Good morning. I’m Erin Anderssen, the happiness reporter at The Globe. Today, we start off with an introduction to the new leader of the Roman Catholic Church. Also, just in time for Mother’s Day, women of Generation X are reimagining motherhood in middle age – and they don’t care what you think about it. Let’s get to it.
Today’s headlines
- The disappearance of two children has rocked a rural Nova Scotia community
- An Ontario First Nation has filed a $200-million lawsuit against Ottawa over its failure to provide clean drinking water
- The U.S. and Britain announced a trade deal that leaves the British facing 10-per-cent tariffs on most exports
Newly elected Pope Leo XIV appears on the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica, May 8, 2025.Yara Nardi/Reuters
Religion
Habemus Papam! We have a pope!
The election of Chicago-born Cardinal Robert Prevost as the new pope came as a surprise to Vatican watchers and Catholics everywhere in more ways than one.
He is the first U.S. pope in the history of the Catholic Church, overcoming the taboo against choosing an American for the role, because the country is seen as already wielding a lot of geopolitical power in the secular sphere. At 69, he is fairly young by papal standards. He also took the name Pope Leo XIV, indicating that he’ll follow the footsteps of the namesake in dedication to poverty, service and evangelization.
A bishop dances with a U.S. flag at the Vatican, May 8, 2025.Eloisa Lopez/Reuters
The conclave was short by historical standard, and it was the biggest in the history of the church. Some wanted a return to the traditional church, others wanted to carry on the liberal reforms of his predecessor, Pope Francis. Some wanted a pope from Asia or Africa. Pope Leo has also lived for years in Peru, first as a missionary and then as an archbishop.
Keep reading:
- The name: The choice signals a commitment to social justice.
- The backstory: The new pontiff had prominence going into the conclave that few other cardinals matched.
- The celebration: Peruvians are elated a cardinal who spent years in the South American country was chosen.
- The speech: Read the words of the new Pope’s full speech, delivered from the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica.
- An opinion: In becoming Leo XIV, the new Pope may be eschewing the Vatican’s factionalism.
Oorbee Roy skateboards in front of her kids Rohan Shah, 12, and Avnee Shah, 15, at East York Skatepark in Toronto. April 30, 2025.Jess Deeks/The Globe and Mail
How we live
Gen X moms are rebranding middle age
There’s a popular meme that mothers in their late 40s and 50s like to feature on their TikTok videos, as a badge of honour: “Gen X: the only generation that was 30 at the age of 10 and is still 30 at the age of 50.”
Now that Generation X is 45 to 60, we can actually test the end of that theory, and when I look around at the middle-aged mothers I know, I can confirm its accuracy. They are, by and large, an outspoken, determined, often wine-soaked and/or gummy-infused, take-charge lot. And they will slap down any suggestion that a woman’s best before date is pre-age 45. (In accordance with Globe and Mail standards, I had to remove the F-bombs that peppered several of my interviews and conversations.)
This weekend, I explore the idea that Gen X is rebranding middle-aged motherhood. The women I spoke to are trying water polo and skateboarding and starting new businesses. They are, in many ways, absolutely dancing into middle age like they’re 30.
Do they sometimes feel crappy about getting older? Of course. But, as I wrote in the story, they are also manifesting a truly awesome superpower: They care less and less and less about what people think.
“I want middle age to be different than what society tells me it should be,” Krista Johnson, a 50-year-old mom in Kelowna, B.C., told me.
If society won’t move, mothers like Ms. Johnson plan to move it. But there are signs of a middle-age reboot in the rise of movies about Gen X moms having hot sex with besotted younger men, the glut of lux lubricants on the market, the open discussion of menopause. (Unfortunately, the growing industry of vaginal creams and incontinence underwear is now more advanced than Canada‘s medical system when it comes to effectively treating a condition that affects half the population.)
In particular, women talked about learning from the aging experience of their parents ahead of them, and the fresh views and interests of their kids coming up behind them.
More than one mentioned the loathing they feel now when faced with the mundane tasks of motherhood they have always done. “Right now, I know I am in my good years,” said 50-year-old Oorbee “Aunty Skates” Roy, 50, whose late-in-life skateboarding skills have gone viral online. “And I don’t want to do the laundry.”
Like so many of the subjects that I research, this was a story about the supportive communities we need to create to make our voices more powerful, and to allow the lessons of women ahead to benefit those coming up behind.
The point of rebranding middle age is not to make another set of rules that only some women can – or want – to follow. We’re judged enough after all, one mom observed.
Let’s be gracious with each other and have a Happier Mother’s Day.
The Shot
‘What ceasefire?’
Svitlana Avramenko, 44, on Independence Square in Kyiv on May 8, 2024.Olga Ivashchenko/The Globe and Mail
President Vladimir Putin declared yesterday the first of three days of quiet in the Russia-Ukraine war. Kyiv called it a farce. Read more here from The Globe on the ground.
The Wrap
What else we’re following
At home: A defence lawyer in the Hockey Canada sex-assault trial sparred with the complainant over her testimony about the alleged incident.
Abroad: India and Pakistan traded fire and accusations again Friday, as tensions soared between the nuclear-armed rivals.
Bumpy road: The Bank of Canada warned that U.S. President Donald Trump’s aggressive tariff policy poses a risk to financial stability in Canada.
Smooth exit: As Canada‘s population gets older, death doulas are on the rise in end-of-life and estate planning.