CATEGORIES

A Teacher's Tale

My career in Quebec ended because I chose to keep my hijab

Top Marks

InSaguenay, Quebec, Ecole de l'Etincelle embodies the school of the future

Modernize Parental Leave

Canada's birth rate is dropping, and the cost of living is partly to blame. A more supportive leave plan would make parenthood more affordable

"I spent years trying to learn English.Now I use ChatGPT."

AI isn't perfect, but it helps me write complex emails and understand Canadian culture

MY PREDICTION - The National School Food Program Will Transform Kids' Health

When students have access to nutritious food, they do better in school and life

FOOD

The exorbitant cost of food will have ripple effects on the restaurant industry and grocery stores. The good news? There's a plan to save the country's salmon supply.

MY PREDICTION - New Mortgage Rules Will Drive Up Housing Prices

Looser lending policies will encourage more people to buy homes they can't afford in the first place

HOUSING

Politicians will spar over how to tackle the housing crisis. Falling interest rates will draw young people into the real estate market. And a rude awakening is coming for homeowners renewing mortgages.

MY PREDICTION - Stuctured Literacy Will Help Level the Educational Playing Field

Canadian students have struggled to read and write. That stops this year.

EDUCATION

Quebec's classrooms will take centre stage in the secularism debate. Chatbots will help students create A-plus work, while others will grade themselves. And thousands of international students will be sent home.

MY PREDICTION - The Indigenous Economy Will Take Off

Reconciliation is becoming Canada’s biggest business story—and its greatest economic opportunity

BUSINESS

Generational change, culture shifts and labour activism will reshape workplaces, while slowing inflation, rising wages and a surge in side hustles will finally put a little more money in Canadians' pockets

MY PREDICTION - Rogers Will Reshape Toronto Sports and the City

The telecom will build stadiums, condos and real estate

SPORTS

A women's sports boom, a Raptors rebuild and a no-nonsense Leafs makeover are all on the docket for 2025. Meanwhile, the feds will tackle sports betting ads, while Alberta ramps up its own gambling scene.

MY PREDICTION: Tech Outages Will Be More Frequentand Disruptive

As companies offload tech systems to third-party suppliers, their supply chains will become vulnerable

TECH

Canadians will make pioneering advances in artificial intelligence, driverless vehicles and quantum computing. And we'll all finally get plugged into high-speed internet.

MY PREDICTION: Canada's Cultural Institutions Will Find New Audiences

The country’s arts festivals, venues and organizations will need more money to stay afloat

CULTURE

Canadians will play soot-thetandmark when The Last of Us returns. The CBC will try fo Pollievre-oroof Itself with a new CEO. And Canada’s Wonderland will roll out the country’s fastest, tallest coaster.

MY PREDICTION: The AI Revolution Will Hit Health Care

Don't fear the robo-doctor. AI is going to help Canadian hospitals work faster and smarter for their patients.

HEALTH

The family doctor crisis will finally start to ease, while pharmacists take centre stage in patient care. The battle over private medicine will heat up. And governments will change how we treat addiction.

MY PREDICTION: Canada's Poilievre Era Will Begin

He'll likely win a majority and immediately kill all the Liberals’ sacred cows

POLITICS

The Liberals will struggle to rebuild their reputation and voter base, while Pierre Poilievre will likely take over the PMO and grapple with a disillusioned electorate. In the midst of all this turnover? A new Trump presidency.

MY PREDICTION: Poilievre Will Axe the Carbon Tax

Scrapping Canada's most effective climate policy will cost us a lot in the long run

CLIMATE

ABC. university will train North America’s first wildfire-ighting civilians, while AI hits the forest-fire front lines. Quebec's flood zones will get a long-awaited overhaul. And Ontario will supersize its Gower grid.

So You've Been Hacked - A new generation of ultra-sophisticated cybercriminals are targeting governments, corporations, hospitals and libraries and laying bare how ill-equipped Canada is to fight back

A new generation of ultra-sophisticated cybercriminals are targeting governments, corporations, hospitals and libraries and laying bare how ill-equipped Canada is to fight back.On a July morning in 2022, Brad Hynes, the IT manager for the town of St. Mary's in southwestern Ontario, was backing up the town's computer systems when things went haywire. File names became unintelligible strings of characters. Desktop icons went blank. File after file was impossible to open, a string of digital duds. The background wallpaper on Hynes's screen disappeared, replaced by the red-and-black logo of a Russian ransomware gang called LockBit. A line of all-caps text appeared: All your important files are stolen and encrypted!

Bill of Health - I spent years with excruciating hip pain, languishing in Canada's health-care queue. I finally paid for private surgery-in Lithuania.

My hip pain started around 2015, when I was in my mid-30s. It began as stiffness, then the odd pinch or tweak. I live with my wife, Barbara, and our three kids on an acreage in Sturgeon County, Alberta, where we raise a handful of cows and some chickens. Our lives are very active. I'm also a maintenance supervisor at a nearby provincial park. That's a physical job, too-overseeing buildings, outhouses and campsites. I'm not exactly used to sitting still, so when my hip started to hurt, I pushed through it. I figured it was something minor and did some extra stretches. Instead, it got worse.

Green Scene - Montreal's Théâtre de Verdure stages plays and musical performances against a naturally beautiful backdrop

Théâtre de Verdure is a setting straight out of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream: a thespian's paradise in the middle of a lush woodland. Since 1956, the open-air stage has occupied an island in the middle of Montreal's Parc La Fontaine, exposing park-goers to regular, accessible (read: free) and dazzling productions.

Log Off To Find Love - Apps have gamified meeting and mating-and affected our social skills for the worse. The real future of dating is offline.

In 2017, after being single for a few years, I wanted to get back into the dating game. I was newly sober at the time, so I wasn’t super-confident about venturing into my local bar scene in London, Ontario. Instead, I leapt into the world of digital dating via Bumble, which, back then, required women to send the first message. I thought, That’s feminist. I’m a feminist. Let’s try it! My first few months online provided me with an emotionally exhausting education.

"I escaped Gaza and sent my family to Egypt. Now, my goal is to reunite with them in Canada."

Bombs destroyed my neighbourhood and killed my loved ones. I hope my family and I can find refuge in Quebec.

TIDAL WAVE

Susan Lapides chronicles her family's summers in a tiny New Brunswick fishing town