Maclean's

When my son was born in 2013, I was working as a fashion and features journalist at the Montreal Gazette. I had a closet filled with freebie merch. Fast-fashion changed as rapidly as the news cycle, packing landfills, poisoning waterways and polluting the environment. At the same time, more sustainable alternatives were gaining ground. Companies were introducing innovative recycled textiles, and secondhand shopping, one of my favourite hobbies as a teen, was experiencing a revival.

I grew up in Ahmedabad, a technology hub in the western Indian state of Gujarat. I always had a flair for numbers and data, so I naturally gravitated toward computer science. In 2019, I graduated with my bachelor of technology in computer science and started working as a reporting and operations specialist at IBM. But I quickly grew restless: my work wasn’t challenging or exciting, and I felt like I could learn and do more. So when COVID hit, I started planning my pivot.

I’ve always been a bleeder. My family has a long history of hemophilia, a hereditary disorder that limits one’s ability to clot. There were limited treatments available when I was a young, frequently bruised kid in the early ’60s, but by my teens, plasma transfusions had arrived, along with concentrates that could be self-administered at home. Doctors told me I could expect to lead a full life.

In the early days of 2025, Justin Trudeau, with tears in his eyes, stood in front of Rideau Cottage and resigned as prime minister. It had been a long time coming. The PM’s approval rating had fallen to an all-time low of 22 per cent. Canadians left and right were grumbling about the Liberals’ immigration policies, blaming them for unsustainable population growth, an escalating housing crisis and deteriorating public services. Inflation had driven the cost of living way up.

I’m the CEO of Coulson Aviation (Canada), the world’s largest aerial firefighting company, based in Port Alberni, B.C. Right now our flight crews are attacking raging wildfires every day. In B.C., the Brunswick Creek fires in the Fraser Valley have grown to more than 740 square kilometres and continue to burn out of control. One recent night, one of our pilots looked out and saw a wall of flames dozens of metres high advancing toward their aircraft. At that scale, a wildfire can feel almost alive.

LETHBRIDGE AND CALGARY, ALBERTA | ulethbridge.ca/dhillon Business and management education at the University of Lethbridge began in 1975. Today, the Dhillon School of Business is an AACSB accredited school, known for its immersive experiential learning, a supportive and personal approach and building students’ capacity for critical thinking, creativity and practical problem-solving. Almost 17,000 alumni around the world call the Dhillon School of Business their alma mater.

A Master of Business Administration from the University of Fredericton is more than some piece of paper to be framed and forgotten. It’s a fresh start. A career accelerator. A shot of confidence. It’s more than a degree. This is Maybelle’s story. Maybelle Funtañoz (MBA ‘24) was searching for her place in the world. In 2009, she left the Philippines to work in a remote region of Northwest Territories. “I came to Canada with a suitcase and probably a couple of hundred dollars in my pocket.

In 1998, when I was 21 years old, I was living just southeast of Brisbane, Australia, splitting my time stocking shelves at the supermarket and a video store. I’d already been kicked out of film school—it was boring, and I spent more time watching movies than studying them. Without any inkling of what was next, I decided to lean on the only thing I was good at in high school: math.

Summer evenings are made for exploring. In July, Maclean’s and Uber invited guests in two of Canada’s coolest neighbourhoods, Halifax and Victoria, to do just that, with curated food crawls that showcased some of each city’s most beloved dining destinations. To help guests enjoy the evening from start to finish, Uber provided ride vouchers so they could count on a safe ride home.

Last year, in his final days in office, Justin Trudeau announced a new high-speed rail line between Quebec City and Toronto. It would run for 1,000 kilometres, with stops in Peterborough, Ottawa, Montreal, Laval and Trois-Rivières. Trudeau framed the project as a major boost to Canada’s productivity. With trains travelling up to 300 kilometres an hour, passengers could get from Toronto to Montreal in three hours, about half the time it takes on Via Rail.