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I’m in there too, answering questions, and losing the Trump meme channel to someone much funnier than me.
by Tod Maffin
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Yesterday I lost thirteen hours to a video game and didn't notice it was secretly a documentary about the death of American leadership.
The game is called Palworld. It's sort of like Pokémon, but there's base building and inventory management. You catch small cartoon animals called Pals, and each one carries leadership skills: gardening, mining, medicine, transport. They also carry personality traits: aggressive, workaholic, lazy. You build a team the way a good poker player builds a hand.
The better your Pals, the faster your base grows, the safer everyone inside it becomes.
T O D B I T
The Pokémon Company sued Palworld’s developers in 2024, for allegedly copying mechanics like throwing a ball to capture a creature. It's seeking a modest 10 million yen — about $88,000 CAD.
When Leadership Logs Off
Watching my little cartoon village hum along, I kept thinking about the real one south of us.
America walked onto this global base with impressive leadership skills like economics and justice. Things the world looked up to. Even when its own citizens fought about everything else, the world could count on those traits showing up for work.
But now, one by one, America's leadership has decided to drop the jobs it used to be respected for, and it is chasing something smaller instead. Attention. Grievance. Whatever gets clicked on next.
I am not going to pretend Canada is some flawless understudy waiting in the wings. We argue about pipelines and health care wait times like everyone else.
But watching those little Pals fill in for each other when one gets tired made me think about the times we already did this for real.
The Night Pearson Answered
Seventy years ago, when Britain, France, and Israel marched into Egypt and the world stood one bad decision from a wider war, it was not Washington that found the way out. It was a Canadian diplomat named Lester Pearson, working the phones through the night, who built the idea of a UN peacekeeping force from nothing and talked the great powers into standing down.
He won the Nobel Peace Prize for it.
T O D B I T
The peacekeeping force Pearson invented came together in one frantic overnight session: he pitched the idea to an emergency UN General Assembly on the night of November 3 to 4, 1956, and got it approved before dawn.
I do not think that now that the United States has abdicated its position of respect, Canada is about to become the world's superpower. In fact, I hope we don't. We don't need superpowers on the planet.
But every base needs somebody willing to show up for the unglamorous shifts while the flashier Pal is off having a main character moment. Someone who waters the crops. Someone who mines the ore.
Still In The Base
I have this one Pal that I named Dorko. He's not bright. I watched him walk off a cliff yesterday trying to chase a fallen tree.
I've also watched as, over time, he's lost some of the leadership roles he used to have.
He's still in the base. Nobody's kicked him out.
We just stopped asking him to do anything important.
Trivia
Which Canadian prime minister was in office when Lester Pearson's peacekeeping proposal was made?
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My Secret Project… Revealed!
If you grew up in the 60s, 70s, or 80s, you probably had OWL Magazine in your house. Big wildlife photos, backyard activities, no ads jammed into every corner.
It turns 50 this year, and it survived one of the weirdest rescue stories in Canadian publishing: a group of French monks bought it after it went bankrupt in 1997.
For the last few months, I’ve been working with Owl to fix a problem: You can't gift a subscription to a kid you don't know.
Now you can. $35 puts a full year of Owl into the hands of a disadvantaged Canadian kid who could use a reason to put the screen down and go outside.
✅ LEARN MORE AT: https://owl.todmaffin.com
Some kids have never gotten mail that wasn't a notification. Let's fix that.
This is not an ad. Owl did not pay for this and I make no money from it. It’s just a way to help kids get off their screens and into their backyards. 🙂
The Weekly Poll
Should Canada take on a larger international leadership role when other countries step back?
The Funny Bone
More Mainers are seeking Canadian citizenship
by Greg Kearney; used under licence.
What You Missed This Week
The Good News ♥️
The man who finished last in the 2025 Great World Championship Bathtub Race in Nanaimo, BC, made quite the comeback by winning the race this year.
The historic and colorful fishing town of Lunenburg, N.S., was named one of the most beautiful towns in the world by Condé Nast Traveler.
University of Toronto professor Jacob Tsimerman became the second Canadian to win the Fields Medal, mathematics' highest honour.
The city of Calgary is launching a pilot project to enhance service to blind, Deafblind, and low-vision commuters.
SCIENCE!!!!!! 🔭
Meteorites from a large fireball that lit up the sky over northern Ontario last month have been recovered on an island in Lake Huron.
Equipped with insect nets, vials and a temperature-controlled cooler, Nature NB is searching across Fredericton this summer to document native bumblebees.
Researchers at the University of Saskatchewan are studying the experiences of therapy dogs, and the role animals play in the community.
The First Peoples 🪶
Scott Olsen, a member of Saddle Lake Cree Nation and high school teacher, launched Indigenous Books for Indigenous Kids to ensure Indigenous students see themselves reflected on the page.
Manitoba Métis Federation (MMF) says the organization's pursuit of self-government continues despite Parliament’s summer adjournment, which has delayed legislation to implement its governance treaty.
Indigenous leaders from around the world united in demanding that the international community take action at the UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (EMRIP) in Geneva.
A police watchdog in Atlantic Canada is hiring an Indigenous investigator after years of advocacy by First Nations communities.
Canadian Content 🍁
Hilarious comedian Ava Val released her latest special, Face to Face, which was filmed three days before gender affirming, invasive facial feminization surgery.
Acclaimed author Shari Lapena's tenth thriller novel, Getting Away With Murder, is out now.
Geraldine Manson has published a new book, Plant Teachings from My Auntie: Gathering Coast Salish Plants for Medicine, Textiles, Nourishment and Ceremony.
Sports 🏒
Ellie Black, a gymnast from Halifax, won 3 medals in one day at this year’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland.
Canadian Swimmer Josh Liendo broke the Commonwealth Games record for gold.
Kylie Mass became one of the most decorated Canadian women's swimmers in Commonwealth Games history after capturing the 10th medal of her career.
Hammer-thrower Ethan Katzberg of Nanaimo, BC won a gold medal at the 2026 Glasgow Commonwealth Games.
Across Canada 📍
A portrait of Donald Trump made from horse manure sold for $1,800 in British Columbia.
Online passport renewal is available to all eligible Canadian adults.
Filming is taking place at CFB Wainwright in Alberta for Historica Canada’s newest Heritage Minute, honouring Capt. Jonathan Snyder and the men and women who served in Afghanistan.
A few focused, tennis-loving kids are currently undergoing training to be ball kids at the National Bank Open in Montreal.
11 artists have been chosen as recipients of the 2026 Emerging Artist Award from the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Arts Awards Foundation.
A condo building in Langford, BC, is using pet DNA to ensure dog owners clean up their pets' poo.
Politics 🧑⚖️
A New Brunswick politician in the provincial legislature has gone viral for delivering a speech that contained the type of language typically used by an artificial intelligence chatbot.
The Canadian government plans to spend $1.6 billion to replace 45 of VIA Rail's locomotives and another $357 million to build a new assembly plant and maintenance facility.
Some Ontario products will soon be making their way overseas to Europe, all thanks to the latest collaboration and funding announcement between the federal and provincial governments.
Made in Canada
Dare Foods is one of Canada’s best-known family-owned food companies, with roots dating back to 1889 when Charles H. Doerr began making cookies and candies in his small grocery store in Berlin, now Kitchener, Ontario.
Built on the promise of “good goods and honest dealing,” the business grew steadily and officially became the C.H. Doerr Company in 1919.
In 1945, the family changed its name to Dare, making it easier to pronounce as the company expanded across Canada.
Over the decades, Dare introduced iconic products such as Breton crackers, Bear Paws cookies, REALFRUIT gummies, and Whippet cookies.
Today, Dare remains proudly Canadian, family-owned, and headquartered in Cambridge, Ontario, with products sold across North America and in more than 50 countries.
This is not sponsored. This brand learned we profiled them the same time you did.