Guided by the guide

It wasn’t just that TV Guide used to be the source of truth for all your programming, the guides themselves were wicked cool. With illustrations by the likes of Norman Rockwell, Andy Warhol and even Dali, the covers were bonafide works of art 🎨

With streaming services like Netflix, you obviously don’t need a guide anymore—the guide basically is the app. Speaking of, the world’s biggest streaming platform is set to roll out a major design overhaul in the coming weeks. 

Nothing but a streamer ;)

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

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Celebrating 1000 Issues

We’re giving away a $1000 Amazon eGift Card to celebrate our 1000th issue. For every poll you vote in between now and May 14th you’ll earn one entry into the giveaway, so vote below to get in on the action. The winner will be drawn on May 15th!**

Shout out to Zenbev for sponsoring our milestone 1000th issue and giveaway.

Fast Times was chaos, Pretty in Pink was heartbreak—and somehow, we still haven’t learned how to shut our brains off. Turns out, teen stress habits can follow us into adulthood. Zenbev helps you reset the loop and actually rest. Use code STAKE20 for 20% off. Just better sleep.

IN THE NEWS

Carney’s big promise is a tall order

One of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s signature campaign promises was to remove Canada’s remaining interprovincial trade barriers by Canada Day, an unlikely outcome according to several economists, given he’ll have just over a month to make it happen after Parliament resumes in late May.

“The rules and regulations that are those interprovincial barriers that he wants to remove are not entirely within his control. He can’t compel provinces to remove their barriers,” Moshe Lander, economist at Concordia University, said.

For example, the federally imposed barriers can be removed immediately at the behest of the federal government. However, provincially-regulated barriers, such as licensing and credentialing bodies or liquor controllers, would have to work on standardizing their regulations on a national scale, despite each operating under unique circumstances.

“When those interprovincial barriers were created, there were vested interests that were arguing for them to be put in place. There are going to be people who jump up and make the news cycle, saying the removal of this barrier has cost me my job or has cost me my way of life,” said Lander.

While consumers, workers, and plenty of business may favour the tearing down of each of these barriers in service of Canada protecting against hostile American tradecraft, it’s likely unrealistic that enough of a consensus can be arrived at by July 1 to make it happen.

BUSINESS

Report proposes modernized auto pact if tariffs to remain

A report published yesterday by the C.D. Howe Institute suggests that if U.S. president Donald Trump isn’t prepared to lift America’s 25% tariffs on vehicles imported from Canada during renegotiations for the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, then Canada should propose a new auto pact that makes tariffs permanent, but relieves automakers of them if they meet certain domestic production requirements.

“Canada needs to use this window to build leverage and put a real plan on the table,” said Stephen Beatty, a former Toyota Canada executive, in a press release. “We can’t leave the future of an auto sector that supports good jobs on both sides of the border to the fate of another round of familiar but damaging tariffs.”

As it stands, there isn’t enough incentive for American automakers to maintain production facilities in Canada if they’re going to have to pay 25% tariffs when importing those cars back into the United States, leaving Canadian autoworkers extremely vulnerable.

Beatty says Prime Minister Mark Carney should continue seeking a way to renegotiate USMCA in a way that lifts and permanently prevents most of the barriers to trade that Trump has instituted. However, given the lack of clarity when entering such negotiations, having a “Plan B” is vitally important.

REAL ESTATE

Condo market yet to bottom out

The condo market in the Greater Toronto Area—a once-burgeoning paradise for real estate investors—is in freefall.

Despite prices already dropping off considerably amid a supply boom and slowing demand, Toronto Dominion economists have adjusted their forecast to predict prices will have dropped between 15% and 20% by the end of the year compared to their peak in Q3 of 2023.

Ten percentage points of the overall drop-off is expected this year, as the market enters a bearish territory not seen since the 2008/09 global financial crisis.

A perfect storm is hovering over the GTA, with slowing population growth, heightened interest rates, lower average rents, and the spectre of long-term American tariffs all converging to drive investors—who make up 75% of the market—in the other direction.

Sales were down 23% in April compared to the year before. TD economist Rishi Sondhi says the market may begin to stabilize in 2026 if tariffs are lifted and interest rates are cut, but an actual rebound doesn’t appear likely in the foreseeable future.

FEASTING FRIDAYS

The Big Mac Index

The Big Mac Index was created mostly as a joke in a 1986 issue of The Economist as a way to compare purchasing power and misalignment among various global currencies. How much does a Big Mac cost in a given country? That will tell you the value of your dollar there.

"A Big Mac, which is fairly standardized around the world, should cost the same everywhere if exchange rates are in balance," says Usha Haley, Barton Distinguished Chair in International Business at Wichita State University. "The Big Mac then becomes a rough basket of currencies, an approximation of what you can buy with local currency in any country, covering a range of products, including beef, wheat, onions, tomatoes, dairy, and so on. The cost of a Big Mac should then tell us whether a currency is over- or undervalued.”

For example, a Big Mac cost US$5.79 in January, and in Switzerland, it cost Sf 7.20, or $8.74. In that sense, based on the Big Mac Index, the Swiss franc may be overvalued by 38%. On the other hand, a currency’s value is certainly determined by plenty more than just how much of it you need to buy a burger.

Still, the index has been used for nearly 40 years, given its fun but remarkably effective approach to making sense of a kind of economics that’s sometimes difficult to grasp.

MEDICINE

Organ band-aid delivers drugs

All drug dealers need a mule, and the latest one’s code name is “organ band-aid.”

In all seriousness, leveraging flexible electronics and micro-nano-processing technology, researchers at China’s Beihang University and Peking University created a microscopic patch that attaches to an organ and helps facilitate the delivery of drugs to that organ. Their findings were published on April 30 in Nature.

Typically, large-molecule drugs and biopharmaceuticals are taken in oversized quantities because a big portion of them will be wasted trying to find the delivery location inside the body. The “nanofluidic intracellular delivery patch” acts as what the researchers call a “highway for drug delivery.”

“It can safely perforate cell membranes at low voltage and, through the ultra-high electric field strength formed within its nano-pores, deliver drug molecules to the target site rapidly and precisely,” according to the study.

“The nanopore-microchannel-microelectrode structure enables the safe, efficient, and precise electroperforation of the cell membrane, which in turn accelerates intracellular payload transport approximately 10⁵ times compared with conventional diffusion methods while operating under relatively low-amplitude pulses,” the study continues.

MUSIC

Jimmy Page sued by Dazed and Confused composer

The composer that’s suing Jimmy Page isn’t himself feeling dazed or confused; rather, he’s feeling ripped off after the track from Led Zeppelin’s debut album was featured in the Becoming Led Zeppelin documentary without compensation.

The song is one of Zeppelin’s best and most well-known, but it was originally written and recorded by folk rocker Jake Holmes in 1967.

A previous court case that closed in 2011 was settled with certain undisclosed compensatory conditions involving the song’s use moving forward. Holmes’ latest lawsuit alleges several early live versions of the song were released, along with the two performances featured in the documentary—one by Zeppelin, and one by Yardbirds, none of which was with “permission, payment, or credit.”

Page claims he solely wrote the Yardbirds version, but Holmes says he’s owed $150,000 for each commercial release of the song.

“Starting in or around 1968, the Yardbirds began to publicly perform the Holmes composition,” the complaint says. “Every performance of ‘Dazed and Confused’ by the Yardbirds is a performance of the Holmes composition.”

ENTERTAINMENT

Golden Globes recognize podcasting

The Golden Globes announced that it will introduce “Best Podcast” as an award category starting this year, becoming the first long-established major television and media award show to recognize the medium.

It’s unclear currently how the best podcast will be selected, given there are millions of them, thousands of which have legitimate followings. The only available criteria at this stage is that the “top 25” podcasts will be eligible to be nominated, and the Golden Globe Foundation will choose six nominees, one of which will be recognized as the best podcast of the year.

“As the world of entertainment continues to evolve, we are excited to recognize new forms of storytelling,” Golden Globes president Helen Hoehne said in a press release. “Podcasts have emerged as a profound medium for sharing narratives and building communities across global borders and generations. By celebrating achievements in both audio and visual podcasts, we aim to honor our heritage categories while making room for new voices and formats to be heard.”

STAKE TRIVIA

Hot on the keys

Happy birthday, Billy Joel! 🎹 😎 

To celebrate, we’ll be quizzing you on the piano himself, as well as a few other iconic players of the keys with today’s trivia! Complete the game and earn a shot at $25 Tim Hortons eGift Card ;)

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

Have a great weekend Staker!

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


*SEE FULL STAKE TRIVIA CONTEST RULES HERE.

**SEE FULL 1000TH ISSUE GIVEAWAY RULES HERE.