Canadian policymakers often focus on natural resources, telecommunications and automotive manufacturing when talking about the country’s economic pillars. However, there is another major industry that employs more people than some of these sectors, even as it steadily loses money.

Right now, the Canadian media and advertising sector is facing serious challenges. The 2026 Canadian Media Means Business (CMMB) report shows that in 2024, the sector provided 137,600 direct jobs.

That’s more than auto manufacturing, telecommunications and almost 40 per cent more than mining. Including indirect and related jobs, the sector adds $22.6 billion to Canada’s GDP.

Even though the industry is a big part of the economy, there is now a major gap between how much Canadians use media and how much money stays in Canada.

“We’re offering a very fair and reasonable DEAL, and I hope they take it because, if they don’t, the United States is going to knock out every single Power Plant, and every single Bridge, in Iran.”

Familiar genocidal threats from U.S. President Donald Trump, with the trademark mobster-style “NO MORE MR NICE GUY” at the end of his online post. It’s amazing how fast you get used to it.

There may be another ceasefire by the time you read this, or 92 million Iranians may be learning to live with no electricity, little food and no water. (In other rants he threatens Iran’s desalination plants and its bridges, crucial for getting food to the cities.) In either case, the regime’s leaders, all survivors of his assassination attempts, remain unyielding.

Trump regularly has “good conversations” with the civilian and Islamic Revolutionary Guard leaders, many of them entirely imaginary. But just beneath the surface he’s as frantic as a trapped rat, unable to understand why the Iranians won’t give in although “they have no cards.” (Wrong: they have weapons, patience, faith and, above all, favourable geography.)

A place for garbage

Re: Spruce-up spree sweeps through downtown (April 15)

Much is being said about the garbage and dirt that is visible on Winnipeg’s streets now that the snow is gone. I am glad to see that efforts are being made to clean up what has been revealed.

However, some of that garbage would not be on the streets had there been receptacles for it.

In the wake of U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran, oil and gas prices have surged, triggering what’s widely expected to be the worst energy crisis on record. Amid ongoing affordability challenges, governments are reaching for policy tools to soften the blow for consumers.

Now, Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew suggested that another gas tax cut may be under consideration to temper the effects of high gas prices. In the past few weeks, the controversy surrounding the province’s 2024 gas tax “holiday” has been revived after the premier provocatively declared the policy to be “the most important thing that a provincial government ever did” in Manitoba.

From an affordability perspective, a gas tax cut has major drawbacks.

It only benefits drivers, disproportionately those with multiple and/or large vehicles. The savings provided by a gas cut are dwarfed by the rising prices, which the policy does nothing to address.