Tap The Maple

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...

Liberals keep accusing Conservatives of being angry, negative and cynical. But here's the question nobody seems interested in answering: What exactly should Canadians be satisfied with? Housing affordability. Grocery prices. Food bank usage. Healthcare access. Economic weakness. Productivity. Jobs. Investment. Young Canadians wondering whether they'll ever enjoy the standard of living thei...

Why would a global oil company choose Canada over Brazil, Guyana, Texas, or Norway? That's the question I couldn't stop asking after Mark Carney's latest pipeline announcement. The federal government says it has reached an agreement with Alberta on industrial carbon pricing and carbon capture that could pave the way for a new West Coast oil pipeline capable of transporting another one million barr...

They worked for decades. They paid taxes. They raised families. They saved for retirement. So why are so many Canadian seniors being forced back to work, relying on food banks, cutting their heat, and even facing homelessness? In today's episode of Tap the Maple , we travel across Canada to hear directly from seniors whose retirement has become a fight for survival. From Ontario to Alberta, Saskat...

You can’t understand Canada's hope for trade with China without understanding its president, Xi Jinping. Since coming to power in 2012, Xi has pumped out communist ideology and significantly changed the power dynamic moving almost all power under his purview while transforming China into a world industrial superpower. And Xi’s ambitions for China go far beyond that and very much include...Cana...

Canada's July 2026 jobs report made headlines after Statistics Canada announced that employment increased by more than 75,000 jobs . But when you dig into the data, a very different story begins to emerge. In this episode of Tap the Maple , we examine the labour force numbers beneath the headline and ask an important question: Did Canadian employers actually create these jobs, or did tens of thous...

Canada has an emerging grocery access problem that few people are talking about. While Canadians focus on rising grocery prices, another issue is quietly developing across the country. Communities are losing grocery stores altogether. In some places, residents are left travelling long distances for fresh food. In others, neighbourhoods have become what researchers call food deserts. In this episod...

Has Canada already given away too much before securing a trade deal with the United States? Today on Tap the Maple, we examine Pierre Poilievre's criticism that Prime Minister Mark Carney is making concession after concession without first obtaining meaningful tariff relief for Canadian workers and businesses. With negotiations continuing, tariffs still in place, and more potentially on the wa...

Doug Ford was one of Mark Carney's earliest and strongest political supporters. He praised the new Prime Minister, appeared alongside him, and projected an image of cooperation between Ontario and Ottawa. But something appears to have changed. Over the past several weeks we've seen public disagreements over Canada's trade strategy with the United States, the Billy Bishop Airport expans...

Why are Canadians suddenly debating British spelling while families continue to struggle with grocery prices, housing costs and affordability? In today's Tap the Maple, we examine how media framing, political polling and editorial priorities shape the national conversation. From the latest Mark Carney polling to the strange focus on government spelling policies, we ask a bigger question: Who decid...

While Canadians spent another weekend following the latest headlines, some of the country's biggest long-term challenges continued quietly in the background. In today's episode of Tap the Maple , we look beyond the daily political drama to examine five major issues that deserve far more attention than they're receiving. From Canada's productivity struggles and declining investment...

What if government departments faced the same financial consequences that professional sports teams do? In Major League Baseball, teams that spend beyond the luxury tax threshold face automatic penalties. But when governments overspend taxpayer dollars on luxury travel, catering, hospitality, consultants and discretionary expenses, what are the consequences? In today's episode of Tap the Maple...

Did the federal government blur the line between funding Canada's public broadcaster and influencing its programming? After the federal budget specifically referenced Canada's participation in Eurovision and CBC received an additional $150 million in funding, internal government documents reportedly reminded officials that ministers cannot direct CBC programming under the Broadcasting Act....

Why do former Canadian politicians continue to represent Canada on the world stage after they've left elected office? This week, former Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland published a New York Times opinion piece criticizing Donald Trump and arguing Canada must stand up to the United States. But it raises a much bigger question: who actually speaks for Canada today? In this episode of Tap...