Most Influential

IT MAY HAVE taken Donald Trump's 51st-state rhetoric to stoke our national pride, but we kept the fire burning bright with subtle and not-so-subtle acts of patriotism all our own.

- By Malcolm Johnston

In 2025, Mike Myers simultaneously trolled Americans and rallied Canadians on SNL; the heads of UHN and U of T welcomed world-class scientists and academics leaving the US; and Sheridan-trained animator Maggie Kang forced Netflix to revisit its entire business model with her unstoppable KPop Demon Hunters. The Jays united a city and a country eager for a resounding win against America's top team, and while they didn't end up with the trophy, they won the hearts of sports fans old and new. But 2025's true MVP? Prime Minister Mark Carney, who, along with fellow inductees Doug Ford and Anita Anand, among others, spent the year pushing back against authoritarianism across the border and around the world.

No.1 Prime Minister Mark Carney

THE JOB OF PRIME MINISTER is hard, and it ought to be. But Mark Carney entered office in an unprecedentedly difficult time. Our decades-long partnership with the US has been unilaterally ruptured by a president who keeps treating our national sovereignty like a cat toy. Alberta is threatening to secede if they don’t get what they want. Critical minerals, especially those in the Ring of Fire, position Canada to be a global leader, except Indigenous leaders are in no hurry to mine them, and for good reason. When it comes to AI, Canada must not be left behind—or so far out in front that we’re vulnerable to its perils. And while Carney is popular, his party is decidedly not, and each jobs report, inflationary indicator and Trump mood swing threatens to undo everything. It’s enough to make a guy run for the hills (or a yacht off San Diego). But Carney isn’t running: he’s down for the fight. Here, a conversation with the prime minister on domestic turmoil, the perils of AI and going toe-to-toe with Trump.