Welcome to The Globe and Mail’s business and investing news quiz. Join us each week to test your knowledge of the stories making headlines. Our business reporters come up with the questions, and you can show us what you know.
This week: Happy “Liberation Day” to all those who celebrate. The rest of us – including many countries around the world who just got hit with huge tariffs by the United States – are left trying to figure out what the Canadian business landscape looks like in the aftermath. From the math on subsidies to the real details of Canada’s “fentanyl emergency,” take our business quiz to test your knowledge.
d. About $40-billion. It was US$40.6-billion in 2023, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Mind you, that was for both goods and services. If you look at only goods, the deficit was about US$64-billion – but much of that was for Canadian oil, which the U.S. buys because it is cheap, not because it is subsidizing anything. However, you slice things, the U.S. trade deficit with Canada is nowhere close to Mr. Trump’s number.
a. Less than 1 per cent. Barely one-10th of 1 per cent of fentanyl seizures in the northern border region of the United States were linked to Canada in fiscal 2024. The vast majority – 99.87 per cent – came from either the U.S. or Mexico or had unknown origins.
d. All of the above. Yep, all these small, remote territories are on Mr. Trump's enemies list, although it’s not clear how they’re contributing to the U.S. trade deficit. Heard Island and McDonald Islands are Australian territories about 4,000 kilometres from the Australian mainland. They are unoccupied by humans. “That makes the 10-per-cent tariff imposed on Wednesday somewhat moot,” the Washington Post observed. Norfolk Island, another remote Australian territory with a small tourism industry did not get off so lightly: It was hit with a 29-per-cent tariff. The Falklands, a British territory in the Atlantic, is on the hook for a 41-per-cent tariff.
d. Panama. First Quantum seems to be inching closer to a deal to reopen its Cobre Panama mine. The Vancouver-based miner had filed international arbitration proceedings against Panama in 2023 after the country ordered the closing of the mine following massive public protests against the project.
c. Hooters. The U.S.-based restaurant chain infamous for its skimpy waitress outfits is going – wait for it – bust. To be fair, Hooters has plenty of company. Red Lobster and TGI Fridays filed for bankruptcy protection last year and On the Border followed suit in early March. Casual dining chains have been suffering from rising food and labor costs, not to mention changing attitudes.
b. OpenAI, maker of ChatGPT, announced this week that it had closed the largest funding round on record for a private tech company. The US$40-billion deal values OpenAI at US$300-billion, making it one of the most valuable private companies in the world. This artificial intelligence thing better work out!
a. Frank. Ms. Javice’s company Frank focused on helping U.S. students apply for financial aid. When she sold the business to JPMorgan in 2021, she told the bank that Frank had more than four million customers. It actually had only 300,000.
b. An electric-vehicle startup. Mr. Milton was sentenced to four years in prison for misleading investors about the capabilities of his Nikola electric-powered truck. But why worry? He and his wife donated US$1.8-million to the Trump re-election campaign just before the November vote. Now, thanks to the president’s pardon, he is a free man.
d. Lowered its forecast. Trans Mountain lowered its forecast for oil volume, an indication that oil producers are unwilling to pay the higher tolls that the operator has been charging customers to ship oil on the newly expanded pipeline. Weren’t oil producers supposed to be desperate for a link to the West Coast? Maybe not as much as we thought.
c. Dollarama said it is planning to open 70 to 80 new locations by early 2026. The Montreal-based retailer added that “heightened uncertainty” in the economy is spurring demand for discount products.
b. Nintendo announced this week that its Switch 2 gaming console will launch on June 5.
c. It is about double. Talk about inflation! Rogers is paying $11-billion to renew its current NHL deal for another 12 years, roughly double the amount it paid back in 2013. Given the hefty price tag, analysts say it will be difficult for the company to generate much profit on the deal. Then again, no one has ever gone broke in Canada by televising hockey.