The Year Ahead

The first Maclean’s event of 2025 tackled topics from artificial intelligence to access to opportunity to setting a national vision

The people, trends, ideas and everything else that matters in 2025

Generational change, culture shifts and labour activism will reshape workplaces, while slowing inflation, rising wages and a surge in side hustles will finally put a little more money in Canadians’ pockets

Canadians will make pioneering advances in artificial intelligence, driverless vehicles and quantum computing. And we’ll all finally get plugged into high-speed internet.

A B.C. university will train North America’s first wildfire-fighting civilians, while AI hits the forest-fire front lines. Quebec’s flood zones will get a long-awaited overhaul. And Ontario will supersize its power grid.

Canadians will play spot-the-landmark when The Last of Us returns. The CBC will try to Poilievre-proof itself with a new CEO. And Canada’s Wonderland will roll out the country’s fastest, tallest launch coaster. 

A women’s sports boom, a Raptors rebuild and a no-nonsense Leafs makeover are all on the docket for 2025. Meanwhile, the feds will tackle sports betting ads, while Alberta ramps up its own gambling scene.

Quebec’s classrooms will take centre stage in the secularism debate. Chatbots will help students create A-plus work, while others will grade themselves. And thousands of international students will be sent home.

The exorbitant cost of food will have ripple effects on the restaurant industry and grocery stores. The good news? There’s a plan to save the country’s salmon supply.

The family doctor crisis will finally start to ease, while pharmacists take centre stage in patient care. The battle over private medicine will heat up. And governments will change how we treat addiction.