Welcome to The Globe and Mail’s business and investing news quiz. Join us each week to test your knowledge of the stories making the headlines. Our business reporters come up with the questions, and you can show us what you know.
This Week: Tuesday’s supposed tariffs deadline came and went, and Canada and the U.S. are still doing their will-they-won’t-they dance on trade. Canadian shoppers are increasingly buying local products as a form of protest against the U.S., and a major voice in politics is calling the fiasco “the dumbest trade war in history.” Who said this? Take our quiz and find out.
d. “War is no time for soft cheezies!” The comic sketch, written by veteran cast member Mark Critch, features him playing a patriotic shopper confronting another shopper in a grocery store and lecturing him on the merits of Canadian products, notably Hawkins Cheezies. It has amassed more than 11 million views on TikTok.
b. Royal Bank of Canada became the last of this country’s Big Six banks to withdraw from the alliance, which was set up to direct capital to projects that would help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The Net-Zero alliance still numbers about 135 members from 44 countries, but most of its U.S. and Canadian members have headed for the door over the past two months. Only five North American institutions – including two B.C. credit unions – remain in the group.
c. The Wall Street Journal editorial page, normally a staunch supporter of Mr. Trump, was stinging in its criticism of the president’s tariff threats.
a. Gaza. Once a property developer, always a property developer. Mr. Trump’s astonishingly offensive notion that the United States should take over Gaza after the removal of millions of Palestinians and develop the devastated territory as a vacation resort drew widespread condemnation from countries including Saudi Arabia, Germany and China.
d. Gold soared above US$2,890 an ounce this week as investors searched for a haven from Donald Trump’s trade wars and an increasingly frothy U.S. stock market.
d. Nissan is said to be close to calling off merger talks with rival Honda. According to Reuters, Nissan is balking at the notion of becoming a Honda subsidiary rather than having the two companies merge as equals.
b. Reported its first annual profit. This week’s surge topped off a year in which Spotify’s share price has more than doubled. The Swedish streaming giant has managed to cut costs and increase its number of active monthly users to more than 675 million.
b. 26 per cent. The January survey of 1,500 Canadians by Abacus Data found slightly more than a quarter of young Canadians were willing to explore the notion of Canada becoming the 51st state (Another 9 per cent were absolutely in favour of it.) Their parents don’t agree: About 80 per cent of Canadians over 45 were absolutely against the idea of joining the U.S.
a. Shopify founder and chief executive Tobi Lütke wrote in a post on X that he was disappointed in Donald Trump’s threat to impose 25-per-cent tariffs on Canadian goods, but was also disappointed in Canada’s willingness to retaliate with similar tariffs of its own. Mr. Lütke appeared to take at face value Mr. Trump’s insistence that he is punishing Canada for fentanyl smuggling and lax border controls.
c. Buy back US$400-million in shares. Lightspeed said it was calling a halt to plans to sell itself and would instead buy back roughly 18 per cent of its shares. The decision bucked a recent trend that has seen a slew of Canadian technology companies exit the public markets.
a. It recorded a surplus of $1.25-billion. Despite widespread assumptions that the city is in dire financial shape, its financial statements show it enjoyed a $1.25-billion surplus for the year. This is not an unusual occurrence. Critics charge that an opaque budget process obscures the city’s surprisingly robust financial status.
c. He has taken over two U.S. government agencies despite not having any official role. The world’s richest man and self-proclaimed “first buddy” to Donald Trump has taken over the Office of Personnel Management and the General Services Administration, as well as their computer systems. Mr. Musk's new power gives him unprecedented control over the 2.2 million people in the U.S. federal work force despite not having any official role in government.