Your World Tonight - Canada Post future, Tropical plants in Canada, 'Recession Pop', and more

Episode Date: August 2, 2025

The bitter labour dispute between Canada Post and postal workers drags on. The union representing postal workers has rejected the Crown corporation's latest contract offer. You'll hear what some experts think the future could look like for Canada Post.Also: In Canada, the shift towards warmer temperatures due to climate change is creating new opportunities for horticulturalists. That means people could soon see bananas and palm trees sprouting in this country. And: Music from nearly 20 years ago is proving to be the perfect soundtrack to today's shaky economic times. 'Recession Pop' is making a comeback on streaming and social media. But the tradition of listening to upbeat music during economic downturns goes back nearly a century. Plus: Dealing with Donald Trump's tariffs on Canada, the National Bank Open, and more.

Alright, look, I am not gonna lie to you, I love when an album drops and it just, I know it's gonna define my entire summer. And that is how I'm feeling about this new Lord album. My name is Alameen Abdul Mahmood, I host a show called Komotion, and that is where we talk about the biggest stories in entertainment and pop culture, like this new Lord album, or the Hayyam album, or whatever great new music is defining our soundtrack for the summer. Come hang with us. Follow Komotion wherever you get your podcasts.

This is a CBC podcast. Hi, I'm Anand Ram. This is your World Tonight. No competition means no incentives to try to cut costs, to innovate, to be efficient." The bitter labour dispute between Canada Post and postal workers drags on. Now that the union has rejected the Crown Corporation's latest offer, you'll hear what some experts think the future could look like for Canada Post. Also on the podcast, at the World Aquatics Championships, Summer McIntosh comes up short in her quest for five gold medals.

Meanwhile, another 18-year-old Canadian is making waves in this country's premier tennis tournament. And palm trees in Ontario? It's really a myth that you can't grow palms in cold climate, you know, but you can. Depending on the species of plant, you can do whatever you want. As the climate warms, Canada is becoming more suitable to different kinds of plants. News that the union representing postal workers has rejected Canada Post's final contract offer has left many scratching their heads about what happens next. Postal delivery is expected to continue for the time being,

but at the heart of the dispute is the long-term future of this country's postal service, Sarah Law reports. Small businesses are one of the last reliable and profitable customers for the corporation, and they're leaving in droves. Dan Kelly is president and CEO of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. The organization says the union's vote is bad news for everyone and if there's

another postal strike two out of three businesses may stop using the Crown Corporation forever. Marvin Ryder predicts Canada Post and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers will seek binding arbitration through a neutral third party. The associate professor at McMaster's DeGroote School of Business says that while companies don't want to see picket lines, a forced lockout wouldn't win much support from Canadians. It would upset a lot of Canadians at a time given Donald Trump, what have you, they're already feeling upset. But Jim Galant, a negotiator with the Union, says arbitration is not the desired outcome.

He says all parties agree that the best deals are reached at the table. Give this to a third party and have them go through that after all these other things that have happened is just going to be another big mess. Canada Post reported $841 million in losses before taxes last year. It says letter mail has declined by 60 percent over the last two decades. Vincent Jaloso says it's time for Canada Post to go private. The Associate Professor of Economics at George Mason University in Virginia says every time it faces trouble, consumers pay the price. Letter mail in Canada is

essentially monopolized. No competition means no incentives to try to cut costs, to innovate, to be efficient." Joloso says privatization would give Canada Post more flexibility, while incentivizing workers by allowing them to own shares. Mariah Battist runs Sunday Lace Creations, an Indigenous-owned bead store in Eskasoni, Nova Scotia. She says to ship products using UPS, she has to drive an hour off reserve. So she's eager to see Canada Post reach a deal. Still, if the service went private,

she fears what would happen in communities that rely on PO boxes. First Nations communities aren't able to get their mail from say UPS or Pure Later. And so those are the inequities of the people who are affected the most in these kind of disputes. In a statement issued yesterday, Canada Post says the union's vote does not lessen the

urgent need to modernize and protect this vital national service. Meanwhile, the union says for the time being, employees will be back to work as normal next week. Sarah Law, CBC News, Thunder Bay, Ontario. Canadian trade negotiators expect talks with the Americans will resume in the next couple of weeks. Higher tariffs on some Canadian goods are now in effect, and the industries of steel, aluminum, cars, and lumber are demanding urgent action from the Carney government. Now that the Canadian delegation has left Washington, the question is what comes next? Peter Armstrong reports. For the first time in months, there

isn't a deadline looming over Kennedy US trade. That August 1st deadline came and went without a deal. Just before the deadline, US President Donald Trump was asked what was needed to reach an agreement. They have to pay a fair rate. It's all very simple. But what is a fair rate on what products and how can Canada convince a notoriously volatile administration that a deal is worth making veteran U.S. trade expert Gary Huffbauer from the Peterson Institute for International Economics says the volatility is part and parcel of the policy. It's a completely ridiculous economic policy.

Huffbauer says Trump's policies won't just hurt those who trade with the U.S. He says Americans pay the tariffs and will eventually pay for the uncertainty they cause as well. It'll mainly affect U.S. trade and it will increase the price on an average basis when these are fully implemented. For months now the American economy has held up surprisingly well. It was thriving in spite of tariffs but even as the August 1st deadline approached, cracks were starting to appear in the American economy. Earnings reports from some of the biggest companies in the country showed just how deep tariffs were biting.

GM says its profits fell by more than a billion dollars. Ford posted its first quarterly loss since 2023. And Apple announced it expected to lose about $2 billion due to tariffs in the first half of the year. Markets had largely shrugged off tariffs and the trade war, but last week was the worst week they'd seen in months. Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA research says he expects more rough waters ahead. What is likely to happen because of the additional tariffs combined with the much weaker than

anticipated employment report that August once again will likely post a decline for the S&P 500. Those jobs numbers caused ripples of concern in Washington on Friday. Job growth came in well below expectations and jobs numbers in May and June were revised down by a staggering 258,000. Trump responded by firing the person in charge

of the Bureau of Labor Statistics and said the numbers were rigged to make him look bad. Stovall says the fact is the damage from tariffs wasn't averted, it was only delayed. Global trade as a result of these tariffs will likely end up slowing down. So as Canadian negotiators try to plot a path forward, you can be sure they're watching the economic data in the US as well.

If the economic pain Canada has felt for months is spreading, that just may make it easier to reach a deal. Peter Armstrong, CBC News, Washington. US federal officials are investigating former Justice Department lawyer Jack Smith. Smith oversaw two criminal investigations into then-candidate Donald Trump. Both of those cases were dismissed. The Office of the Special Counsel says Smith is being investigated for possible violations of the Hatch Act.

That law bars federal workers from using their government jobs to engage in political activity. Still ahead, tonight we're going gonna party like it's 2008? Streaming data shows that artists like Kesha, Pitbull, and the Black Eyed Peas are seeing a resurgence, and that's likely thanks to today's tough economic times. Later on Your World Tonight you'll hear why there's a bull market on so-called Recession Pop. market on so-called recession pop. Above the Arctic Circle, typically cool Nordic countries are roasting under an unprecedented heat wave.

A weather station in northern Norway recorded 13 days of temperatures over 30 degrees in July, while northern Finland has seen three straight weeks of similar temperatures. Scientists say it is the longest streak of heat on record for the region. Well that's one dire impact of the climate crisis, more extreme heat waves. But the shift towards warmer temperatures here is creating new opportunities for horticulturalists, meaning you could soon see bananas and palm trees sprouting in Canada. Inaith Singh has more on that story. These are the cold hardy windmill palms. These are the real heroes.

Dan Richard shows what an adventurous gardener could achieve at his nursery in Niagara tropics in southern Ontario. Oftentimes we interpret growing palms in Canada as a myth. Like it's really a myth that you can't grow palms in cold climate, you know, but you can. Depending on the species of plant, you can do whatever you want. Now, scientific research shows the country is actually getting more suitable for new types of plants as the climate warms. We introduce agaves. These are clump-hardy.

A new update to Canada's Plant Hardiness Zones map, the first since 2014, shows growing conditions have changed throughout the country. The map shows what can grow where in the country. For example, zone 9A, which is suitable for some cold hardy palms and even citrus, now covers a part of the southern ends of Vancouver Island and southern BC. John Pedler, biologist at Natural Resources Canada, worked on the study. I think it certainly is a climate change indicator. I think it's is a climate change indicator. I think it's interesting that with seven different variables,

all with varying levels of climate change signal embedded in them, that out of that mass, we still see a very clear climate change signal. The Hardiness Map takes into account several temperature and precipitation-related conditions, along with local soil conditions and wind speeds. The shifts in zones are primarily driven by warming temperatures, a worrying reminder that the planet is getting hotter. It's fun to look at the fun side of climate change

and say, hey, you know, maybe I can grow some new species around my place. But yeah, we don't want to forget the fact that there's all kinds of other negative implications around climate change. The new zones mean that there are new opportunities for growers. For example, the study points out grape production in various wine regions in Canada could expand. But the challenges are also clear.

Rhonda Tytel-Payne is with Toronto Urban Gardeners, where she's been seeing how extreme weather is making it hard for gardeners to plan. And climate change, it's not even so much about warming, it's about the instability, right? And for a new person to try to learn how to do that, it's a little harder. Along with the map, the government has also released species-specific data with more information on particular plants and crops that will guide Canadian growers as they plant their gardens and fields in a changing climate.

Inayat Singh, CBC News, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. August is Emancipation Month in Ontario, which marks the end of slavery across the British Empire including in Canada. Canada ended up becoming a destination for men and women escaping bondage in the United States, many of whom settled in southwestern Ontario where their descendants still reside, including Justin Escoto, who brings us this report on a museum near Windsor that chronicles some of his family's history. The John Freeman Walls Historic Site, an underground railroad museum in Peuse, Ontario, keeps the story of my ancestors alive and well.

It sits on the original homestead of John Freeman Walls and his wife Jane. They traveled along the Underground Railroad from Rockingham County, North Carolina to settle here in the 1840s. Brian Walls is a historian who founded the museum in 1989. He says the history is as important now as it was then. What period of history we're going to, you know, even today, we make the history relevant to today. If they made it through back in the days of the Underground Railroad, we can make it through today.

John Freeman Walls was close friends with his slave master's son, Daniel. When Daniel was on his deathbed, he entrusted his wife Jane and his three children to the care of John. Jane and John fell in love. Historic site operator, Brynney Wall, says a relationship of this kind was unheard of. John, who was a black slave, and Jane, who was a white woman of Irish and Scottish descent,

who didn't have to traverse the Underground Railroad experience, but out of love, she did. And so we're here today because of that. Brynney is Brian's daughter. She grew up around the property. There's nothing like putting your roots in And so we're here today because of that." Brynnie is Brian's daughter. She grew up around the property. Brynnie Brown, Teacher, Walsh Family Cemetery There's nothing like putting your roots in and growing in a place that helps to grow you.

I'm a teacher. I've learned about it my whole life. But to be here, it really is breathtaking and it does something to you from the inside out. Visitors see the original log cabin John and his family of 11 lived in 180 years ago. There's also the Walsh Family Cemetery dating back to the 19th century. The original log cabin John and his family of 11 lived in 180 years ago. There's also the Walls Family Cemetery dating back to the 19th century. And the site has a makeshift chapel dedicated in honor of civil rights activist Rosa Parks,

a frequent visitor to the museum. So not only did I just grow up steeped in this and hanging around people like Mrs. Rosa Parks, I didn't realize until I was older what a gift it was and who those people were. Brian employs young descendants of John and Jane to lead tours of the site. He says it's important to pass on his family's message to the future generations. They got to remember that they stand on the shoulders of great men and women that have gone gone before. Brian says the story of the Walls family remains relevant today and hopes its uplifting message can inspire those who visit.

Justin Escoto, CBC News, Puse, Ontario. Hamas says it won't back down from fighting Israel unless an independent Palestinian state is established with Jerusalem as its capital. Hamas' statement followed remarks by U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff to families of Israeli hostages. Witkoff reportedly said that a plan to end the war was close, and Hamas would be willing to lay down its arms to make it happen. Indirect ceasefire negotiations ended in a deadlock last week as the humanitarian crisis

in Gaza drags on. Dozens of Palestinians have died from starvation in recent weeks, including at least seven people since Friday. Summer Macintosh gave another podium-worthy performance at the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore, butIntosh the bronze. The 18-year-old Olympian finished third in the 800-meter freestyle. After pulling ahead briefly into the top spot, she ultimately came up short against American Katie Ledecky and just behind Lani Pallister from Australia.

Here she is speaking with the CBC's Devin Haru after the race. That was not the race I wanted. It was personally my time, how I executed anything. But it is a new event for me. I gave it 10% more focus than I have in the past. So it's just the beginning. And I know I have lots of time in my career to do better at it.

The result ends McIntosh's bid to match Michael Phelps record of five gold medals at a single world championship. McIntosh has one more chance at another gold in the 400-meter individual medley on Sunday. She is the current world record holder in that event. Well another young Canadian athlete is taking up the spotlight on home turf. 18-year-old Victoria Mboko is the last Canadian standing at the National Bank Open, which is at the halfway point this weekend. Freelance sports writer Ed Kleiman spoke to me earlier from the tournament

in Toronto. So Ed by this stage in the tournament we'd normally be approaching the finals but this time around we're just at the halfway point. What's going on there? It is very strange on it. I have to tell you it's all about making these Masters 1000 tournaments feel like Grand Slams, which means they need to be a little longer. Grand Slams take two weeks to play with 128 players. These tournaments used to be one week long with 56 players. Now they're 96 players so they take 11 days so we have this awkward thing where we run through the weekend halfway there but still four more days to go and a weekday finish. It is very odd. Well speaking of bigger tournaments, the Open is coming right on the heels of Wimbledon and immediately before the Cincinnati Open and the US Open. Is that why we're not seeing as much

star power in the Canadian tournament this year? That is exactly why Anand. I mean this is a big big blow that we have had to Toronto in particular. No Novak Djokovic, no world number one Yannick Sinner, no world number two Carlos Alcaraz. And you have to really feel for those guys because I think you have to think about this in the context of what do these guys need? They need rest after a really long, tough French Open final. And then very quick turnaround to Wimbledon. 15 years ago when Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal did the same thing, they had four and a half weeks to get ready for Toronto Montreal, so they always came here. It's only two weeks this time. Now I

will say everybody else is here, so it's still really good tennis. It's just not the very very best that everyone is accustomed to. And do you expect that to continue if the National Bank Open keeps going with this expanded format? If I listen to tournament director Carl Hale, I think this is going to change. He says he's been talking to players, he's been talking to the ATP Tour which runs men's tennis and the WTA Tour which runs women's tennis. And he says there are some scheduling tweaks that are going to be made that are going to prevent this from happening in the future. But nothing is certain So I think if this isn't fixed over the next year or so and we go two or three tournaments in a row like this

Then I think what's going to happen is all the top players are going to rest up until Cincinnati before the US open They're gonna skip Toronto and then this will kind of be least among equals if you will there You know, they're supposed to be the same Toronto and Cincinnati. So I suspect if I had to guess I would say we're gonna get this fixed for next year. But we don't know for sure so it's a question all tennis fans in Canada are asking themselves. Right so just at the halfway point any observations on what we've seen so far and what to expect from a Canadian perspective? Well so far I have to say it's been really disappointing from the men in particular. If I look at our top three guys, Dennis Shapovallop, Felix Ozayalasim and Gabrielle Diallo,

what happened? Shapovallop lost first round. Ozayalasim lost first round. Diallo won his first round but then got absolutely crushed last night by world number four Taylor Fritz. On the women's side, another huge disappointment. Leila Fernandez coming off of winning Washington, her biggest win of her career last weekend. What does she do? She loses first round to the same player she beat in the first round in Washington. Bianca Andrescu playing some of the best tennis she's played in years, rolls her ankle two points from the finish line against former Wimbledon champion Barbara Karchikova manages to get the win but cannot continue in the tournament

and now is rehabbing to get ready for the US Open but on the plus side Jeannie Bouchard was supposed to just have a ceremonial exit out of nowhere she wins her first round match absolute amazing storybook in Montreal goes on the next round and nearly beats the current Wimbledon, excuse me, Olympic champion. They go for three long sets, two and a half hours. Jeannie finally loses, goes out, that was special. And finally, the best story of all, 18-year-old Victoria Mboko, the last Canadian standing. Watch out for her in the future.

She is going to be a major superstar in this sport and a name that all Canadian sports fans are going to get to know. Something to watch. Thank you, Ed Kleiman in Toronto. Thanks, Anand. Music from nearly 20 years ago is proving to be the perfect soundtrack to today's shaky economic times. Recession Pop, which first topped the charts during the 2008 global financial crisis, is making a comeback on streaming and social media. But as Makda Gebreselasa explains, the tradition of listening to upbeat music during economic downturns goes back nearly a century. Turning back the clock, tunes that thrive during tough economic times are once again

popping up with the help of streaming services and social media. Recession pop is making a comeback. The subgenre covers pop music that came out around the great recession of 2008-2009, a time that gave way to party anthems from Kesha, Lady Gaga, I gotta feel it. the Black Guide Peas and more. It is known for its catchy lyricism. Taylor Crumpton is a music and politics writer in Dallas, Texas.

It's a variation of electronic dance music where the lyrics are primarily focused on escapism, euphoria, going out to the club. In the last year, Spotify says it's seen a 6% increase in streams of recession pop in Canada and a 36% growth since 2022. Luminate, which tracks music data in the U.S., saw a spike too. What's driving this interest? Crompton points to the events of the last few years from the COVID-19 pandemic to Donald Trump's trade war. We are feeling collectively as a nation, a society, this feeling of anxiety, of depression, of despair, of despondency.

And we're wanting to ingest music that kind of counteracts those feelings. Out with new music, Kesha is playing up the recession pop talk too in this interview with SiriusXM's TikTok radio and nobody can afford eggs. So at least we should party. Turns out there's a long history of pairing upbeat popular music with tough times. The great depression of the 1930s. There was a string of happy song. David Metzer is a music historian in Vancouver. World War Two is a great example. He had all these you

have this huge swing band popularity during World War II and that was all this vivacious dance music going on so pop music has always offered that. Michael McCarty who runs a music publishing company in Toronto points to other forces at play like the nostalgia cycle. If a song got its hooks and culture to begin with generally if it was a hit there's almost always a song got its hooks and culture to begin with, generally if it was a hit, there's almost always a bump in its consumption and revenue 15 to 20 years later. No matter the reason, from streaming to social media, recession pop seems to be on replay. Makda Gebre-Selesa, CBC News, Toronto.

Well from pop music to classical theatre, we close tonight with a modern adaptation of Shakespeare. Except there are no hushed whispers as the players enter this stage. No, it's the metallic rattling and squeaks of giant construction vehicles. And a rally car is your hero. But soft, what headlight through yonder windshield brakes, it is in Estonia. And Juliet is a pickup truck? It's basically a big experiment what it means to do Shakespeare today and whether we can find new ways to do it. That's co-director Paavo Pieck, clearly up for a challenge in his strange and lovely production

of Romeo and Juliet, where the performers had the same costume, high visibility vests, the stage was a quarry southwest of the capital Tallinn, and the characters all had wheels. It's funny and interesting to kind of go try to do these things with big machines. How do you do it on stage? Like how do you make cars talk? And you can hear there were some classical elements like the music... ...but also you know fireworks and a car rolling off a cliff to a rocky grave. And instead of Tybalt and Mercutio's swords clanging, it was an excavator's claw and a hydraulic jackhammer.

Look, the audience knew it wasn't the West End or Stratford, but still seemed to be having a good time. Like when you had the scene where the cars were kind of probably kissing, you would assume, it was, the energy was captured really well. The Grand Finale was supported by the thunderstorm as well, so quite an evening to remember. I guess the sun for Sorrow did not show his head. Audiences can take in one more performance tomorrow from this experimental theater troupe,

but we leave you with a classic from Bas Lerman's 1996 adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, Love Fool, by the Cardigans. This has been Your World Tonight for Saturday, August 2nd. I'm Anand Ram. Thanks for listening. I'm gonna go to bed. I'm gonna go to bed. I'm gonna go to bed. I'm gonna go to bed. I'm gonna go to bed. I'm gonna go to bed.

I'm gonna go to bed. I'm gonna go to bed. I'm gonna go to bed. I'm gonna go to bed. I'm gonna go to bed. I'm gonna go to bed. I'm gonna go to bed. I'm gonna go to bed. Love me, love me, say that you love me. Fool me, fool me, go on and fool me.