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Opinion: What a family vacation taught me about Canada's strength under fire

Opinion: What a family vacation taught me about Canada's strength under fire

This year, our family holidays took us to places my children had never visited before. We live in Alberta and set out to explore Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, and Quebec City.
My youngest was especially eager to see the sites of battles from the War of 1812, particularly around Niagara, where American forces were halted. Meanwhile, my high-school-aged daughter was interested in visiting the universities in those cities.
By chance, we joined a campus tour, and most of the prospective students were American. Some parents shared that they were encouraging their children to study in Canada due to growing concerns back home.
I became a Canadian citizen through marriage just three years ago, and I'm constantly learning something new about my adopted country. This trip prompted me to reflect more deeply on Canada's past, its current challenges, and its future.
While biking around Ottawa, we came across the locks of the Rideau Canal, where recreational boats moved gracefully between different water levels. I assumed most Canadian children learn about this in primary school, but I had never heard of the canal before. I was fascinated to learn how and why the 202-kilometre waterway was built.
After the War of 1812, the British feared another American invasion and recognized that relying on the St. Lawrence River, running along the U.S. border, was too risky for transportation. The Rideau Canal was constructed as a secure inland route linking Lake Ontario to the Ottawa River, completed in 1832. Nearly 1,000 workers died during its construction, mostly from disease.
Another aspect that left a strong impression on me was learning about the history of French Canadians, as recounted by a tour guide in Quebec City. She described the deep grievances that many Québécois still hold toward English Canada. The stories included examples of political, cultural, and economic repression following the British conquest. Let's just say that the complaints from some in my home province about being mistreated by the federal government seem minor by comparison.
I enjoyed the surroundings of the iconic Château Frontenac. Built by the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) after Confederation, the Château was designed as a luxury hotel and was part of a broader strategy to promote tourism and national unity. At the time, English-speaking Canada was heavily focused on westward expansion, aiming to connect the country from coast to coast and secure British Columbia's place in Confederation amid fears of an American invasion. However, many in Quebec were skeptical of the project, raising geographical, cultural, and economic concerns.
To gain support in the province, the CPR made strategic decisions, one of which involved extending the railway to Quebec City and constructing the opulent Château, which opened in 1893. The hotel became both a symbol of the railway's ambition and a political gesture to more closely integrate Quebec into the new Canada. It may have even provided a job for our guide, though she didn't mention this during the tour.
The Rideau Canal and the Château Frontenac are more than just beautiful landmarks. They remind us of a time when bold decisions were made to secure Canada's future. These projects can still inspire us today to modernize our national innovation system — from infrastructure and regulation to how the public and private sectors, along with society, collaborate. We need to take a clear-eyed look at the real risks we face and act accordingly.
Accelerating progress was no easy feat for early Canadians; nonetheless, they managed to set priorities and get things done. Perhaps it's just a coincidence, but since the completion of the Rideau Canal and Château Frontenac, Canada has not faced a direct attack from the United States. Today, there are no muskets or cannons, but we are in a serious struggle to defend our economy and sovereignty.
The challenges are different, but the need for bold, co-ordinated action is just as urgent.
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Can Mark Carney move fast and not break things?
Can Mark Carney move fast and not break things?

CBC

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  • CBC

Can Mark Carney move fast and not break things?

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In the American context, consider the regrets expressed by some of former president Joe Biden's advisers and the calls for an " abundance agenda." The challenges of moving fast While officials in Ottawa are scrambling this summer to complete a spending review and stand up a new major projects office, there might be at least one noticeable gap in the government's rush to action. If there was one way for the government to show that it was making a tangible difference in the lives of Canadians, it would be by attacking the housing crisis. And during the campaign Carney promised his government would help build new homes at "a pace not seen since the Second World War." But while the government has been demonstrably busy negotiating with Washington and pushing C-5, tangible movement on housing is so far less obvious. There are also signs of potential danger ahead. Policy analysts and public sector unions are already expressing concern about the potential consequences of the program review — and how quickly the government is moving to find cuts. However necessary it might be to increase spending on national defence or other areas, and whatever the public's general desire for greater fiscal discipline in Ottawa, the results of this spending review could expose some painful trade-offs — or at least compel Carney and his cabinet to defend some significant sacrifices. C-5 may have also shown that there are real risks governments run when they try to move fast — at least when the rights of Indigenous Peoples are involved. The sheer speed of the bill's passage seemed to feed suspicions. 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Let's not panic about Taiwan yet
Let's not panic about Taiwan yet

Winnipeg Free Press

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  • Winnipeg Free Press

Let's not panic about Taiwan yet

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Warpath to profitability?
Warpath to profitability?

Winnipeg Free Press

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  • Winnipeg Free Press

Warpath to profitability?

Opinion The defence industry is often overlooked by investors. It's perceived as boring compared with technology or worse, it's just an unethical way to put profit in the portfolio. Since the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine by Russia, however, the defence industry has drawn significant investor interest. Notably, the perception has changed. That includes some of those who might have felt investing in defence was distasteful; they now see it as a needed buttress against rising authoritarianism. Of course, another shift is financial — based on the forecast injection of hundreds of billions of dollars in additional spending by NATO members. Pexels NATO members (including Canada) are forecast to invest hundreds of billions of dollars in additional annual spending in defence in the years to come. Canada alone is expected to increase military spending about $70 billion annually to meet its most recent defence commitment of five per cent of gross domestic product. The big question for many intrigued investors is whether they've already missed the warship. 'Our view is that type of information gets incorporated into market prices really quickly,' says Ben Felix, chief investment officer with PWL Capital in Ottawa. 'The implication of that is by the time you read about it in a Free Press article, any advantage that you may have got by investing in that theme is already gone.' That said, the defence industry landscape and recent performance are still of interest to inquisitive investors who might consider putting their money to work when prices pull back periodically. For the time being, however, many defence company share prices have hit lofty heights, including a handful of Canadian firms such as satellite technology company MDA Space Ltd. Its share price is up more than 50 per cent year to date. As well, aerospace company Bombardier's share price 'has almost doubled in recent months, so obviously, all of the talk that has been going on is certainly helping,' says Brian Donovan, New Brunswick-based president of provider of valuation models for investors. 'It tells you that there is an interest shift into this space.' StockCalc tracks performance of thousands of North American equities, including about eight Canadian firms with defence industry revenues. One even has a footprint in Winnipeg: Magellan Aerospace Corp., which makes components for military aircraft. Its share price is up more than 80 per cent YTD. If those gains sound lofty, consider some firms listed in the United States and Europe. Notably, artificial intelligence firm Palantir is up 106 per cent this year. Even more impressive, its share price is up nearly 1,600 per cent over the last five years. A key driver is its defence contracts with the U.S. and partnerships with other technology and manufacturing companies involved in defence. That includes L3 Harris Technology, which, like Palantir, operates in many industries. Its drone technology business is a big defence revenue driver. (That said, its share price growth YTD is much less than other defence stocks.) In Europe, the most notable defence growth story is manufacturing conglomerate Rheinmetall AG. Among the many defence technologies it manufactures are Challenger and Leopard tanks. Its share price is up about 200 per cent YTD, and more than 2,000 per cent in the last five years. The big driver is Germany planning to spend more than a trillion dollars on defence in the next five years. That investors are now turning onto the defence sector is understandable (given the headlines) and somewhat ironic at the same time because it has not been a lacklustre industry for long-term performance. Publicly traded companies involved in the U.S. defence industry have collectively provided returns on an annual basis that have outpaced the S&P 500, says Scott Sacknoff, manager of the SPADE Defense Index in Washington, D.C. 'There is a long history of defence outperforming.' And it very well could continue to outperform, given the U.S. defence budget is expected to surpass US$1 trillion annually for the first time in history, he adds. If anyone has deep knowledge of the defence sector, it's Sacknoff. The SPADE Index, which he manages, consists of leading U.S.-based defence companies and has outperformed the S&P 500 by roughly more than 1,000 basis points (or 100 percentage points) over the last 25 years. Yet until Russian President Vladimir Putin decided to invade Ukraine in 2022, defence was a profitable but sleepy market corner. The explosion in defence spending has changed that, leading to greater investment and even a rush of new investment products, notably exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Prior to 2022, investors largely had three ETFs to choose from, including one of the longest running: Invesco Aerospace & Defense ETF. For investors looking for exposure, the Invesco product is worth a look. Since launching in 2005, it has had steady growth. Investment data firm Morningstar data shows US$10,000 invested in 2005 would be worth nearly US$120,000 today. In turn, the ETF has Morningstar's highest rating. Sacknoff notes the ETF's performance is driven by the underlying SPADE index, which uses a modified market cap weighting to address the downsides of passive investing that lead to over-concentration in overvalued stocks. 'In simplest terms, this involves ensuring that large companies aren't too large, and small companies aren't too small.' He adds the index's annualized return over 15 years is 17 per cent. 'You have never lost money in any product tracking our index if you invested and held onto it for at least three years.' Yet one might ask, would that still hold true today? 'The big question is whether earnings and revenues will catch up to the high valuations,' Sacknoff says. Only time will tell. Yet not all companies on the index are surging in price, including Lockheed Martin, manufacturer of the F-35 fighter that Canada and other NATO countries have contracts to buy. Its share price is actually down slightly this year. Wednesdays A weekly dispatch from the head of the Free Press newsroom. What's more, U.S. President Donald Trump's scattershot economic policy is likely to lead to downside market volatility, presenting buying opportunities for defence companies. Yet their long-term tailwind is likely not going away soon. For the time being, however, this high-flying sector seems more of a minefield than a warpath to profitability. Joel Schlesinger is a Winnipeg-based freelance journalist joelschles@

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