Your World Tonight - Staff picks — Canada Day edition: Pride-filled Canada Day, tough times for grads, hugging American tourists, and more

Episode Date: July 1, 2025

Canadians celebrate our national day with pride fuelled in part by the US tariff war and talk of becoming the 51st state. The phrase elbows up entered the Canadian lexicon along with an attitude to hit back. It’s generated a boom for Canadian product makers, with a new ‘buy Canadian’ attitude — but has also scared off American tourists that we are trying to win back.And: Graduating from school into today’s job market is scarier now than it has been for decades. The pandemic, exploding inflation, now a tariff war mean fewer jobs, and shrinking opportunities. Finding any kind of job can be a full time job for today’s grads.Also: Canada is among several nations moving to make a climate change pipedream come true: devices that can suck deadly carbon emissions out of the air. They say they're getting close enough to attract serious investment.Plus: Sir David Attenborough has been the world’s guide to the wonders of nature for most of his 99 years on earth. In what may be his final film, he focuses on how the seas can save us from climate change, if only we can save them from industrial overfishing.

I'm Joshua Jackson, and I'm returning for the Audible original series, Oracle, Season 3, Murder at the Grandview. Six forty-somethings took a boat out a few days ago. One of them was found dead. The hotel, the island, something wasn't right about it. Psychic agent Nate Russo is back on the case, and you know when Nate's killer instincts are required, anything's possible.

This world's gonna eat you alive. Listen to Oracle Season 3, Murder at the Grandview, now on Audible. This is a CBC Podcast. I would love to see Canada be the 51st state, because then we'd let business go to Canada routinely and there'd be no tariffs. A Canada day unlike any other the first since this country's sovereignty was questioned and threatened by one of the most powerful people in the world. A sudden jolt to Canada's soul that caused a powerful response and a surge in national pride.

I've passed I think it's the wrong way to do it. It's our closest ally. It's ridiculous. Talk of a 51st state still resonating on the July 1st holiday. Swelling nationalism that changed how Canadians feel about this country, its closest neighbour, how we shop and how we travel. I get back to my Canadian clients and I say, I don't blame you. I wouldn't come down to my country either if I were in your situation.

I'm Susan Bonner. Welcome to a special Canada Day edition of Your World Tonight. Also on the program Troubled Waters, a renowned filmmaker and leading environmentalist, takes a deep dive into the murky world of industrial fishing. Many Canadians didn't have to go digging for their flags, t-shirts and patriotism today. They've been in use for months. Ever since the threats and tariffs from US President

Donald Trump, Canadians have been pushing back. But it's all putting stress on cross-border relations and some say there's no going back. Thomas Daigle reminds us how we got here. On a busy downtown Toronto street in the shadow of the imposing grey U.S. consulate, ask Canadians how they feel and you'll get a burst of patriotism. I think people are disappointed and obviously it's ramped up to a point that we haven't seen maybe ever. Mixed with outright anger at our southern neighbour. I've passed. I think it's the wrong way to do it. It's our closest ally. It's ridiculous.

Can you see? That emotion spilling out into the open during the U.S. National Anthem at NHL games in Vancouver, Calgary and Ottawa, and as the Toronto Raptors hosted the L.A. Clippers. Consider it a moment of national frustration, reminiscent for some of a much different dispute in 2003. Back then hockey fans in Montreal booed the star-spangled banner and protesters took to the streets over the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. Canada refused to join the operation, highlighting rare cracks in what had been a mostly stable relationship since confederation.

That sparked a kind of emotional response that we're seeing similar to today where a lot of Canadians are like, hey, stop bullying us. University of Toronto business historian Dmitri Anastakis also points to a famous song by the Guess Who. American woman, stay away from me. Released amid strong anti-American sentiment in Canada over the Vietnam War. Now tensions over Trump's tariffs come in the era of social media. With Canadian users posting memes and stunts to vent their frustration. In a video from a New York pharmacy, Toronto comedian Arsalan Shirazi pushes aside American snacks,

replacing them with Canada dry ginger ale and Sour Patch Kids candy, first produced in Ontario. So I think there's an element of people saying like, hey, we're not gonna just let you push us around because we have to stand up for ourselves. New Brunswick Premier Susan Holt says she too is seeing a visible rise in Canadian pride. I think that comes alongside a bit of an anti-American sentiment, a frustration that our closest neighbour and trading partner has decided to treat us this way.

The trade war provoking unity from coast to coast as Canadians everywhere consider what's to come. Thomas Daigle, CBC News, Toronto. It's not just slogans and memes Canadians are using to vent their frustration with the U.S. administration. They're also changing their travel plans, canceling reservations in the U.S. and opting for staycations on this side of the border. As Chris Reyes tells us, it's dealing a blow to tourism in the U.S. My name is Matt. I'm a tour guide.

Matt Levy is surrounded by a tour group of high school students from Georgia, doing what he does best as the owner-operator of Spread Love Tours. We'll go up Broadway, we'll see the bull, we'll see 9-11 Memorial. In the 20 years he's been a tour guide, he's always had Canadians make up a good chunk of his business. Not this year. My company grossed $35,000 exclusively from Canadian high school kids coming for their class trip. $20,000, $5,000 and going down because I still get cancellations every other week. The concern extends to every American destination.

Last year, Canadian tourists spent $20 billion in the U.S., making them the single largest source of international visitors to the country. In a beach town on the southern stretch of the Jersey shore, their summer months are packed with Canadians. Luis Belasco leads the Wildwoods Tourism Authority. You'd go past every hotel in the Wildwoods and it would be nothing but Quebec license plates sprinkled with a couple Ontario ones. It was wall to wall Canadians.

In New York City alone, more than a million Canadians visited last year. I say Canada should be our 51st state. But with every threat from the Trump administration, those numbers are changing fast. Canadian airlines have reduced or cancelled flights in recent months due to a drop in demand. Land border crossings are down almost 25%. Levy feels it. From January 20 onward, I'm getting cancellations.

It sucks, man. It's really, really rough. In Wildwood, New Jersey, John Donio is president of the Wildwood Business Improvement District. He's been working on some new messaging. We just want our friends up north to know that here in New Jersey, in the Wildwoods, we love you guys. You're welcome here always. In New York City, Levy is hopeful the Canadians will come back. He just doesn't know when. I get back to my Canadian clients and I say, I don't blame you. I wouldn't come down to my country either if I were in your situation. My message to Canadians is clearly you guys

know this. I don't need to remind you New York is not representative of the politics coming out of DC. At least for now, many Canadians don't seem ready to make the distinction. Chris Reyes, CBC News, New York. From travel plans to trips to the grocery store, as the tension mounted, many Canadians started to avoid products imported from the U.S. Buying Canadian, whether it was cookies or laundry soap, provinces also pulled U.S. wine and liquor from the shelves, giving a huge boost to domestic producers. That proved to be a lifeline for winemakers in British Columbia. The CBC's Kyle Backs has more on their comeback year.

Our Pinot Gris is one of the most popular white wines sold in British Columbia. British Columbia wineries are ready to raise a glass, anticipating a banner year as the boycott of U.S. booze continues. Absolutely that's an opportunity. Tony Haller is the owner of Poplar Grove Winery near Penticton. I'm excited first of all and very very optimistic. Everything looks really really good here in the Okanagan. Most of the country united to pull U.S. made wine and liquor from shelves early on in response to Donald Trump's trade war.

For local wineries, it's a unique opportunity with more space at stores and on restaurant menus. Busier tasting rooms too as many Canadians choose to spend their travel dollars at home. We're having signs of both increased visitors, increased sales. A dramatic change of fortune for BC wineries devastated by extreme cold last year that wiped out the crop. These big trunks got badly damaged by the cold. Now vines are recovering, demand is up, and the movement by provinces to boost domestic trade could lead to more BC wines on store shelves across the country. That's turned into a positive for us. Paul Saller is with Wine Growers British Columbia.

A lot of consumer sentiment certainly seems to be shifting and saying I don't want US wines. So I think it opens up a lot of doors for the Canadian wine industry. South of the border, it's a bitter situation. I mean we're neighbours and partners. Canada is the top export market for U.S. wine, worth more than a billion dollars U.S. every year. And while Alberta and Saskatchewan have eased their bans, most provinces including Ontario and Quebec have cancelled orders and Old Stock is gathering dust on warehouse shelves. Joan Coutts, head of global sales at Ironstone Vineyard in California, says it's tough to

swallow. It's frustrating. We'd love to have it back out on the shelves and love to be back doing our business as usual. For now in BC, Holler says the surge in national pride continues. A lot of people who've never tasted our wine hardly have any choice but to try some of the Okanagan wines and once they taste them I'm telling you they're going to keep buying them. No shortage of optimism and wine as the busy summer season begins. Kyle Backs, CBC News, Calgary.

Kyle Backs, CBC News, Calgary. Coming right up. This is the story of our ocean and how we must write its next chapter together. For if we save the sea, we save our world. Sir David Attenborough, the guide for generations of people through the wonders of nature is nearly a century old. His final film puts the focus on the oceans as the key to dealing with climate change. We also look at the high number of young people trying to find jobs as a recession looms and how that could affect their lives for years to come. Later we'll have this story. Many Canadian travelers are avoiding the U.S.

but at the same time, fewer Americans are visiting Canada. It's a trend Canadian tourism groups are trying to stop by letting Americans know they're wanted here. They are asking if they will be welcome if they come in Quebec. So this is why we wanted to send them a message to confirm that they are surely welcome. The push to keep American tourists coming.

I'm Sofia Harris in Toronto. I'll have that story later on Your World Tonight. His name is synonymous with stunning documentaries capturing the natural world in all its glory. But as he approaches his 100th birthday, British broadcaster David Attenborough has turned his lens on a man-made threat, the dangers of overfishing in the world's oceans. The film peers into a shadowy industry. But as Anand Ram tells us, Attenborough's message contains optimism. After living for nearly a hundred years on this planet, I now understand the most important place on earth is not on land, but at sea. Quite a statement from a voice that has brought us

closer to the natural world for decades. For once you've truly seen the sea, you'll never look at Earth in the same way again. In his latest documentary, Ocean, David Attenborough shows us the interconnected nature of our seas and the creatures that call it home. From the surface, you would have no idea that this is happening. Death looms, and you know the bad guy by now. It's us and our hunger.

A modern industrial bottom trawler scours the ocean floor, he smashes its way across the seabed, destroying nearly everything in its path. Rashid Sumela is an ocean and fisheries economist at the University of British Columbia. Some of us see bottom trawling as clear cutting of a forest. It grinds the bottom and they do it many times. Beyond the blanket scoop which research puts at millions of tons of unwanted fish killed a year, trolling also disturbs buried carbon, contributing to climate change. Anna Kerosh is with the Plymouth Marine Laboratory in England.

There are areas that are indeed hold very old and very long carbon stores and there are areas that because of the physics of that particular system, they hold less carbon. She says more needs to be done to map out where this carbon is so we can continue to feed a hungry world that depends on this invaluable source of protein. In a time when we can't really choose not to troll, you know, can we at least make more informed decisions that limit that impact?" To be clear, the film isn't anti-fishing. It says current methods are unsustainable. But expanding marine protected areas could be a win-win. Akash Maharaj is director of policy at Nature Canada.

All scientific research shows that having marine protected areas actually increases the catch in the surrounding areas." But experts warn many of these are paper parks, where both legal and illegal activity continues. It's not enough to draw a line on a map and say this area is now protected. There has to be a rational use framework and above all there has to be enforcement. The ocean can recover faster than we had ever imagined. It's why the film is pushing for more of these protected areas. And at the UN Ocean Conference last month, some nations did pledge to create more, though critics say it falls short of what's needed to meet the crisis in our ocean.

Anand Ram, CBC News, Toronto. There's hope for another climate change remedy, and this one may sound familiar. It's the idea that carbon dioxide can simply be sucked out of the air and safely stored. For a long time, it's looked like a far off fantasy, but real Canadian companies are raising plenty of cash to build machines that actually work. Paula Duhatschek reports.

In an industrial park north of Calgary, preparations are underway for a sort of carbon removal Olympics. They are technologies from all around the world, from Canada, from the UK, from France, from Germany, from the Netherlands. Alex Petra is CEO of Montreal-based Deep Sky. It's testing different technologies that work sort of like giant air filters, sucking carbon dioxide right out of the sky. And all of them are coming here to demonstrate that we can actually take CO2 from the atmosphere and sequester it underground. Once Deep Sky figures out which technologies work best,

it plans to use them in commercial projects all over the country. Damien Steele, an advisor with the business, says the company is already starting to work on its first two projects in Quebec and Manitoba. We're willing to put our neck on the line and start to invest in these future facilities even before we know what technology we're going to use. We're so committed to doing this that we just start to. But the carbon removal industry is in a moment of upheaval. Previously the US has been a world leader in carbon removal but the Trump administration is pushing back on all things

climate and at least two carbon removal companies with operations there are cutting staff. Environmental policy consultant Ed Wittingham says in a strange way this could be good news for Canada. We can see a pathway whereby capital that would otherwise be deployed in the U.S. actually comes north of the border here. But scrubbing carbon from the sky is an expensive proposition. Deep Sky makes money by selling carbon removal credits to companies hoping to hit certain environmental targets. And with the economy teetering on the verge of a recession, there's risk that even in this country,

carbon removal starts to look like an unnecessary luxury. Warren Mabey is head of the Queen's University Institute for Energy and Environmental Policy. When the markets are bad, people are less likely to be voluntarily paying additional costs to signal good behaviour. As for Damian Steele with Deep Sky, to be voluntarily paying additional costs to signal good behaviour. As for Damien Steele with Deep Sky, he's still confident in the company's future.

I have faith that at the end of the day, human beings genuinely care about our future and that will turn into stakeholder pressure on some of these organisations. Steele says concerns about climate change aren't going anywhere, and that means a market for businesses offering solutions. Paula Duhaczek, CBC News, Innisfail, Alberta.

School's out and for a lot of grads the hard part is about to begin. They're looking to enter the job market at a particularly tough time. Recession is looming and layoffs are becoming more common. It's been decades since it was so hard for young people to get a start. Jenna Benchitrich reports. The class of 2025, let's hear it for them!

With cap in hand, Sarah Chung was all smiles on the happy day of her convocation ceremony. But the 23-year-old's media and communications graduate knows that she probably won't find a full-time job in her field anytime soon. It's bleak. There's talk about there's a recession coming. I'm not an economist, but I can also see it. The latest job numbers explain why she

and other recent grads are having a tough goal at it. The youth unemployment rate is over 11%, the worst it's been since the mid-90s. Three decades later, and the economy has served Canada's youngest workers a bad cocktail. A shot of pandemic with a high inflation chaser and a heavy pour of new job seekers stirred in.

All of it topped off with a bitter garnish of tariffs. We've seen over the past few years, Canadian youth employment conditions really deteriorate. Economist Brendan Bernard says it used to be that young people would hop from job to job and get a pay raise with each move, leaving jobs for the generation behind them. But that's not happening, and he says...

That causes sort of like a traffic jam that cascades throughout the labour market. Those entry-level positions are hard to come by these days. I've applied for maybe 400 or 500 plus jobs. The job hunt feels never-ending for Divyan Varna Kumaran. The 25-year-old graduated last month with a degree in electrical engineering, and he's been looking for work since December. No luck yet, but he isn't taking it personally.

It is disheartening, but at the same time it is because of the market. It's not really me that may be the issue. He looked for fast food jobs, but never heard back from Starbucks or Chipotle. StatsCan says it's pretty common for new workers to take jobs they're overqualified for, but Long-term earnings prospects are dampened for people graduating during the recession. Economics professor Miles Korak says joining the workforce during a downturn can lead to something called wage scarring. That's when young workers take low paying jobs and get stuck there, taking

years to catch up to older workers. Korak says that's what happened after recessions in the early 80s and 90s. Not because they're not getting jobs, but eventually they fall into a part of the Corack says that's what happened after recessions in the early 80s and 90s. Not because they're not getting jobs, but eventually they fall into a part of the labor market that isn't as high paying in types of occupations that they didn't anticipate doing. Experts agree we aren't technically in a recession yet, and we may not go into one at all. But when the labor market changes like it has, young people tend to feel it first. Ben Guch is also a recent engineering grad. He took a job at a garden center to help pay his bills. And the irony isn't lost on him.

I spent two hours sleeping yesterday and I have a mechanical engineering degree. Lately, he's been reflecting on where his parents were when they were his age. They owned a condo, had started their careers, and were building a life together. For Gucch, those milestones are on ice, for now. I don't have a full-time job yet. I haven't started my career, so I'm kind of waiting for life to start. Jenna Benchitrat, CBC News, Toronto. Getting back to the theme we started on, the Canada-U.S. cross-border tension, it's causing many people to rethink travel to the U.S.

But Canadian tourism operators are hoping the American customers they depend on still decide to come here and some new ad campaigns have a message. Canadians may be upset with your president, but you are still welcome here. Sophia Harris has more. We're starting in Cleveland here, going up Michigan's head north through Thunder Bay. Last December, Dan Davis and his friends started planning a summer motorcycle trip from their home in Cleveland to northern Ontario. But then, in January, US President Donald Trump took office, began a trade war and threatened to annex Canada.

It would really be a wonderful marriage. Canadians got angry. What were you worried Canadians might do? All it takes is one person to say, you know what, I'm going to show these guys a lesson, whether it's analyzing a bike, throwing a beer can at you. The number of trips Americans made to Canada has declined, according to Statistics Canada, down 11% in April and 8% in May for car travel. That's compared to the same time last year.

Welcome to Canada's eastern townships. To encourage Americans to visit, several Canadian tourism operators have launched friendly ad campaigns in the U.S., including one set at a hotel in Quebec's Eastern Townships. Where are you visiting from? I'm American. Ah. At this point in the ad, the hotel clerk smiles knowingly and gives the American a big warm hug. Tourism Eastern Townships created the campaign. Isabelle Charleboix is the general director. What kind of concerns were you hearing from Americans about coming? They are asking if they will be welcome if they come in Quebec.

So this is why we wanted to send a message to confirm that they are surely welcome, not to be scared to visit us. Open arms, warm hospitality. In BC, more than a dozen businesses that specialize in bear viewing tours are sending Americans the same message in a YouTube video. You're always welcome. Marjolee Hayne is general manager of Great Bear Lodge in Port Hardy. She says American bookings are down by more than 25%.

We're small operations. Every booking counts for us. We certainly don't want Americans to feel like they can't come up and share this beautiful wilderness with us. You are welcome. The campaigns may be working. Davis saw an Ontario-funded billboard in Cleveland inviting Americans to visit the province. He took it as a sign. That definitely helps us know we're making the right decision. We're going forward with our trip. Yeah, we all just need to come together as human beings on both sides of the border.

And travel is one way to make that happen. Sophia Harris, CBC News, Toronto. And that's our program for this Canada Day 2025. Thank you for joining us here on Your World Tonight. I'm Susan Bonner. Have a good evening.