Ottawa is opening the taps to secure our future, just not for the part that tells us who we are.
In last month’s fiscal update, Ottawa earmarked $63 billion for defence spending next year, on its way to $1 trillion in 2035. The new Defence Industrial Strategy alone lets Canadian firms chase $180 billion in procurement promising 125,000 high-paying careers.
AI and digital infrastructure are also lavished with attention, just shy of $1 billion. But it’s nothing compared to the $32 billion earmarked for northern development and defence-linked infrastructure.
All those numbers are eye-spinning in their own right, and all the more compared to what Ottawa spends on the arts and culture. Because while defence and infrastructure are measured in the billions, the arts and culture are measured in the millions. And let’s not forget that a billion is a thousand millions, and a trillion is a thousand billion.
One kind of funding (billions) builds the stage; another (millions) writes the script and puts on the show.
The budget does sprinkle money on culture – $769 million over five years across arts and culture programs, with $67.5 million for live presenters and festivals and $54 million to creators via the Canada Music Fund and the Canada Council. But compare that to the tens of billions for defence and the trillion‑dollar decade projection and you see it for what it is: housekeeping, not nation‑building. Even the headline cultural envelope at Canadian Heritage – $1.89 billion for 2024‑25, including about $363 million for the Canada Council, $199 million for Library and Archives Canada, and $1.38 billion for the CBC – is accompanied by a planned $205 million cut to the department through a government‑wide expenditure review.
The CBC is our canary in this coal mine. In 2024-25, its budget was nudged from about $1.28 billion to roughly $1.38 billion with a $42 million bump for programming. Yet that small rise is followed by a $192 million reduction to the CBC planned for 2026‑27.
In other words, in the Age of Elbows Up, at a time when Canadians are asserting our identity with each other and the world, when “O Canada” is sung with gusto before Toronto Symphony Orchestra concerts and by fans of the Buffalo Sabres playing against the Boston Bruins, for heaven’s sake, when all kinds of people are finding new funds to promote Canada’s identity and sovereignty, and when books by Canadians made up just 14% of all print book sales in Canada in 2025.
I say it’s time to give our arts and culture organizations the kind of quantum grant increases that our defence and tech sectors are getting.
So why does this matter if we have AI labs, quantum hubs, drone test beds and skills academies sprouting like condos? Because all those systems need operating software, and for a country, that software is its stories.
We are investing billions so Canadians can build the tools of the future but asking them to tell our future stories on a shoestring.
We’re racing to weaponize algorithms while defunding the people who can help us understand what those algorithms should and should not do. Books, films, plays, exhibitions – these are not frills; they are the social code that lets 44 million strangers imagine themselves as “us” when the weather, or the world, turns rough.
If we are serious about sovereignty, that sovereignty has to be cultural as well as territorial. Otherwise, we will own the infrastructure of tomorrow and rent the meaning from somewhere else.
Meanwhile…
1. Buffalo needs us and as they start the series against Les Canadiens, we need them.
2. Democracy: Some conditions may apply. Lesson one: the tyrant story always ends the same. Plus, Tory fund-raising appeals grow hystericaler and hystericaler. And Orbán is out in Hungary; now comes the hard part. Plus the global economy in one giant map.
3. Job-hoppers. Join the U.S. Foreign Service. And the merit society. (i.e. Yuppies). And people with the most savings and most powerful passports. And why this plane can’t fly. And why this flight attendant can. And who says women can’t run ultramarathons and have babies at the same time?
4. The new bad behaviour. Start with the merits of theft at The New York Times, and on the opposite pole, microlooting. Now move along to shocking legal waivers for big dieters. And “look, honey, we got invited to Prince Andrew’s wedding.” Plus, what we wish The Queen had said about her treatment by Trump, but didn’t (it’s fake AI). Plus how to accept rejection gracefully, and being a woke at the wheel.
5. The end is here. Where are the best death cafes on earth? Plus how DEI beat out science to get into med school. Plus, Toronto is luring Americans across the border and the Saudis cancel their $200 million gift to the Met, while the Royal Conservatory responds to abuse claims. Plus, what Jane thought of Ted. Finally, some sumptuous Smithsonian photos and even more in The Guardian.
6. A woman. A horse. A win. Of course. The thrilling victory of Golden Tempo in the 152nd Kentucky Derby, whose odds were 23 to 1, took off from the back of the pack and passed 17 other horses to win. It’s the first Derby where the winner was trained by a woman, Cherie deVaux, who seems delighted. And bonus!…a primer on The Kentucky Derby.
7. Where do hereditary peers walk the plank? In Britain, of course. Where do stars hide away in LA? Plus, how did they make this very special bag for women? Plus, why are airlines always going broke? And who is the worst counterfeiter ever?
8. Health beat. How much of our lifespan do we control? And what exactly is broken heart syndrome? And why nobody accidentally feels great at 70. And when you can’t do gold-standard work, do aluminum-standard instead.
9. Is Jeff Bezos Amazon? Some of its 1.57 million workers think so and they took employee activism to new levels at the Met Gala which Bezos and his wife, Lauren Sánchez Bezos, co-chaired. Meanwhile, over at the Amazon AGM, here’s what CEO Andy Jassy wrote to the shareholders.
10. Attention-fracking is a thing. It means you can’t focus on anything, so you can’t remember anything, so you can’t value anything. This explains why. Speaking of…there’s the law and then there’s Jude. Plus, how to give up on doom-scrolling. Finally, Route 66 is turning 100. And don’t do this at home, kids.
11. Mapping happy. Let’s start with feelings. Then on to the true size of…Next, the true size of nations. Then five perfect homes that prove you don’t need more space, and one great tiny “over the falls” retreat. Plus Morioka Shoten is a bookstore in Tokyo that only sells one title per week. When they showcased a book about ceramics, the shelves were full of handmade pottery. And in Malmo, Sweden, the Dawitt Isaak Library is the first public library devoted entirely to forbidden books. Finally, the best 100-year-old colour blocker of all.