Hard Numbers: Bundle up, New capital gains rules, Big cocaine bust, CEOs rake it in, Hockey highlights

January 02, 2025

A snow plow clears the road along Main Street in downtown Brampton, Ontario, on Jan. 2, 2025.

Mike Campbell/NurPhoto via Reuters

40: After a mild December, winter decided to finally show up. A powerful polar vortex will bring extreme cold and heavy snowfall to parts of Canada and the US in the coming days, with temperatures plunging as low as -40°C (-40°F) in the Canadian Prairies and dipping to -25°F (-32°C) in parts of the northern US Midwest. Regions from Alberta and Saskatchewan to the Great Lakes and New England will be most affected.

67: Tax filers in Canada face new tax rules on capital gains for 2024 after last year’s federal budget raised the capital gains tax inclusion rate from 50% to 67% on gains above $250,000. Taxpayers can still hope to avoid the increase: While the Canada Revenue Agency has provisionally enforced the measure since June 25, the changes were never passed by Parliament, so if the minority government falls or an election is called before it passes, it will not become law.

189: Canadian authorities announced that they seized 189 kilograms of cocaine, worth an estimated $2 million, at Alberta's Coutts border crossing with Montana, following a joint investigation by the Integrated Border Enforcement Team and Canadian Border Services Agency in November. The news came after the Alberta government’s announcement in December about a new Interdiction Patrol Team to intercept drug and firearms smuggling, in response to calls from US President-elect Donald Trump to beef up border security.

210: Canada's 100 top-paid CEOs earnedan average of $13.2 million in 2023 – 210 times more than the average worker, down from a high of over 240 times more in 2022 and 2021. The Centre for Policy Alternatives ascribes the difference to rising wages and declining corporate profits but notes that long-term trends show CEO-to-worker pay ratios have still steadily grown.

1: Team USA beat an “undisciplined” Team Canada 4-1 at the 50th World Junior Hockey Championship on New Year’s Eve, despite “plenty of fan noise” from their Ottawa audience. After the game, Canadian captain Brayden Yager commented, “We want to play those guys again and get some revenge.” That will have to wait until next year, but the first-place Americans face Switzerland in the quarter-finals on Thursday while third-place Canada plays Czechia.

Dems vs GOP: Who Blinks?

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., talks with reporters in Russell building after a senate vote on Wednesday, February 19, 2025.

(Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/Sipa USA)

House Speaker Mike Johnson is expected to pass a budget bill with only Republican support on Wednesday, sending Senate Democrats an imminent predicament: Either approve a spending bill created solely by the GOP or trigger a shutdown standoff – a strategy they have consistently criticized in the past.

Romania’s leading presidential candidate appeals ban

A boy holds a sign reading "Calin Georgescu President" during an anti-government rally in Bucharest, Romania.

REUTERS/Andreea Campeanu/File Photo

Ultranationalist Calin Georgescu was the frontrunner heading into Romania’s May presidential election. But electoral authorities banned him from running over the weekend, citing paperwork mistakes and unspecified concerns about this commitment to upholding the country’s constitution.

Carney clinches Canadian Liberal leadership

Former Bank of Canada and Bank of England Governor Mark Carney listens to outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's speech just before being elected to succeed Trudeau as Liberal Party leader on Sunday, March 9, in Ottawa, Canada.

REUTERS/Amber Bracken/Pool

Mark Carney, former governor of the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England, won the leadership of Canada’s Liberal Party on Sunday, succeeding outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Sectarian violence erupts in Syria – in former Assad stronghold

Syrian fighters and civilians carry the coffin of a member of the Syrian security forces during his funeral in Hama province after he and 11 other colleagues were killed in an ambush by groups loyal to the ousted President Bashar al-Assad in Latakia.

Moawia Atrash/dpa via Reuters Connect

It seems that the 14-year-long civil war isn’t quite over in Syria. Since Thursday, violent clashes between deposed dictator Bashar Assad’s Alawite loyalists and supporters of the new Sunni regime in the coastal regions have left over 1,000 dead, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Hard Numbers: Bundle up, New capital gains rules, Big cocaine bust, CEOs rake it in, Hockey highlights

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Hard Numbers: Bundle up, New capital gains rules, Big cocaine bust, CEOs rake it in, Hockey highlights

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Subscribe to GZERO Media's newsletter: Signal

More from GZERO Media

What is President Donald Trump’s strategy on China? On the one hand, he slapped additional 10% tariffs on Chinese goods and is considering$1 million fees on Chinese-built vessels entering US ports.

The Trump administration is committed to cutting the federal bureaucracy, have you been keeping up with which departments have been on the chopping block? Prove it by solving this crossword puzzle.

32: An oil tanker and a cargo ship collided in the North Sea off the coast of East Yorkshire, causing a massive fire andinjuring 32 people.

Greenlanders are heading to the polls on Tuesday.

GZEROMEDIA

Subscribe to GZERO Media's newsletter: Signal

Ultranationalist Calin Georgescu was the frontrunner heading into Romania’s May presidential election. But electoral authorities banned him from running over the weekend, citing paperwork mistakes and unspecified concerns about this commitment to upholding the country’s constitution.

As Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky was in Saudi Arabia Monday ahead of US-Ukrainian talks, Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk has made waves in recent days.

Mark Carney, former governor of the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England, won the leadership of Canada’s Liberal Party on Sunday, succeeding outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.