Tap The Maple

Mark Carney says Canada's pivot away from the United States “will come at a cost.” But before Canadians are asked to pay that cost, there's a question nobody seems interested in asking: Did Canada exhaust the alternatives? Canada's retaliatory tariffs are now in effect, covering roughly $27.6 billion of American imports. Ottawa is simultaneously spending billions supporting Canadian wo...

Thinking about leaving Canada? The departure tax may only be the beginning. Thousands of Canadians are considering retiring abroad, becoming non-residents, keeping a Canadian property while living elsewhere, or simply wondering what their finances would look like if they left. But becoming a non-resident can affect far more than your departure-tax bill. In this episode of Tap the Maple, we dig int...

Mark Carney’s government has announced a massive $4.7 BILLION VIA Rail deal for 313 new passenger cars, proudly promoting Canadian manufacturing, nearly 700 jobs and more than $1.6 billion in economic benefits. But then I checked what other countries are paying. And that's where this announcement gets VERY interesting. Portugal recently ordered hundreds of rail cars from the SAME manufacturer,...

Canada’s tariff war is no longer just happening at the border. Companies are shutting down production, workers are facing layoffs, businesses are being squeezed and taxpayers are being asked to finance billions in government support. But what happens if the tariffs stay exactly where they are? In this episode of Tap the Maple, Bakes follows the economic consequences all the way from the factory fl...

Andrew Lawton has just been appointed Platform Lead for Pierre Poilievre and the Conservative Party of Canada, and his new job comes at an incredibly important moment. After three Conservative by-election losses, serious questions are being asked about what's working, what's not, and what has to change before the next federal election. So I put those questions directly to Andrew. We get in...

Mark Carney's government is extending Canada's federal fuel excise tax holiday into the new year, meaning the 10-cent-per-litre federal excise tax on gasoline won't return after Labour Day as previously planned. There's just one fascinating problem with the political victory lap: Pierre Poilievre and the Conservatives have been pushing for extended and expanded fuel-tax relief for...

Mark Carney’s Liberals swept all three federal by-elections, but do these results prove Canada has permanently embraced his trade strategy, or did the Liberals benefit from a perfect psychological storm? The victories in Beaches, East York, North Vancouver–Capilano and Chicoutimi–Le Fjord arrived at the height of Canada’s latest confrontation with Donald Trump. Trade negotiations had just collapse...

Is sovereignty standing up to Donald Trump at any cost? Is it tariffs, political slogans and taxpayer-funded signs across Lake Ontario? Or is real sovereignty something much more difficult? A strong economy. Secure Canadian jobs. Responsible finances. Multiple trading partners. A productive relationship with your largest customer. Strong democratic institutions. A Prime Minister willing to stand b...

Canada’s economy reportedly grew at a 3.3% annualized rate in the second quarter of 2026 — but Canada’s actual quarter-over-quarter real GDP growth was 0.8%. So what does that 3.3% GDP number really mean, and is Canada’s economy actually recovering? In this episode of Tap the Maple, Bakes digs beneath Canada's latest GDP headlines to examine the good news, the questions, and the economic reali...

CBC has now reversed course after its controversial internal guidance on how journalists should describe the September 11 terrorist attacks became public. But the reversal doesn't erase the bigger question: How did this become CBC policy in the first place? Ahead of the 25th anniversary of 9/11, CBC journalists were reminded of longstanding guidance telling them not to independently refer to t...

Mark Carney is preparing to address the European Parliament while facing growing calls to reconvene Canada's own Parliament following the collapse of Canada-U.S. trade negotiations. But when did Carney actually receive his European invitation, and what does the timeline tell us? The answer raises some fascinating questions. Carney's European Parliament invitation predates the latest breakd...

Part 2 on why Pierre Polievre may have been the better choice for negotiations with America. (Part One Here: https://youtu.be/WUg12iTXMvI) Mexico and Canada are negotiating with the same Donald Trump — but the approaches couldn't look more different. While Canada-U.S. trade negotiations have collapsed into tariffs, retaliation and increasingly hostile rhetoric, Mexican President Claudia Sheinb...

What if Pierre Poilievre was actually better suited to negotiate with Donald Trump than Mark Carney? After Canada's trade negotiations with the United States collapsed and massive tariffs followed, it's worth examining a question few Canadians seriously considered: did Canada have the wrong negotiating personality at the table? For years, Pierre Poilievre has been criticized for being stub...

Donald Trump and Mark Carney are escalating the Canada-U.S. trade war — but what if BOTH sides are getting this wrong? New 50% U.S. tariffs are hitting Canadian goods. Trump is threatening even more tariffs on Canadian vehicles and auto parts. Mark Carney is promising dollar-for-dollar Canadian retaliation beginning September 8. And that's where this gets interesting. Canada has three importan...

Canada's trade war with the United States has entered a dangerous new phase — and the biggest economic consequences may still be ahead. After Canada-U.S. trade negotiations collapsed, the United States imposed 50% tariffs on approximately $20 billion of Canadian goods, with Canada promising dollar-for-dollar retaliation beginning September 8. Now Donald Trump is threatening another major escal...

Canada-U.S. trade negotiations have collapsed. President Donald Trump's new 50% tariffs on billions of dollars of Canadian goods are now in effect, and Prime Minister Mark Carney has announced Canada will retaliate dollar-for-dollar beginning September 8. And somehow, Canadians are celebrating. But there's a much bigger question being missed: How did Canada end up here in the first place?...

Canada has been hit with new 50% U.S. tariffs on billions of dollars of Canadian goods. Mark Carney has retaliated with Canadian tariffs, trade negotiations have been suspended — and somehow Canadians are celebrating. But celebrating WHAT? Mark Carney was sold to Canadians as the crisis manager uniquely qualified to handle Donald Trump and protect Canada's economic relationship with the United...

What are Canada’s most underrated cities? 🇨🇦Forget Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal and Calgary for a minute. We went looking across Canada for the cities that Canadians may be overlooking, and ranked our Top 10 most underrated cities based on quality of life, safety, economic strength, tourism, culture and things to do. Some of the results were obvious. Some were surprising.#Canada #CanadianCities #U...

What if Canada’s “Elbows Up” movement is about more than Donald Trump? Canada is experiencing rising mental-health challenges, significant loneliness, economic anxiety, declining affordability and growing frustration about the future. And then something remarkable happened. Canadians suddenly had a common enemy. Donald Trump. The result? Flags. “Elbows Up.” Buy Canadian campaigns. “Never 51.” And...

Donald Trump says the U.S. will have “no tariffs going into Canada” and says American farmers and manufacturers will be thrilled with the emerging Canada-U.S. trade deal. Meanwhile, Mark Carney says the agreement will “reinforce the Canadian advantage.” But there's a problem. Trump says U.S. tariffs on Canadian autos are only being reduced “a little bit,” while Canada appears to be moving towa...

A new Fraser Institute study examines what could happen if Ottawa eventually reduced federal transfers to the provinces. The result could leave provinces scrambling to replace billions of dollars in funding—forcing difficult choices between higher taxes, spending cuts, or larger deficits. Today we break down the numbers, revisit the Chrétien transfer cuts of the 1990s, and explain why many Canadia...

Are Canadians watching a political pattern repeat itself? As Canada faces one of the most important trade negotiations in decades, inflation rises again and questions grow over the government's economic performance, another wave of headlines has suddenly shifted attention toward Pierre Poilievre's leadership. In this episode of Tap the Maple , we examine the timing, compare the headlines,...

Mark Carney has appointed former CMHC CEO Evan Siddall as the inaugural chair of Build Canada Homes, and for many Canadians that appointment raises important questions. Years ago, Siddall publicly discussed housing wealth, intergenerational inequality and Canada's principal residence tax treatment. CMHC also funded a Housing Wealth and Generational Inequity Solutions Lab that sparked debate over t...

Did Mark Carney already test the blueprint for Canada's new $25 billion Canada Strong Fund before bringing it here? Britain created a remarkably similar National Wealth Fund after recommendations from a taskforce that included Mark Carney. Today, critics argue the UK experiment has struggled to deliver on its promises, raising serious questions about whether Canada is about to repeat the same...

Mark Carney is in Italy while Canada faces active wildfires and one of the most important Canada–U.S. trade negotiations in decades. That raised one simple question for me: Has another world leader ever gone on a foreign vacation while their country faced both a major national emergency and its biggest trade negotiations? I went looking through history, and the closest comparison I found was Austr...