complete in 2023 Sobeys Safeway Foodland and participating Co-Ops FreshCo Chalo! FreshCo IGA and IGA West Voilà by Sobeys Voilà by Safeway Thrifty Foods Rachelle Béry Les Marchés Tradition Voilà par IGA Needs Convenience* *Point redemption not available at Needs Convenience LIQUOR Sobeys Liquor Safeway Liquor Thrifty Foods Liquor ENTERTAINMENT Cineplex VIP Cinemas The Rec Room Playdium Cineplex Store NBA SHOPPING Rakuten Apple Best Buy Home Hardware (coming in 2023) 60+ gift card brands TRAVEL Scene+ Travel, Powered by Expedia BANKING CARDS Scotiabank® Scene+TM Visa Card (and Scotiabank® Scene+TM Visa Card for Students) Scotiabank Passport® Visa Infinite Card Scotiabank® Gold American Express® Scotiabank® American Express® Scotiabank® Platinum American Express® Scotiabank Passport® Visa Infinite Business Card BANKING PACKAGES Ultimate Package Preferred Package Student Banking Advantage® Plan Getting…

THERE ARE FEW DISHES as luscious as a tomato salad at the height of the season. At the Acorn, a haute vegetarian restaurant in Vancouver’s Riley Park neighbourhood, head chef Devon Latte drizzles wedges of jewel-hued tomatoes with a vinaigrette and contrasts their sweetness with a creamy homemade mayo. He textures the dish with cheese and croutons, then showers it with basil. What diners don’t see are all the scraps that Latte has layered onto the plate: the tomato leaves used to make that verdant, herbaceous vinaigrette; the scraps of tomato reduced with caramel to make a savoury, silky sauce; and even the mayonnaise, made with chickpea miso and smoked tomato scraps, and emulsified with leftover aquafaba. The Acorn is one of a growing number of Canadian restaurants subverting expectations…

REMEMBER NEVER BEFORE July Talk January 20 IN OCTOBER, alt-rock band July Talk went into their set at Toronto’s Horseshoe Tavern with a big announcement: their fourth studio album, Remember Never Before, was coming in the new year. The gobsmacked crowd got a sneak peek—or rather a complete unveiling—when July Talk played the entire album right then and there. Produced by Holy Fuck’s Graham Walsh, Broken Social Scene’s Kevin Drew and July Talk’s guitarist Ian Dochert, Remember Never Before features 10 new tracks and a reprise of “I Am Water,” a bop from 2021. And the Toronto band’s pursuits aren’t just musical. They released “I Am Water” through their creative collective, Danuta, an independent record label and production company that also creates music videos for other artists.…

The Veritas Foundation is a private charitable organization committed to the improvement of Canada’s philanthropic sector. It helps individuals and organizations establish and grow their own endowments, then invests the proceeds in The Veritas Foundation Giving Fund, a donor-advised fund. It then issues grants to charitable projects based on the donor’s recommendations. The Veritas Foundation writes independent monthly research reports on the sector and has developed a proprietary rating system that evaluates a charity’s strategy, governance, financial performance, and impact. This report aims to show which of the country’s roughly 86,000 charities are attracting the most interest from donors, based on the growth of their taxreceipted donations in the previous five years. To capture the most insightful data, the top 500 are chosen from a list of 42,000 charities that…

Emerging Alzheimer’s treatment research is giving new hope to people living with Alzheimer’s, their caregivers, and health-care providers. This is especially promising given that over the years, many pharmaceutical companies have tried and failed to find an effective treatment for this progressive brain-atrophying disease, which affects approximately 570,000 Canadians and costs our economy and health-care system over $10.4 billion annually. A breakthrough could change how we treat the disease and change millions of lives. Promising new research “Over the years, there have been several attempts by pharmaceutical companies to demonstrate that experimental treatments designed to remove amyloid beta (Aβ) plaques from the brains of people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease have an effect on slowing cognitive and functional decline,” says Dr. Luc Boulay, Director of Medical Affairs and Neuroscience at Eli…

WHEN NAILA MOLOO delivered a TEDx Talk on climate-saving tech last February, the inventions she name-checked were her own. The first was a wee, flexible solar panel; the second, a bioplastic made from duckweed, an aquatic plant. Moloo also discussed the butterfly effect, which posits that the faintest flap of the tiny creature’s wings could cause a tornado halfway around the world. It’s a fitting metaphor for Moloo herself, who, at 16, is already making waves as an environmental innovator. Her body of work—which, along with the plastic and the solar panel, includes two fantasy novels—recently earned her a spot on the Women’s Executive Network’s list of Canada’s Most Powerful Women and, last April, a Woman of the Year honour from the DMZ, a business incubator at Toronto Metropolitan University.…

1 The James Webb telescope will reveal more surprises Last July, the internet let out a collective gasp at the sharpest images ever taken of newborn stars, freshly captured by the James Webb Space Telescope. The Canada Space Agency made key contributions to the $10-billion tool: a fine guidance sensor that focuses on intriguing objects and a near-infrared imager and slitless spectrograph that can provide glimpses of galaxies mere minutes after they’re born. NASA regularly uploads dazzling new photos to a public Flickr account, and some astronomers even believe we’ll soon spot evidence of alien life. 2 New sleep tech will cure insomnia The pandemic proved to be a lousy relaxation exercise. Eighteen per cent of people worldwide (and 33 per cent of health-care workers) reported poorer sleep quality throughout.…

Something needs to change in Canada this year. Right now, there’s a pervasive feeling that you’re betraying your political allies if you compromise with—or even listen to—people with different views. According to a study published last spring, three out of four Canadians felt that our society was increasingly polarized. Historically, countries seek democratic reform when they hit some kind of rock bottom. I wonder, watching replays of the Freedom Convoy, if we’ve already hit ours. Pierre Poilievre has become the politician of choice for many convoy supporters, in part because, unlike the last two Conservative Party leaders, he knows how to make them feel like they’re being heard. He emphasizes issues Canadians deal with daily, like housing prices and inflation. That approach has made more people politically engaged, especially those…

In some of Canada’s biggest cities, downtown activity isn’t likely to return to pre-pandemic levels in 2023. My recent research used mobile-device usage to measure downtown visits in cities nationwide. I found that Canadian downtowns in general are lagging behind those in the U.S.—and those in Toronto, Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver are doing worst of all. Their challenges include the initial severity of their lockdowns and harsh weather, which makes people less inclined to come into work unless they really have to. One of the biggest problems, however, is that cities like these rely heavily on professional services such as law, accounting and management consulting. Those are businesses in which workers don’t need to be together to be productive. That means transit usage will remain lower, restaurants that catered to…

1 Student safety will be a top priority Student life after the massacre in Uvalde, Texas, has become even more fraught with potential threats. Several schools in Vancouver, Saskatoon and the Greater Toronto Area went into lockdown last year due to incidents near or on school property, and administrators are now spending portions of their budgets on video surveillance, self-locking doors and other security measures. Some Canadian students have even reported fake emergencies—including a 14-year-old Hamilton girl last May—and such false alarms are only expected to continue. The going concern at school boards, and among parents, is that kids won’t take safety measures seriously when a real threat presents itself. 2 International students will flock to our schools Last year, Canada toppled the U.K. to become the third-most desirable study…

When it comes to energy production, our country is at a crossroads. The climate crisis is becoming increasingly urgent: global warming could be irreversible by 2030, we’re losing species at up to 10,000 times the normal rate, and by 2050 as many as 200 million people could be displaced by climate-related disasters. Meanwhile, geopolitical tensions, like the war between Russia and Ukraine, is putting global energy security at risk. We’re still importing oil from foreign countries—sometimes from hostile governments—and that doesn’t make sense to me. As a country, we produce enough energy to not only cover our needs, but a good chunk of the U.S.A.’s too. All Canadians should be consuming Canadian-produced energy. Our federal government has set an ambitious climate target: establish a net-zero grid by 2035, which will…

My specialty is the intersection between law, technology and policy. This work has brought me to the centre of a wide range of Canadian legislative proposals and digital policies, including internet streaming regulation. For many years, the government took a relatively hands-off approach to internet regulation, but that changed with the introduction of Bill C-10 in 2020, which was later reintroduced with amendments as Bill C-11. The stated objective of Bill C-11 is to bring large streaming services, like Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime, into the Canadian broadcasting world. The language used in the bill is so broad that its parameters are subject to interpretation, which leads to a great deal of confusion about what it will do in practice. One concern is that the law opens the door to…

EARLIER THIS YEAR, THE VANCOUVER-BORN VISUAL ARTIST STAN Douglas represented Canada at the Venice Biennale, one of the most prestigious art exhibitions in the world. It was the type of career-crowning opportunity that could fluster even the most seasoned pros. Douglas, who’d shown at the biennale several times before, kept his cool. He attended a party DJed by Detroit musician Carl Craig, went to a few galleries to look at the work of Italian painter Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, and hung out with some of the other famous artists in attendance. “It gets easier and easier every time,” says Douglas, who lives in Vancouver and Los Angeles and is the chair of ArtCenter College of Design. Since the early ’80s, Douglas has been shown pretty much everywhere—MoMA in New York City,…

REALLY GOOD, ACTUALLY Monica Heisey January 17 IN A DEBUT NOVEL loosely based on her own life, Monica Heisey—a Toronto-born comedian and former writer for Schitt’s Creek—offers a bittersweet satirical take on a “young” divorcée, written after Heisey’s own marriage ended in her 20s. In Really Good, Actually, Maggie is a 29-year-old with scant interest in the Ph.D. she’s supposedly pursuing. She has been married for precisely 608 days when her husband moves out, taking the cat with him. Suspended between grief at the idea of her marriage ending and relief that it’s all over, Maggie meanders through her apartment “like a reverse-Havisham.” Eventually, buttressed by the support of her group chat, she embraces the new normal—online dating, fitness classes and even a creative writing workshop. The results are often…

IN A WORLD OF AMY CONEY BARRETTS and Brett Kavanaughs, Michelle O’Bonsawin was intent on keeping a low profile. Then in September, O’Bonsawin, a 48-year-old mother of two, was appointed the first Indigenous judge to sit on the Supreme Court of Canada in its nearly 150-year history—and with that came backlash. Critics picked apart O’Bonsawin’s credentials, which include a past stint at the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, plus a recent Ph.D. thesis (now embargoed) with a focus on Indigenous law. O’Bonsawin’s lived experience as an Abenaki member of Quebec’s Odanak First Nation has never been more relevant to Canada’s highest court, which will field two landmark cases pertaining to Indigenous self-governance in the coming months. (One of them, centred on Bill C-92, will determine whether it violates provincial jurisdiction…

THESE DAYS, COMPANIES WON’T BE ABLE to entice their employees back to the in-person grind with any old cubicle set-up—new offices will have to dazzle. One such design statement is the Stack, a brand-new 37-storey tower in the heart of Vancouver’s business district. Upon its completion at the tail end of 2022, it will become the tallest commercial building in the city. Vancouver’s Department of Planning, Urban Design and Sustainability demands that any proposals for buildings surpassing 400 feet must demonstrate design merit. (The Stack tops out at 530.) In other words, if a building is going to take up a ton of space in the downtown skyline, it better be pretty. “The Stack had to earn the extra height,” says James Cheng, architect at Vancouver’s James K.M. Cheng Architects,…

We’re entering 2023 with a broken housing market. Nationwide supply is low, interest rates are rising and inflation is squeezing our bank accounts every day. One recent report showed that 80 per cent of 18-to-28-year-olds are worried they won’t be able to buy a home in the city of their choice. Last year, almost 1.5 million Canadians lived in unsuitable or unaffordable conditions because they couldn’t afford to move. And some people are banking on a lottery win just to afford a home. The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation estimates that the country needs to build 5.8 million more homes to make housing more affordable—but that won’t happen overnight, and building more isn’t a solution by itself. What Canada can do, much faster, is improve mortgage accessibility for the countless…

1 Checkups with a hologram will become the norm Imagine beaming in your family doctor, Star Trek–style, for a routine checkup. Last year, a research team from Western University did just that, transmitting a hologram of a U.S.-based doctor into a boardroom on the school’s campus in London, Ontario. The technology relies on specialized 3D cameras and HoloLens goggles, which are similar to virtual reality headsets. Compared to a Zoom call, the two-way holographic technology allows a doctor to better mimic an in-person appointment with a patient, read facial and body language and provide more accurate diagnoses. Even NASA tried out the tech, sending a doctor—again, as a hologram—to visit astronauts aboard the International Space Station. Researchers say the tool could be especially beneficial for people in remote communities who…

In the last two decades, the world has experienced an alarming number of destructive outbreaks: SARS, MERS, Ebola, Zika and, of course, COVID-19. And although COVID is here to stay, it won’t always cause the level of disruption we’ve experienced to this point. Still, if the recent past is a predictor of the future, we’re due for another major outbreak in 2023 or 2024, one that could cause substantial disruption—to travel, social interaction, the economy and our very way of life. If we look at the last 13 years alone, we’ve had seven global public health emergencies, as defined by the World Health Organization. This cadence, of one event every two years, has been fairly consistent, but it appears to be accelerating. More than half of the world’s population now…

1 Street patios will spark a fight for public space Curbside dining—one of the few things that made pandemic life tolerable—is here to stay. Toronto has made its popular CaféTO program permanent and, after Vancouver’s Temporary Expedited Patio Program ended and restaurant owners voiced their frustration with the clunky replacement process, the city relaxed requirements and cut red tape. And yet the future of extended patio season is about more than heaters and twinkly lights. With public space at a premium, it will require a balancing act between competing needs and user groups. More than 90 per cent of respondents to a City of Toronto survey endorsed the continuation of the CaféTO program, but there were also many complaints: about noise, lack of accessibility, and congestion on sidewalks and streets.…

How do you feel the leisure industry has changed or evolved post-pandemic? We’ve noticed that people are more excited to travel than ever. I think people took the freedom to travel for granted pre-pandemic, and after two years of lockdown, people are ready to explore again. However, I believe people are being more mindful. They’re booking travels in smaller groups and choosing bucket list destinations. People are willing to spend a bit more on dream trips and higher-end experiences to ensure they’re safe and secure. The pandemic put a spotlight on the effects of over-tourism, and destinations are now more aware of limiting numbers at tourist attractions. Most places require reservations and pre-booking so travellers need to plan more instead of just showing up. What do you think today’s traveller…

REVELATIONS Montreal Museum of Fine Arts To March 26 FAMED FRENCH-CANADIAN printmaker Albert Dumouchel spent roughly three decades evolving his craft to reflect rapid social changes in Quebec from the 1940s to the 1970s, when the Quiet Revolution gave rise to secularism in Quebec and opened the door to greater artistic expression. For Dumouchel, this upheaval resulted in a career that defies any easy classification: he used various techniques and materials, depicting abstracts, religious images, erotica and cats (like “The Horrible Snow Cat,” pictured). This exhibition showcases over 60 original pieces in multiple mediums—among them etchings (“The Fall of Icarus”) and a woodcut portrait (“La belle Hélène”).…

BAD CREE Jessica Johns January 10 JESSICA JOHNS, a member of Sucker Creek First Nation and the former managing editor of the feminist literary journal Room, pulls off two remarkable literary feats in Bad Cree. Not only does she transform her superb short story of the same name—winner of the 2020 Journey Prize, no less—into a mesmerizing novel, but she also seamlessly weaves broad themes of a wounded landscape, intergenerational trauma and defiant female Indigenous survival into a truly frightening horror story. The book follows Mackenzie, a young Cree woman in Vancouver who starts having terrifying nightmares as the first anniversary of her sister’s sudden death approaches. The dreams start to bleed into her real life—she brings objects back from her nightmares, crows follow her wherever she goes, and she…

MANY PEOPLE IN Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside can see a path out of poverty. They just don’t have the right shoes to walk it. That’s where the Working Gear Clothing Society comes in. Founded in 2007 with the slogan “Give unemployment the boot,” it outfits clients for work, whether they need a suit and haircut for an interview or safety boots for a warehouse position. More than 1,100 people sought help through Working Gear in 2021. Of those, 29 per cent said they would have otherwise had to pass up a job offer. And donors clearly see the value of the society’s efforts: It received $297,000 in tax-receipted donations in 2021, up from just $1,700 in 2016, putting this small charity at No. 18 on Veritas Foundation’s Fastest-growing Charities in Canada…