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: Mark Carney led the Liberals to victory on Monday, and U.S. President Donald Trump and Canada’s business community are already weighing in on the rookie Prime Minister. But which Canadian company tried to hire Mr. Carney for a different job in 2020? Take our quiz to find out.
b. Shopify, the Ottawa-based e-commerce company, was eager to recruit Mr. Carney in 2020, when he stepped down as governor of the Bank of England. However, he decided to go in a different direction and instead joined Brookfield Asset Management.
c. “A very nice gentleman.” Mr. Trump paid Mr. Carney the compliment and said he expects the Canadian Prime Minister to visit him within the next week. Is this public praise a good thing? Who knows? Mr. Trump‘s words and actions don’t always match up. A couple of months ago, he repeatedly praised Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum at the same time he was deriding former prime minister Justin Trudeau. However, the U.S. President then imposed exactly the same tariffs on both Mexico and Canada.
a. Algoma Steel chief executive Michael Garcia is appealing to Mr. Carney to engage with the Trump administration about dropping punishing tariffs on imports of Canadian steel.
c. Royal Bank of Canada has dropped its sustainable finance targets, including a $500-billion commitment to decarbonization efforts. Its announcement this week extends a growing trend away from green investing. Earlier this year, all of Canada’s big banks withdrew from the Net-Zero Banking Alliance, a global organization aimed at marshalling private capital to help meet emission-reduction goals.
d. 25 per cent. Ontario properties have only rarely lost value in recent decades. However, selling at a loss has become increasingly common over the past few years. About 25 per cent of properties bought in 2022 and sold in 2024 suffered a loss in value, according to Teranet, the province’s land registry agency.
c. The economy shrank slightly. The U.S. economy declined at a 0.3 per cent annualized pace in the first quarter, the first time it has contracted since 2022, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. Most forecasters expect a mild rebound in the second quarter, but they warn that the uncertainty caused by Mr. Trump‘s on-again, off-again tariffs is dragging down economic growth and could even push the country into a recession.
d. UPS said it would slash 20,000 jobs and shut 73 facilities. The cuts reflect reduced deliveries for Amazon as well as the chiling impact of Mr. Trump‘s tariffs on global trade.
d. All the above. All these companies have reported that consumers are spending less to dine out as economic storm clouds gather.
b. Amazon. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt lambasted Amazon after a news report said that the online retailer was considering a plan to display an estimate beside every product of how much tariffs were increasing its price. Amazon quickly said it was not planning any such move.
a. The ability to talk about sex. According to a Wall Street Journal investigation, Meta has quietly endowed its AI personas with the capacity for fantasy sex.
b. Part-owner of the Toronto Tempo women's basketball team, Ms. Cassidy is the second person to become part of the Toronto Tempo’s ownership group, joining retired tennis star Serena Williams, since majority owner Larry Tanenbaum’s Kilmer Sports Ventures was awarded the WNBA franchise last May.
b. 60 years. The 94-year-old tycoon has led Berkshire since 1965 and has built it into a US$1.15-trillion conglomerate. His magic shows no signs of waning: Over the past five years, Berkshire has more than doubled in value.