"If we can make them feel pain, MAGA will crack, and so will Donald Trump—as long as we don’t crack first," writes Geoff Smith
Last week, I attended the Toronto Board of Trade gala dinner in the cavernous basement of the Toronto Convention Centre. My expectations for the event were pretty low. I imagined I’d hear some policy-heavy speeches about municipal affairs, maybe some hot takes on gridlock. But the leaders of Toronto’s business community, who are especially rattled by Trump’s tariffs, made the event feel much more like a war-time rally. Upon entry, guests received little maple leaf pins. The national anthem elicited tears. And evening’s speakers sounded resolved and flamboyantly patriotic. Geoff Smith, the chair of the board at EllisDon, an international construction company, gave a powerful speech about the moment we find ourselves in as a country. Smith argued that we should gear up for a fight. “This is our Battle of Britain,” he declared, outlining a plan like a general, preparing troops for hardship ahead. His speech, which we have excerpted in Maclean’s, presents an idea of how to deal with Americans: “If we can make them feel pain, MAGA will crack, and so will Donald Trump.” Visit macleans.ca for more coverage of everything that matters in Canada, and subscribe to the magazine here. —Sarah Fulford, editor-in-chief, Maclean’s |
The cracks in Wayne Gretzky’s patriotism have been showing for years. James Jackson, who grew up idolizing hockey’s top scorer, finds that his feelings toward Gretzky have grown complicated—and he’s not alone. “Canadians expect our hockey stars to be ambassadors of all that it means to be Canadian: courteous, caring, empathetic and morally upstanding,” Jackson writes in this essay for Maclean’s. “With every passing day, it seems those qualities no longer align with the current American administration—or anyone who aligns themselves with it.” |
The Diabolical World of Phone Scams |
We live in a golden age for con artists. In the past few years, there has been no better example of Canada’s new fraud economy than the CRA scam, which was perpetrated by thousands of people, mostly young men, on the other side of the planet. Sarah Treleaven’s latest feature story dives into how the RCMP busted the biggest fraud ever to target Canadians—and why they can’t keep up anymore. |
Buy one of these 100% made-in-Canada tote bags for just $25 each and you’ll be supporting the independent Canadian journalism Maclean’s has been doing for 120 years. |
Prolific Czech-Canadian scientist Vaclav Smil—Bill Gates’s favourite author—has written nearly 50 books in as many years, tackling topics like Chinese history, American manufacturing and global catastrophes. His latest focuses on food, arguing that feeding Earth’s eight billion people is very possible, provided we make big changes to the food we eat (more grains, less grass-fed beef) and how we make it (using precision agriculture to maximize crop yields). Backed by extensive data, Smil’s analysis of global food disparities is characteristically frank and forward. |
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