Maclean's September 2023

I confess that, until recently, I felt relatively immune from climate change living in southern Ontario. Obviously, I knew that the Earth’s rising temperature would impact all of us in ways big and small, but I figured that if the planet was going to slowly burn, Toronto was one of the least horrible places to be. The region is fairly cool and not prone to extreme weather events. My friends who live in New York—which is under constant threat of being engulfed by water—used to say, half jokingly, that they planned to move to Toronto in the event of climate armageddon. Of course, I was guilty of magical thinking. No one can escape the impact of a warming Earth. The blanket of smoke that blackened the skies this summer across…

HOME TRUTHS “The End of Homeownership,” Michelle Cyca’s July 2023 cover story, struck a nerve with readers, who were left distressed about Canada’s housing affordability crisis: I just finished Michelle Cyca’s excellent article on the dislocations resulting from the Canadian housing situation. Allowing wealthy individuals, families and shadowy financial entities to buy unlimited numbers of properties ensures that the situation will only get worse. Young people without financial help from their families are getting squeezed tighter and tighter. If we want to tackle this problem, we need to put serious restrictions on housing speculation, like limiting a family’s properties to a principal residence and a vacation property. Otherwise the divide between owners and non-owners will continue to grow, leading to potentially devastating consequences. Dennis Nella, Vancouver “My family has been…

ON THE OFF CHANCE you overhear a Canadian bragging, it’s usually to say that this is the greatest country in the world. It might violate our national modesty policy to add that we’re now also one of the most desirable, but the data’s there: in 2022, we welcomed close to a million newcomers (a record) and, a year prior, unseated the U.S. as the number-one destination for international workers. People want to come to Canada, and Canada really wants them here. In June, staring down the ongoing labour shortage, the federal government announced a revamped federal express-entry system, complete with shiny new expedited pathways to permanent residency for U.S. H-1B visa holders and immigrants with sought-after expertise in fields like health care, tech and, crucially, the trades. The man responsible…

THE CANADIAN WILDFIRES were caused by space lasers? The U.S.government is run by lizard people? The COVID vaccines contain microchips? Nope, nope and nope. That all may seem obvious, but a surprising percentage of people believe such nonsense: an Abacus survey from June of 2022, for example, found that a quarter of Canadians think that it is possibly (14 per cent) or probably true (11 per cent) that COVID vaccines include secret chips designed to monitor and control their behaviour. Put another way, 3.3 million Canadians were pretty sure there were microchips in the vaccines and another 4.2 million were open to the idea. (To be clear: no microchips.) It’s easy to mock these kinds of off-the-rails beliefs, but we shouldn’t. In my work as a professor and author, I’ve…

I’VE ALWAYS BEEN A FARMER. I grew up mere steps away from where I live now, near the village of Fillmore in southeastern Saskatchewan. My grandparents acquired a 640-acre property in 1956, and as a kid, I helped harvest crops and raise livestock in their fields. I didn’t spend my days off from school sitting on my parents’ couch and watching TV—there were always jobs to do. When I was young, my dad farmed 1,500 acres; my task was to help feed our 80 cows and ensure they all had bedding. As I got older, my dad charged me with harrowing and flattening the ground for low-growing crops, like peas and lentils. Most days, I’d sit in the cab of my dad’s tractor while he worked the fields. As a…

CALLUM SHONIKER KNOWS what it’s like to be a member of PAW Patrol’s fandom. He turned four in 2013, the year Spinmaster’s Canadian-made hit series about a pack of do-gooder pooches premiered, becoming an instant generational touchpoint. (Not to mention a clever marketing tool for what is now an $8-billion empire built on books, lunch boxes, bubble machines and every other product imaginable.) Like most kids, Shoniker had a favourite character: Rocky, the eco-puppy who reuses and recycles anything he can get his paws on. Unlike most kids, Shoniker would later voice his preferred pup in a blockbuster film franchise alongside Kim Kardashian. Long before Shoniker was cast in 2021’s PAW Patrol: The Movie—and its sequel, PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie, out this month—he cut his teeth as Rumpelstiltskin on the…