Cinnamon fresh

It’s hard to get fired up about toothpaste, but Close^●up was actually kinda cool. Released in ‘67, its transparent red gel was the first of its kind. Plus it doubled as mouthwash, so you could comfortably schmooze with anyone 😏

Close^●up might’ve given you the confidence to get up close with your crush, but the same can’t be said of the latest paste on the market. For better or worse, KFC is releasing its own fried chicken-flavoured toothpaste. 

Sounds like bad medicine ;)

(Love nostalgia? Play today’s trivia below for a chance to win a $25 Tim Hortons eGift Card!)

IN THE NEWS

Investment earnings rise, wages fall

According to a report published yesterday by Statistics Canada, wealthier Canadians saw higher returns on their investment portfolios at the end of last year, while lower-income households saw their wages decrease.

“Most wealth is held by relatively few households in Canada,” the report read, while also noting the average income for the top 20% of Canadian earners hit $3.3 million, compared to an average of $84,000 for the bottom 40%.

The report also found take-home wages outpaced inflation in each quintile assessed by StatsCan, though the higher earners outpaced inflation at higher rates than lower-income earners.

In other words, those with bigger pies acquired bigger pieces relative to what was gained by those with smaller pies. The highest-earning group had $212,741 in disposable income, up 5.9% from the year before. The lowest-earning group had $30,145 in disposable income—an increase of 3.6% year-over-year.

The biggest net-worth gains were made by those who managed to acquire real estate due to more favourable interest rates, allowing them to significantly increase their wealth simply by acquiring property.

ECONOMY

Markets rally for electronics tariff exemption

U.S. Customs and Border Patrol announced the other day that electronics and smartphones would be exempt from the 125% tariffs U.S. president Donald Trump imposed on China, pleasing markets around the world.

The Chinese Ministry of Commerce described the exemption as a “small step” toward rectifying the chaos Trump has unleashed on its trading partner and rival. It encouraged the president to continue moving in the same direction and remove the reciprocal tariffs altogether.

In the days leading up to the electronics, smartphones, and computers exemption, Trump seemingly had his hand forced by major holders of U.S. Treasuries (Japan and China) unloading sizeable pieces of their holdings. The move caused bond yields to rise considerably, which is almost unheard of behaviour for bond markets while stock markets are also in a downturn.

President Trump has repeatedly looked for ways to drive interest rates, including aggressively calling for Fed Chair Jerome Powell to do so, most recently after March inflation data was published.

A higher bond yield would drive up the cost to service American debt, making it more difficult for the government to attend to its other budget priorities, the signature of which is expected to be a massive tax cut.

CRIME

Auto theft down considerably

Équité Association published a report the other day revealing auto theft has fallen 18.6% across Canada over the last year, largely due to collaborative efforts by various police and government agencies throughout the country.

“(Last year) was a milestone year in the fight against auto theft in Canada,” said Terri O’Brien, President and CEO of Équité Association, in a statement. “Momentum is on our side to disrupt criminal networks from profiting off insurance fraud, as we work on behalf of our industry members to prevent vehicle theft in Canada.”

The decline has been most pronounced in Quebec, where theft is down 32.4% year-over-year. A great many cars during the height of the crime spree were stolen and transported to the Port of Montreal to be shipped overseas undetected.

Ontario saw the next biggest decline at 17.4%, followed by Western Canada at 12.7%.

“Organized crime networks are being funded through insurance crime and auto theft,” said Bryan Gast, Vice President of Investigative Services at Équité Association, in a statement, also noting the far-and-away best method of mitigating auto theft is for automakers to build cars that are harder to actually steal.

TRAVEL

Pre-pandemic numbers restored

After years of recovery from the global pandemic shutdown, the air travel industry has finally surpassed 2019 levels.

Airports Council International (ACI) released a preliminary report on global travel trends in 2024, revealing 9.5 billion passengers took to the sky last year, up 3.2% from 2019.

“We’re very happy to see that the traffic is back, and we’re anticipating significant growth moving forward right now, even with some of the headwinds that we’re seeing,” said Justin Erbacci, ACI World director general.

The busiest airport in the world remains Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International, which has held onto the title for the last 27 years, falling behind only in 2020 when travel came to a standstill in most places.

Dubai International Airport remains the second-busiest in the world, retaining the spot after catapulting into it in 2023.

Dallas Fort Worth International Airport came in at number 3, followed by Tokyo Haneda, London Heathrow, and Denver International at 4, 5, and 6 respectively. Denver is among the hub airports that saw rapid passenger growth after pandemic restrictions were lifted.

“Coming out of the pandemic, we saw that the hub airports in the US grew very fast, actually even during the pandemic, because the major airlines were emphasizing their hubs,” Erbacci said.

ODDITIES

You can’t fathom how tiny a neutrino is

Neutrinos are colloquially referred to as “ghost particles,” because they’re so incredibly small that they pass through basically all matter in the universe without interacting with it. Several trillion just passed through you as you read that, for example.

The fact that scientists are even aware of the neutrino’s existence is impressive in itself, but because of its small stature, it’s been nearly impossible to actually determine its mass.

The Karlsruhe Tritium Neutrino Experiment (KATRIN) is a 75-foot long blimp-shaped vacuum chamber that scientists are currently using to narrow down the possible mass of a neutrino.

Tritium samples radioactively decay inside the chamber, emitting electrons and antineutrinos, the latter of which obviously can’t be measured. However, the remaining energy of the electron can be used to infer how much mass the neutrino probably has.

So far, the researchers have managed to whittle down the previous estimated mass from 0.8 electron volts to 0.45 electron volts. For context, that’s about one millionth the mass of an electron, and an electron is about one ten thousandth the mass of an atom.

So yeah, as the headline of this story insists…

SPORTS

All four American original six miss playoffs

Canada is flexing its muscles again on the ice, this time in the form of making sure the only teams to make the NHL playoffs this year of the league’s Original Six will be the Canadian ones.

The Toronto Maple Leafs clinched their ninth consecutive playoff berth last week, and have a shot to win the Atlantic Division for the first time when they take on the Buffalo Sabres tonight.

The Montreal Canadiens failed to clinch the final spot in the Eastern Conference last night in a shootout loss to the basement-dwelling Chicago Blackhawks. Nonetheless, a point in their final game or a single Columbus Blue Jackets loss in either of their final two will get the Habs in.

Other than that, it’s an early offseason for the New York Rangers, Boston Bruins, Detroit Red Wings, and the Blackhawks. It’s the first time in the league’s over-100-year history all four American Original Six teams have missed the playoffs.

The Rangers appeared to bow out early this season with the shocking trade of their captain Jacob Trouba. They remained in the hunt until late March, but were officially eliminated.

The Red Wings stayed in the hunt for several weeks longer, but couldn’t get over the hump, and were eliminated last week.

Boston made like the Rangers at the trade deadline and dealt lifer-Bruin and captain Brad Marchand to the Florida Panthers. The team is set to finish fourth last in the NHL, ahead of only the Nashville Predators, Chicago Blackhawks, and San Jose Sharks.

MUSIC

Lifeson and Lee are inseparable

When Rush announced their retirement, the band was divided on the decision. It wasn’t even really announced; rather, the late great Neil Peart announced he was retiring after battling arthritis and tendinitis for years.

Shortly after the R40 anniversary/farewell tour, Peart quietly learned he had brain cancer, and was dead less than four years later. Devastated, Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee said Rush “is over.”

Still, it’s not surprising that the two lifelong friends and bandmates remain inseparable, and according to Lifeson, they still get together regularly.

“Ged's my best friend, aside from everything else. He's just my best friend since we were 13 years old," he told Eddie Trunk recently. "So I got to spend my, basically my whole adult life with my best friend, hanging around doing something that we love doing. So that ended, and now we're still hanging around cause we're best friends, you know? So there's no great mystery or some plan or something.”

What do two best friend musicians do when they hang out?

“I go over there to his place. Sometimes we go downstairs and we play for a bit. Sometimes we just sit upstairs and drink coffee and laugh," he remarked. "You know, it's fun. When we play, we jam. Sometimes we play Rush songs and we realize how hard they are. So we don't play them for very long.”

STAKERS IN THE WILD

Who’s that girl?

It’s time for another round of Stakers In The Wild! Can you guess where Mo is spending a romantic annual getway this week? If you have a keen eye, you might just figure this one out!

STAKE TRIVIA

Pretty in purple

Today is National Purple Up! Day, so we naturally found ourselves thinking of The Purple One, a.k.a. Prince 😎 

If you’re a fan of The High Priest of Pop, you’ll totally dig today’s trivia! Complete the game and earn a shot at a $25 Tim Hortons eGift Card ;)

Winner will be notified tomorrow afternoon—keep an eye on your inbox!*

Have a great day ahead Staker!

Today’s issue written by Michael Cowan, Joey Cowan, and Maureen Norman.


*SEE FULL STAKE TRIVIA CONTEST RULES HERE.