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Thursday, October 9, 2025

Canada’s Stanley Cup drought signals shift from regional loyalty to national unity

By
Isaac Lamoureux, True North Wire
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Source: Unsplash

As the National Hockey League’s regular season draws to a close, a new study from the Angus Reid Institute shows Canadian hockey fans united in their desire for any Canadian team to win the Stanley Cup regardless of the team’s city.

The trend reflects a shift towards national pride over regional loyalty.

With the playoffs set to begin on April 20, Canadians are gearing up with renewed hope that this might be the year the Cup comes home.

It has been over three decades since a Canadian team lifted the trophy, with the Montreal Canadiens last winning it back in 1993. The survey, conducted online from April 9 to 11 among 1,615 Canadian adults, highlights a nation eager to reclaim hockey supremacy.

When asked which team they thought would finally break Canada’s drought, the largest percentage of respondents chose the Toronto Maple Leafs, at 21%. This was followed closely by the Edmonton Oilers at 20%. 

Despite remaining on top of the list since 2019, the last year the Leafs won the Stanley Cup was 1967.

In third place, despite being third in their division, was the Vancouver Canucks at 14%. 

9% of Canadians think the Montreal Canadiens will lift Canada out of its drought. Montreal is currently second last in their conference and is in a rebuild.

Despite being in the playoffs this year, fewer Canadians chose the Winnipeg Jets, at 5%.

4% of Canadians said that no Canadian team will ever win the Stanley Cup again; this is higher than the 2% that chose the Calgary Flames and Ottawa Senators to lift Canada out of its drought. The remaining 23% said they did not know.

Those who never see Canada winning a Stanley Cup again are split amongst those who think Canada is cursed and others who think that NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman hates Canadian teams, as he continuously expands the NHL teams in the United States but gives Quebec City (who has an NHL-ready arena and fanbase begging to support a team) the shaft.

The Arizona Coyotes were confirmed to be moving to Salt Lake City last weekend.

Bettman became the league’s commissioner in 1993. Canada has not won a Stanley Cup since then. Despite Canada’s inability to hoist the coveted trophy, 42% of all players are from Canada, according to The Win Column.

Opinions around who would win the next Stanley Cup have seen a drastic shift since 2021, where 26% of Canadians thought Toronto would be the next Canadian team to win the Cup, followed by 21% who thought Montreal, and 7% who thought it would be Edmonton.

Despite the variance in who they think might end the drought, in 2016, 57% of Canadians said they didn’t care who won, just that Canada did. That number has since increased to 64%. This proportion of people was the largest in Manitoba, at 78%.

27% said they’ll cheer for certain teams, but others are rivals, while 9% said they can only cheer for their team as every other team is considered a rival. 

“For many Canadians, the team to win has evidently become less important than the act of winning,” said the study.

Of the four teams in the playoffs this year, Manitoba and British Columbia had the biggest support for their local teams, at 86% and 83%, respectively. Only 73% of Ontarians wanted the Leafs to win the cup. In comparison, 64% of Albertans wanted the Oilers to win, probably due to the Calgary Flames fans being unable to support the Oilers morally.

Seven in ten Canadians say they pay at least some attention to the NHL. At the same time, 40% are considered active fans, the highest in about a decade since the Angus Reid Institute began surveying Canadians about the NHL.

About half of those who pay attention to the league are excited about playoff hockey, jumping in the four provinces with teams representing them. The lowest excitement comes from Quebec, where the Canadiens sit almost 20 points out of a playoff position.

The survey was conducted between Apr. 9 and 11 and surveyed a random sample of 1,615 Canadians.

With four Canadian teams in the playoffs this year, fans across the country are watching closely, hoping for the Stanley Cup to return to Canada for the first time since 1993.

Canadian paediatrician challenges CBC’s consensus on gender-affirming care

By
Isaac Lamoureux, True North Wire
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Source: Facebook

A Canadian paediatrician is taking a stance against a recent CBC article suggesting that the medical field largely supports gender-affirming care and giving kids hormones or puberty blockers.

Dr. J. Edward Les said the doctors quoted in the article do not speak for the majority in Canada.

“It saddens me that we have division within the pediatric ranks in Canada; but the truth is that Dr. Wong and Ladha do not speak for me, nor do they speak for many of us,” said Les.

During the last five years, when Les has been writing about and speaking out on the issue of gender-affirming care for children, he said that more and more paediatricians and family doctors have been reaching out to him, indicating agreement with his position. 

“But the issue has become so poisoned politically and ideologically that they fear taking a public stance,” said Les.

Les wrote an article with the Macdonald-Laurier Institute on Monday, Time for an intervention — an urgent call to end “gender-affirming” treatments for children, largely discussing the Cass Review and its “alarming findings.” 

The Cass Review, commissioned by England’s National Health Service in 2020, and released this year found that much of the evidence supporting various transgender healthcare interventions for children was slim. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith recently touted the review as “the most comprehensive review of the medical literature and the science behind this.”

Les told True North that the review speaks to the claim that “‘substantial observational data’ supports the ‘efficacy and safety’ of these treatments — and she demolishes that premise as sufficient to launch children down an irreversible path of transition that renders them lifelong medical patients, and often infertile.”

The Cass Review led to puberty blockers being banned for minors in England.

Meanwhile, the CBC article criticized the Cass Review, with numerous doctors suggesting that the review came from a place of bias or was politically motivated.

The article also featured doctors speaking about the effectiveness of puberty blockers and the importance of counselling and thorough assessment for minors considering gender-affirming care.

True North previously reported on CBC’s own investigation, which showcased Quebec teens being rushed into gender transitions and some teens receiving prescriptions in minutes.

Les said that children aren’t allowed to drive, buy alcohol or cigarettes, or get tattoos. Yet, they are inexplicably allowed to make decisions with life-long implications for their health and fertility.

In CBC’s article, Dr. Sam Wong, president of the paediatrics section of the Alberta Medical Association, spoke to the issues around double-blind placebo-controlled trials for puberty blockers and the issues they entail — with the taker of the placebo eventually becoming astutely aware that they are not really taking puberty blockers.

The article also featured Dr. Tehseen Ladha, who spoke about the imperfect evidence often found in pediatric medicine.

However, Les argued that there is a better metric that has stood the test of time — common sense.

“Common sense tells us that it’s impossible to change one’s sex; common sense reminds us of the validity of the mammalian binary construct,” he said.

“I think it must be very difficult for pediatricians like Drs. Wong, Ladha, and others who have been so vocal in supporting gender affirmation, to be confronted with the mounting evidence that the concept was constructed on such a porous foundation of weak evidence. But porous it is — and it’s beginning to crumble, thankfully,” said Les.

The United Kingdom, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and France are among the countries that have begun to pull back or stop altogether from the practice of blocking puberty.

Les said that he has been constantly accused of being a “transphobe” but that he harbours no hate in his heart for anyone. 

“But in one sense, I am very much ‘transphobic’ — I’m deeply afraid of what the future holds for the many children who have been caught up in the false gospel of gender fluidity; and I grieve for them and for their families,” he said. 

While long-term studies on gender dysphoria and puberty blockers are limited or flawed, Les pointed to a recent study which concluded that most feelings of gender non-contentedness in youth dissipate over time.

“Gender non-contentedness, while being relatively common during early adolescence, in general decreases with age and appears to be associated with a poorer self-concept and mental health throughout development,” concluded the study.

Man who stabbed police officer was out on bail

By
Clayton DeMaine, True North Wire
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Source: Facebook

A man with an extensive history with the police faces ten charges after stabbing a Toronto police officer on Friday in Toronto’s west end.

27-year-old Gabriel Escairo was known to police before the attack that led to him being shot and arrested in a Tim Hortons parking lot at Lansdowne Avenue and College Street in Toronto, Ont.

Both the rookie police officer who was stabbed, Const. Manraj Mahal and Escairo reportedly were taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries and are in recovery.

Escairo faces charges of two counts of assaulting a peace officer, two counts of attempted murder, one count of aggravated assault involving a peace officer, four counts of failing to comply with a release order, and one count of possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose, according to police.

Escairo stabbed Mahal,  who then shot the assailant, a representative from the SIU told True North.

The assault was the third attack on a Toronto police officer in a three day span.

According to a spokesperson for the Special Investigations Unit, police were called and were attempting to apprehend Escairo under the Mental Health Act. The SIU is called whenever a crime involves a police officer discharging their weapon, causing death or serious injury.

Aside from being charged with four counts of failing to comply with a release order, Escairo’s social media shows he made his previous encounters with police public.

CPC MP Rob Moore, Canada’s shadow minister for justice, posted on X after learning the repeat offender was out on bail.

Critics of Bill C-75  say it encourages more flexible responses to breaches of bail conditions.

True North reached out to Moore and Kyle Seeback the Conservative MP for Dufferin—Caledon, the riding where the incident took place, but both did not respond before the given deadline.

The Daily Brief | CBC Kids “whitewashing” Hamas’ crimes?

By
Cosmin Dzsurdzsa
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Source: CBC / Wikipedia

A pro-Israel media watchdog is taking aim at CBC Kids for being an “unfettered platform for anti-Israel accusations.”

Plus, figures showing the expenditures for MPs were released in late March, showing that NDP leader Jagmeet Singh spends the most of all party leaders, while Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre spends much less than his counterparts.

And the majority of Canadians believe private enterprise could deliver faster healthcare services.

Tune into The Daily Brief with Cosmin Dzurdzsa and Noah Jarvis!

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Public elementary school in the GTA sells pride themed school spirit wear

By
Clayton DeMaine, True North Wire
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Source: Unsplash

A GTA elementary school is selling pride-themed swage in its “School Spirit” shop.

Colonel J.E. Farewell Public School in Whitby, Ont., has an inventory of shirts and sweaters showing the school name in the colours of the Progressive Pride Flag.

The flag includes white, pink and blue, representing trans-identifying people. The brown and black stripes are supposed to portray LGBT+ people of colour, with a purple circle on a yellow background representing intersex  people.

“Some of the options reflect the varied identities within the school community. By fostering an environment where diversity is celebrated, all students can express themselves authentically and thrive academically and socially,” a school spokesperson told True North in an email.

When asked how the school came to the conclusion that allowing children to wear pride-themed apparel enables the students to thrive academically and socially, the spokesperson didn’t respond.

Chanel Pfahl, a former teacher, has made it her duty to expose “wokism” in Canadian schools.

In an interview with True North, Pfahl said the swag isn’t just about inclusivity and school spirit.

“I think we have to be honest about what this flag represents – and that is an ideology that’s totalitarian in nature, and that doesn’t accept the viewpoints that challenge what it’s proposing,” Pfahl said. “This symbol that they’re using for inclusion actually represents intolerance and does not include everyone.”

Pfahl has been a vocal critic of what she believes to be cultural Marxism in schools since she quit her position as a science teacher with the MonAvenir Catholic School Board in 2021.

She said she has over 2000 posts which raise awareness and show evidence of “indoctrination in Canadian schools.”

One example Pfahl highlighted this month was at Cardinal Leger Catholic School in Brampton, Ont., where Grade 6 students had to colour in and write about various flags representing different sexual orientations.

The school did not respond to True North’s requests for comment.

“It’s incentivizing children to pigeonhole themselves and label themselves with these sexualities they honestly shouldn’t even be thinking about because they’re kids,” Pfahl said.

She thinks students should learn basic curriculum again like math, science, reading and writing.

“But we’re just caught in this moment where many teachers think it’s their responsibility to push this ideology all the time,” Pfahl said.

“These days, pride is a political issue. It’s no longer just about including everybody and treating everybody the same,” she added.

Pfahl believes pride needs to stay out of schools unless shirts with opposing political opinions are sold in the same places. She said she would rather see public schools emphasize things that unite Canadians rather than focus on things that make us different.

“I think a lot of Canadians agree with that. Right? we shouldn’t make a big deal about who you’re attracted to or what gender you think you are,” she said. 

Higher gas prices saw Canada’s inflation rate increase again in March

By
Quinn Patrick, True North Wire
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Source: Unsplash

Canada’s annual inflation rate increased in March, predominantly due to higher gas prices, according to the latest report from Statistics Canada. 

The Consumer Price Index for last month was released on Tuesday, revealing that the overall inflation rate was up 2.9% year-over-year in March, an increase from 2.8% in February. 

According to Statistics Canada, the annual pace of inflation eased in February when compared to January, where it stayed at 2.9%.

Canadians were dinged with a 4.5% year-over-year price jump at the gas pumps last month, faced with only a 0.8% increase in February. 

Crude oil prices jumped up internationally as a cautionary response to supply concerns during “geopolitical conflict and continued voluntary production cuts,” reads the report.

Month-over-month, gas prices increased by almost 5% compared to February and shelter prices rose in March at the same annual rate of 6.5% as the month previous. 

Both were contributing factors in bringing Canada’s overall inflation up. 

“The mortgage interest cost index rose 25.4% on a year-over-year basis in March, following a 26.3% increase in February. The homeowners’ replacement cost index, which is related to the price of new homes, declined less in March (-1.0%) compared with February (-1.4%) on a year-over-year basis,” reads the report. 

“Rent prices continued to climb in March, rising 8.5% year over year, following an 8.2% increase in February. Among other factors, a higher interest rate environment, which can create barriers to homeownership, put upward pressure on the index.”

The price of clothing and shoes had the highest decline in January and February since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, however, they increased by 1.8% last month. 

Grocery costs increased 1.9% in March, back up again from some relief seen in February, where it decreased by 3.4% in January and 2.4% in February. 

The CPI comes only a week after the Bank of Canada announced it would be holding its key interest rate at 5% for the sixth consecutive time. The central bank also noted in their release that it’s “within the realm of possibilities” that Canadians could see an interest rate cut in June.  

However, this would only be possible if the Bank of Canada sees sustained evidence that the economy is on track to hit its 2% target. 

The Statistics Canada report comes just ahead of the federal government’s budget announcement later today. 

Parti Quebecois calls for another referendum on Quebec independence

By
Noah Jarvis, True North Wire
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Source: Unsplash

Quebec’s separatist party is calling for a third independence referendum.

Parti Québécois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon told his supporters that should his party win the next provincial election, it would call for another referendum on Quebec’s future in confederation.

St-Pierre Plamondon made the pledge at the PQ’s national council meeting where he presented a mock-up of what a national budget could look like for an independent Quebec government. 

“One thing is certain. Our moment will arrive sooner than we think, meaning not at some long-term idealized date, but in a few years — before the end of the decade,” said St-Pierre Plamondon. “We will indeed experience a third referendum.”

The PQ leader claimed his mock budget would save Quebec taxpayers several billions of dollars through the elimination of duplicate public agencies.

However, the PQ’s hypothetical budget did not include spending for the development of Quebec’s own national military, nor did it consider Quebec shifting to its own national currency.

St-Pierre Plamondon painted a grim picture for Quebec’s language and culture if the province is to stay in Canada in the coming future.

“Canada has a dark future in store for us. It’s a regime that only wants to crush those who refuse to assimilate.”

St-Pierre Plamondon said that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is seeking to “crush” Quebec, pointing to Trudeau’s top-down housing policies and the refusal of federal MPs to abandon pledging an oath to the King upon being sworn-in.

“Our real adversary is the federal political regime that denies us and from now on is overtly and explicitly planning our decline,” said St-Pierre Plamondon.

“Canada has gone from indifference toward Quebec to a concerted effort to weaken us, to even erase us from all points of view.”

Under previous PQ governments, Quebec has held two referenda on separating from Canada. The 1980 referendum was shot down handedly with around 60% of Quebecers voting against it, though the province came significantly closer in the 1995 referendum, coming within one percentage point.

Since then, Quebecers had largely abandoned hopes of becoming its own country, though popularity for the idea has been picking up steam in recent years.

According to a Léger poll, 36% of Quebec residents support their province separating from Canada while 53% said they were opposed.

The PQ leader’s pledge to hold a referendum on Quebec independence was met with pushback from party rivals.

Conservative Party of Quebec leader Eric Duhaime slammed St-Pierre Plamondon for promoting a radical platform that Quebecers have long since abandoned in the 20th century.

“It’s certainly the most radical political position by the PQ we’ve seen in our lifetime insofar as they will absolutely hold a referendum in their first mandate,” said Duhaime.

“It’s difficult to understand, if only because support for sovereignty was higher when they held the two losing referendums.”

The Quebec Liberal Party’s interim leader Marc Tanguay also criticized the PQ leader for his supposed radicalism and accused St-Pierre Plamondon of stoking fear. 

The Coalition Avenir Quebec had won the previous provincial election handedly with 41% of the vote count and 72% of the seats in the legislature, while the PQ had only won 14.6% of the vote and three seats.

However, recent polling has shown a collapse in support for the CAQ, leading the way for a resurgence of the PQ who now polls around 33% with a projected majority government.

The Andrew Lawton Show | Governor General shills for Liberal “online harms” regulations

By
Andrew Lawton
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Source: X

Canada’s Governor General is supposed to be apolitical and above partisanship, but Her Excellency Mary Simon opted to convene a panel about the dangers of “online harms” while the federal government is championing a controversial law that uses such harms as a pretext to regulate internet speech. The panel had no critics of the legislation, but plenty of people championing it. True North’s Andrew Lawton weighs in.

Also, it’s budget day, so Andrew checks in Canadian Federation of Independent Business vice-president of legislative affairs Ryan Mallough to see how rough a ride Canadians are in for. Plus an interview with former federal finance minister Joe Oliver from last week’s Canada Strong and Free Network conference.

Lifelong Liberals are breaking with their party over Justin Trudeau’s leadership of it. Andrew checks in with former Liberal member of Parliament Dan McTeague about why that is.

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Over one in four deaths in young adults are linked to opioids: study

By
Clayton DeMaine, True North Wire
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Source: Facebook

Opioid deaths are proving to be one of the leading killers for young adults in Canada.

A recent study by the Canadian Medical Association Journal found well over a quarter of deaths among Canadians aged 20-39 are linked to opioids.

Not only were about 29% of deaths observed across nine provinces and territories opioid-related, but the number of opioid-related deaths doubled between 2019 and 2021.

The study showed that during the COVID-19 lockdowns, the already-existing opioid crisis worsened.

Before the government response to the pandemic, the number of accidental opioid-related deaths across Canada rose from 2,470 in 2016 to 3,447 in 2019.

The study found that both prescription and unregulated opioids contributed to the toxicity deaths, but between 2020 and early 2023, fentanyl from the unregulated drug supply accounted for more than 80% of opioid-related deaths.

A drug policy advocate says these numbers demonstrate the need to take action on the crisis.

“I hope that this information can act as a wake up call for policymakers to finally start taking the opioid crisis seriously,” said Adam Zivo, founder of the Centre for Responsible Drug Policy and a writer with the National Post.

While the study authors advocate for “the expansion of targeted harm reduction–based policies and programs across Canada,” Zivo takes issue with their conclusion.

“I think that we should really be talking about here is the lack of investment into drug prevention, because there is a four pillar approach to combating the addiction crisis,” Zivo said.

According to the Government of Canada, the four pillars of the Canadian drugs and substances strategy are prevention, treatment, harm-reduction and enforcement.

“Of those four pillars, we have been so exclusively focused on harm reduction that we’ve forgotten about the other aspects. And drug prevention is a key component of it,” he said.

From his research and interviews with addiction physicians Zivo said the abundance and affordability of pharmaceutical opioids has been a significant problem.

“(Regulated drugs) have initiated people’s addictions, which causes them to eventually graduate to using fentanyl, which then kills them,” Zivo said.

Although four out of five opioid-related deaths across nine provinces and territories in Canada are linked to fentanyl or a fentanyl-contaminated drug supply, Zivo believes some provinces’ adoption of safer supply programs and the lack of investment into addiction recovery helps drive this “explosion of mortality.”

“Recovery oriented services are not accessible. You either have to go to a private clinic which will cost you a lot of money, often tens of thousands of dollars which for most Canadians is simply unaffordable…or use a publicly funded option. But the waitlists for those options are incredibly long,” Zivo said.

According to Drug Rehab Services, the wait times for publicly funded drug treatment services are on average 52 days in Manitoba and 42 days in Ontario.

“We have to remember that if someone is in the throes of addiction and they are seeking recovery, they need to get recovery oriented services right away. They cannot wait weeks or months because in those weeks or months they will start using again,” he said. “Sometimes during those weeks or months when they could have been in rehab, they end up killing themselves.”

Zivo noted the safer supply programs are “flooding” communities with cheap and abundant pharmaceutical opioids. He said most drugs from the safer supply programs are being resold onto the streets.

In addition to programs acting as a bridge to the unregulated drugs which sometimes contain fentanyl, Zivo said “safer supply” also dissuades some people from seeking recovery oriented services.

Although it’s always preferable for people to voluntarily seek recovery treatment, Zivo thinks that involuntary treatment is an essential intervention for that small population who won’t ever seek out treatment for themselves. 

Israeli ambassador calls on Canada to list IRGC as a terrorist organization

By
Noah Jarvis, True North Wire
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Source: Facebook

Israel’s ambassador to Canada, Iddo Moed, is urging the Canadian government to list the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization.

This demand comes after Israel was attacked on the weekend by the Islamic Republic of Iran, which launched hundreds of drones, ballistic missiles and cruise missiles at the Jewish state this past weekend.

Appearing on both the CBC and CTV, Moed painted a picture of the threats Israel faces in the Middle East and urged Canada to support Israel in containing Iranian influence.

“We’ve seen now what Iran is, what Iran is willing to do in order to achieve their goal and that is to eliminate the state of Israel and actually to destabilize the whole world,” said Moed.

“First and foremost, the first initial step would be to designate the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization, that has to happen now, that has to happen today.”

Moed thanked Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and foreign affairs minister Melanie Joly for their “strong response” to Iran’s attack on Israel and also thanked opposition leader Pierre Poilievre. 

Hours after news of the attack broke, Prime Minister Trudeau condemned the assault against Trudeau and issued a joint statement with all G7 leaders condemning the attack in the “strongest terms.”

Pierre Poilievre condemned the attack on Saturday while standing with Israel and the Conservative leader urged the government to list the IRGC as a terrorist group.

The Conservatives have put forward a motion in the House of Commons to call on the government to list the IRGC as a terrorist organization, receiving pushback from the Liberals. 

Alberta MP Garnett Genuis delivered a spirited speech in the House of Commons challenging the Liberal government to follow through on a motion passed six years ago calling on the government to list the IRGC as a terrorist group.

“The events of this weekend underline why Conservatives have been persistently calling on this government to recognize that the IRGC is a terrorist organization and therefore must not be allowed to operate in Canada,” said Genuis.

“Six years ago, the case was already clear. And at the time in fact Liberals including this Prime Minister voted in favor of that motion. They voted in favor of it, they said they were thinking about it, they still six years later still say they are thinking about it and yet they have refused to act.”

Liberal MPs raised concerns that listing the IRGC would target Iranians living in Canada who had been conscripted into the IRGC unwillingly, as a large chunk of the Iranian military is composed of conscripts. 

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