Arts organizations, for as long as I’ve been alive, have complained about a lack of funding. Many art forms—theatre, dance, opera, symphonic music, film—are expensive to create, and ticket prices rarely cover costs. But now leaders of arts organizations are more anxious than ever. Many organizations never fully recovered from COVID lockdowns. General operating costs, including rent, have risen in the last few years. Sponsors have fled and audiences are staying home. Some high-profile venues, such as Calgary’s century-old Grand Theatre and Toronto’s Phoenix Concert Theatre, have been forced to relocate, while festivals like Hot Docs and Just For Laughs are struggling to pay the bills. Kelly Langgard, director and CEO of the Toronto Arts Foundation, foresees a bumpy road ahead for Canada’s arts organizations in 2025. In Maclean’s, Langgard makes a case for how to fix the situation—which we can help with by buying tickets or gift certificates for performances during holiday shopping seasons. “It’s crucial that Canadians show up,” she says, “to attend events and advocate for the value of culture in our lives.” —Sarah Fulford, editor-in-chief, Maclean’s |
Bacteria are mutating cleverly to evade our toughest pharmaceutical weapons—and the consequences could be dire. Our best hope is to develop new antibiotics, says Jon Stokes, an assistant professor of biochemistryat McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. He’s a pioneering researcher who is using AI in the best possible way: to outwit bacteria. Stokes spoke with Maclean’s about his work and why we have no time to waste. “We’re already blowing $1 billion a month, just in Canada, due to antibiotic-resistant infections,” he says. AI, with its rapid data analysis and pattern recognition, might just allow researchers like Stokes to stay one step ahead of the bacteria that’s coming for us. |
Even before he became leader of the federal Conservative party, Pierre Poilievre criticized the carbon tax, especially its impact on households’ fuel bills. His vow to “axe the tax” is now central to his election campaign. In this essay for Maclean’s, Kathryn Harrison, a professor of political science at the University of British Columbia, explains why that’s a bad idea. “Carbon taxation is the most cost-effective and transparent climate policy we have,” Harrison writes. “It spells out exactly what it’s doing, what it costs and who is paying for it. The question is whether we want to know.” |
Over several months in 2011 and 2012, more than 3,000 tonnes of maple syrup—nearly $20 million worth—was siphoned in Quebec and stolen by a crime syndicate, one of the largest thefts in Canadian history. Now, the Great Canadian Maple Syrup Heist has been reimagined as a dark, Fargo-esque comedy on Amazon Prime. Set and filmed in Quebec, the Amazon Prime TV series features character actress Margo Martindale as the enterprising maple syrup farmer who leads the heist, and a slate of producers that includes Jamie Lee Curtis and Jason Blum, whose Blumhouse Productions is known for horror classics like Paranormal Activity, Insidious and The Purge. |
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