Easy as 1-2-3

Whether it was a gift from your grandma or something you’d asked for yourself, chances are you took up a brush and pried open those tiny pots of paint in one of these kits at some point as a kid.

Back in the’70s, crafts really were all the rage. That included needle skills like embroidery and thanks to artists like Sara Barnes, it’s seeing a renaissance. She’s creating life-like animal portraits with her talent, stitches and thread.

The pet shop is always on her mind ;)

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

The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMHC) says seasonally-adjusted housing starts rose 3% in January for both urban and multi-unit urban homes, driven specifically by multi-unit starts in Quebec and B.C.

The actual rate of housing starts jumped a healthy 7% last month on an annualized basis for cities with populations of at least 10,000.

At the same time, the real numbers remain lukewarm, with just over 220,000 homes getting under way in January, while CMHC says Canada needs nearly 6 million new ones built in the next five years in order to achieve housing affordability nationwide.

The pace is better than it was two years ago, but economic uncertainty threatens that upward trending momentum.

“While these increases show early signs of progress to begin the year, foreign trade risks add significant uncertainty for housing construction going forward,” said CMHC deputy chief economist Tania Bourassa-Ochoa.

CMHC’s 2025 economic outlook is being clouded by such threats, and predicts that if the United States moves forward with tariffs, Canada’s economy would instantly fall into a recession, delaying a great many of the housing projects underway.

A new Leger poll asked Canadians what they’d be willing to give up in an effort to combat American tariffs, and it found they’d be happy to stop drinking American booze but wouldn’t be willing to part with American streaming platforms.

81% said they either already are or soon will significantly increase the amount of Canadian-made products they buy in general, but just 28% said they’ve cancelled or will cancel subscriptions to American streaming sites.

59% said they will stop or already have stopped drinking American booze, and 56% said they will or already have cancelled plans to travel to the United States.

The streaming platform question was met with opposition because Canadians don’t have a viable alternative, according to William Huggins, an assistant professor of finance and business economics at McMaster University, shedding light on the broader vulnerability Canada has left itself open to when it comes to the intensity of its dependence on the United States.

“If there’s a perceived cost or we don’t think that things are equivalent, then we don’t like it,” Huggins said. “There’s a bigger burden.”

GST holiday comes to an end

Just as prices on certain items seemed to drop by a hefty margin over the last two months, they’ll now appear to be more expensive after the nationwide GST/HST holiday came to an end on Saturday.

The measure was implemented to give Canadians some reprieve from still-elevated prices during the Christmas holiday season, cutting sales taxes on booze, restaurant food, certain grocery items, clothing, and children’s toys.

It stimulated spending during the first half of the tax-free period, but also resulted in considerable pullback in January.

“January marked a sluggish start to consumer spending in 2025, but it was largely expected after spending surged at end of the 2024 holiday shopping season. Retail sector sales excluding autos pulled back in January both before and after adjusting for inflation,” RBC economist Carrie Freestone said in the bank’s Consumer Spending Tracker report Friday.

Some business groups have called on the government to make the tax holiday permanent after its success, particularly when it came to restaurants.

Restaurants Canada says it expects the final data to show $1.5 billion in extra sales during the 60-day break, a 7.6% jump in overall transactions. OpenTable, an online restaurant reservation platform, says it saw an 18% boost in seated diners over the same time period.

TECH TUESDAYS

Apple launches health study

Apple announced the other day that it’s launching a wide-ranging health study to inform the development of new features. The study has no intended direction, and will instead collect raw data from devices such as iPhones, Apple Watches, and AirPods to see if any trends exist that could inform such development.

Apple has a track record of developing features based on research gathered from similar past studies, most recently resulting in the hearing aid feature included on new AirPod devices.

“We use these research studies not only to learn, but to drive and inform our decisions about what things to add to the product roadmap when we see that there’s science that supports building up this work,” says Desai, noting that the company has passed on implementing features where the science didn’t hold up.

The study will be available to users in the Research App, and those who opt in to share their data will allow Apple real time access to relevant health data while still maintaining the required level of privacy based on the tech giant’s terms and conditions. On top of data sharing, they’ll also be asked occasionally to participate in surveys to assist in data gathering.

SCIENCE

Scientists find a ghost

The “ghost particle” gets its name from the fact that it can pass through almost anything without losing its composition. For example, it could pass through a piece of lead over a lightyear long without actually interacting with it.

Known as neutrinos, these mysterious particles are the product of immense sources of energy, such as gamma ray bursts from black holes. They are themselves so highly energetic, it’s nearly impossible to imagine.

Interestingly enough, while they rarely interact with any type of matter, when they do, it’s usually water or ice, and members of the KM3NeT Collaboration—a group that includes 360 scientists from around the world—just discovered the highest-energy neutrino ever.

“One way I like to think about it is that the energy of this single neutrino is equivalent to the energy released by splitting not one uranium atom, or ten such atoms, or even a million of them,” said study coauthor Dr. Brad K. Gibson in an email. “This one little neutrino had as much energy as the energy released by splitting one billion uranium atoms…a mind-boggling number when we compare the energies of our nuclear fission reactors with this one single ethereal neutrino.”

It was detected by ARCA, or the Astroparticle Research with Cosmics in the Abyss, which sits at a depth of 11,319 feet beneath the surface of the Mediterranean Sea. Its origin is yet to be determined. 🤯

WELLNESS

Full of beans

Beans are currently trending, due in large part to food-content creators on TikTok. Whether they know it or not, they’re doing us all a favour, given how underrated beans actually are in terms of their nutritious value.

A 2021 study published in Frontiers in Nutrition found the average consumer eats nowhere near the recommended amount of beans or lentils per week, which is around 2.5 cups.

“They’re nutrient powerhouses, offering protein, iron, and B vitamins, all while being low in fat and highly sustainable to produce,” says Scott Keatley, co-owner of Keatley Medical Nutrition Therapy, a nutritionist practice that advises healthy individuals on how to stay healthy.

Legumes are part of the Mediterranean diet for a reason, after all. Their protein content is ubiquitous, along with the amount fiber and—as mentioned by Keatley—they contain very little fat.

They contain plenty of complex carbs, though, meaning they take longer to digest while providing a more sustained source of energy, making them a great food item for athletics.

Full of beans? You should be!

ENTERTAINMENT

Goonies 2 gets the green light

Goonies 2 is officially a-go, after Warner Bros. announced it tapped Potsy Ponciroli to pen the script nearly 40 years after the original debuted on the silver screen.

Chris Columbus will serve as a producer for the sequel, the man behind the script of Goonies 1, along with Steven Spielberg, Kristie Macosko Krieger and Holly Bario.

The original cult classic generated a whopping $125 million at the box office on a $19 million budget, and was included among the list of films to be preserved in the National Registry by the Library of Congress in 2017.

Details of the script are yet to be revealed, along with who will be cast to star in the film.

Ke Huy Quan, who rose to prominence starring in the original film, recently spoke about a potential reunion while at the world premiere for his latest film, Love Hurts, which also features Goonies-alum Corey Feldman.

“It’s one of the most asked questions in my life,” Quan said. “I would love for it to happen.”

“All I can say is, get us all together. Everybody is looking good,” Feldman added. “Sean’s looking good. Josh is looking good. We’re all looking good still, and we’re all alive. Goonies never say die…There’s hope.”

STAKE TRIVIA

Plop, plop, quiz quiz

Turn on the tube and don’t touch that dial—we’ll be lookin’ at some of the most iconic TV ads from the ’70s and ’80s with today’s trivia! Complete the game and earn a shot at a $25 Tim Hortons eGift Card ;)

Winner will be notified tomorrow—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.