The Big Story

Maple syrup isn't just a staple of Canadian culture. It's big business, especially in Quebec, where the sugary liquid is so vital to the economy that the province keeps a special syrup reserve on hand to control price fluctuations. Except that reserve is running low, dangerously low, after a couple of warm winters coupled with increased demand ate up most of the excess. And with climate change bri...

Frozen bank accounts, financial chaos, job loss, poverty. Those are all things Gonzalo witnessed while living through the largest foreign default in world history. Other than putting our current financial crisis into perspective, he wants to know if there’s anything we can learn from living through challenging times. Jordan speaks with David Coletto, founder and CEO of Abacus Data, and Tanya Woods...

It's time again for us to dip into our trove of listener emails and voicemails and share with you some of our favourite pieces of feedback we received over the past month or so. A special thanks to everyone who's taken the time to tell us how you feel. Even if your submission didn't make it into this episode, please keep writing and calling in. Your input helps us make the show better.  Have a gre...

In November 2019, months before the pandemic made heroes of public sector workers like teachers and (especially) nurses, Ontario's government passed Bill 124, attempting to cap their pay increases at one percent for the next three years. It didn't go very well.  Earlier this month, after years of protests and bad press, and a legal challenge that went to the highest court ion the province, the sam...

You may not know which ads meet the definition of greenwashing—but you know the type of ads in that discussion. Big corporations assuring you of how much they do for the environment, how sustainable their practices are and how much they've already done to make sure you can enjoy their products guilt-free. As the climate crisis worsens, convincing your customers your business is part of the solutio...

You have to work pretty hard, in most of the country, to avoid spending money with a Loblaw-owned business. From its origins in groceries to market dominance there, the ubiquity of Shoppers Drug Mart and Pharmaprix, and everything from finance to clothing also under its umbrella, the Weston family has built a staggering retail empire. How did they do it? What happens when one company controls so m...

We all know that companies track what we do on work devices. If, for example, you're listening to this show right now on a company phone or laptop, your boss could probably find that out, assuming they wanted to. But he’s where it gets darker: your boss might not have to bother finding out. An AI-driven worker surveillance program may be logging everything you do, completely automatically. And the...

Netflix. Disney+. Prime. Apple TV+. Spotify. Newspapers. Magazines. Video games. Substacks. A secret caller (hint: you know him!) has a minor subscription addiction and needs help getting his spending under control.  Jordan asks Barry Hertz, Deputy Arts Editor and Film Editor for The Globe and Mail, to explain the subscription boom we're living in, and learn a few tips to avoid high fees.  Do you...

It's a Canadian institution. Or at least, a piece of Canadian culture. OK, fine, it's an interesting quirk that visitors to Eastern and Atlantic Canada are often flummoxed by, but residents have lived with all their lives. Until, perhaps, one day soon when bags of milk may vanish from grocery stores. That's the speculation, at least, as milk consumption declines. But it offers a chance to take a l...

Canada has already seen more cases of measles in 2024 than in all of 2023. And rates of the disease in Europe and the United States are also rising. Meanwhile, vaccine uptake for the MMR shot, which protects against measles, has collapsed in recent years. So how worried should we be about what is—for now—still just a handful of cases? Why have vaccine rates for a decades-old and proven vaccine fal...

When announced in December, it seemed like a new immigration program would allow Canadians with extended family in Gaza to finally bring them to safety. More than three months later, not a single person has arrived in the country. And it's not for lack of trying. Thousands have applied, and hundreds of applications are stuck in bureaucratic purgatory. Even Canada's minister of immigration has said...

You might have used the app during the pandemic. It may have saved you time at the airport. It may have cost you an unnecessary quarantine. Either way, even if you never downloaded it, you paid for it. Tens of millions of taxpayer dollars went into developing, releasing and updating (dozens and dozens of times) the government's pandemic travel app. The question now is about how that money was spen...

With the rise in both legality and popularity of gambling, it can seem like images of both winners and losers are everywhere. Images of men, that is. Take a look at gambling advertising on TV, or even promotions offering help for problem gamblers. Men. Picture gamblers in your own head. They're probably men, too. This even extends to research, where numbers show that women do indeed gamble, nearly...

Not too long ago, cigarettes were everywhere. Lighting up in a restaurant, on a flight, or even in a doctor’s office was just part of the smoky fabric of Canadian life. Until it wasn’t. Now smartphones are the constant thing we carry. We can’t seem to put them down. Will we ever? What does our culture’s current addiction to smartphones have in common with cigarettes? GUEST: Richard Warnica, busine...

Cody wants to find a new job, in a new industry, but doesn't have the qualifications listed on the job postings he's seeing. Alan feels trapped in his current job by an unstable and unpredictable market. They both want to know if now is a good time to change careers, and how they should go about the transition.  To find out, Jordan reaches Alan Kearns, founder of CareerJoy, a firm that helps guide...

If you've tried to use Google to research a purchase recently, you've probably encountered—right at the top of the rankings—a whole lot of extremely similar Best Of lists published by familiar brands, even trusted names like Forbes, Popular Science or even Rolling Stone. Big names...but unlikely to have suddenly started thoroughly product testing things like air purifiers or humidifiers. What's ha...

On March 6th, six people, including four children, were killed in their home in Barrhaven ,O.N., a suburb of Ottawa. The man accused of committing the alleged mass murder shared a home with the family. The killing has left their community and the public at large with many questions.  So who was the family, and what did they mean to their community? Who stands accused? And what do we know about wha...

Officially known as Catherine, Princess of Wales, Kate Middleton has not been seen in months, aside from a quick glimpse in a dark car. Officially, she's recovering after undergoing abdominal surgery. Unofficially, if you follow the conspiracy theories, she's somewhere between divorced and dead. On Sunday, a picture she posted showing her with her children on the UK's Mother's Day, was killed by w...

Last week, Juste Pour Rire announced that it would not hold Just For Laughs festivals in Montreal and Toronto in 2024, and that it was entering creditor protection. Toronto has already seen the cancellation of its Taste of The Danforth food festival, as well as scaled down versions of the Fringe and Luminato festivals. Hot Docs is struggling to survive and other major festivals like Shaw are facin...

Canada is not the only country in the world experiencing skyrocketing costs and a shortage of available housing options. Across the world nations are coming up with creative solutions to deal with their own housing crises. There’s no silver bullet for fixing the Canadian housing market, and addressing the issue will require a whole slough of short and long-term strategies to alleviate the current...

Olivia is going through a divorce. And while it has been amicable, splitting assets feels impossible, especially when it comes to the home they share.  Jordan talks to Eva Sachs, the financial expert at The Modern Divorce, a Toronto company that helps couples reach divorce settlements without going to court.  We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can fi...

There’s a chance that one day, we humans could have a conversation with whales. Seriously. Scientists are working on a way to make it happen. If technology does eventually allow us to talk to these majestic mammals, what should we say? And what message will they send back? Ross Andersen, a staff writer at The Atlantic, is exploring those questions by reaching out to experts who specialize in paleo...

Haiti is in the grip of a deepening crisis. Armed gangs are expanding their control of the Caribbean nation through increasingly violent attacks. A state of emergency was declared on Sunday after gangs raided two prisons, freeing thousands of inmates. Hours later, they launched an assault on the country’s main airport. One gang leader is warning of a “civil war that will end in genocide” if Haiti’...

In some parts of Canada, carbon pricing is a four-letter word. Now, one province is taking a dramatic stand against the federal government’s carbon levy. Saskatchewan’s government says it’s refusing to remit carbon tax funds to Ottawa. “This is a decision that we do not take lightly and we recognize that it may come with consequences,” SaskEnergy Minister Dustin Duncan said in video posted to soci...

Lynx Air is no more. The ultralow-cost airline abruptly announced its exit from Canadian skies just ahead of busy March Break travel. Customers were left scrambling to make new – and likely more expensive – bookings. The company now joins a growing list of failed discount airlines in the country. Why can’t they seem to stick around for the long haul? Are Canadians just doomed to always pay more fo...