Maclean's

Canada's national magazine covering current affairs, politics, culture trends, ideas and personalities.

The story is Canada

COMMENTS • READERS WEIGH IN

Maclean’s

EDITOR’S NOTE • IN THIS ISSUE OF MACLEAN’S

Beyond the Crash Test

Why Researchers Are at the Heart of Every Life Saved • Mark Friesen was healthy and active, until he had a stroke. Meet the researcher who gave him his future back.

THE INTERVIEW • Rosemary Barton, the CBC’s chief political correspondent, has no time for fake news

Let Cities Run Grocery Stores • Food prices at Canada’s major supermarket chains are insane. Why not let municipal governments into the game?

Mark Carney’s Middle-Power Gambit Can’t Save Canada • A united bloc to counter an aggressive U.S. is probably doomed. There’s another way.

The Welcome Return of Boring Politics • How Trump made Canadian populism very, very unpopular

BEST MEDICINE • The first-ever Patient Innovation Summit explored how AI will shape the future of health care

WORLD CUP MANIA • For the first time ever, Canada is hosting the World Cup—and it →couldn’t come at a more opportune moment. As we teeter on the brink of World War III, it’s refreshing to watch countries compete in an arena where the stakes are not conquest and death but trophies and bragging rights. On the field, we cheat, we spit, we foul, we rage. But in the end we listen to the ref, accept our punishment, absorb our defeats and come back and do it all again next time. A rules-based order—remember that? There are plenty of reasons to complain about the Cup if you want to go looking for them: ticket prices, traffic, our co-hosts. But if you’d rather focus on the joyful abandon of the summer’s biggest sporting event—and if you’d like to spend a month eating, drinking, cheering and crying with eight billion of your closest friends—the following pages will guide you through it all.

THE FARMERS Fighting BIG TECH • Alberta wants to profit from the AI boom by building dozens of power- and water-hungry data centres. The neighbours have other ideas.

Finding My Son • When my son became addicted to drugs, I searched frantically for solutions—and failed. I needed something more radical to save my family.

ON THE ROAD • A photographer captures the lost world of Canada’s Greyhound routes

CULTURE

SNAIL MAIL’S BIG COMEBACK • I grew up writing long letters to my grandmother. Today, I run a snail mail club with dozens of people around the world.

HARSH BAKE-OFF JUDGMENTS