Good morning, and welcome to the weekend.
Grab your cup of coffee or tea, and sit down with a selection of this week’s great reads from The Globe.
In this issue, we take a look at the state of Canadian cottage ownership. For people who are already stretched, owning and maintaining a cottage is more out of reach than ever. Financial pressure has led some to view cottages as a source of revenue or even a full-time home, especially after the surge in remote work during the pandemic.
In another story, we untangle the thread of the messy succession battle at apparel company Gildan, and in the process, unpack how the T-shirt giant built an empire on a foundation of cheap labour.
And the bars of small towns in the Prairies are in trouble. So Kyler Zeleny and Ian Canon visited a handful of them, and sat down for one last drink with local legends.
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To better understand the changes in cottage communities, The Globe and Mail spoke to eight people who reside in these areas across the country.The Globe and Mail
With the pandemic came a wave of Canadians rushing from cities to smaller towns to buy a slice of paradise in cottage country. Since then, much has changed. Cottagers and the communities they inhabit are still reeling from the aftermath of the last four years of change, and the dramatic impacts of the pandemic go beyond housing prices. Companies are calling people back to the office, prices have retreated and demand for rentals is soft as people look to travel the world. Irene Galea and Salmaan Farooqui survey the market, speaking to Canadians about their cottage-owning experiences.
Read more:
- Opinion: Our family cottage teaches us about the good kind of work
A sign points to one of the many Gildan factories currently operating in Northern Honduras. This specific factory is in the working class town of Choloma, Honduras.Tomas Ayuso/The Globe and Mail
We all know Gildan, the massive Canadian clothing empire with more than US$3-billion in annual revenue. Its messy succession battle has played out in headlines for months. Now its shareholders must decide whether ex-CEO Glenn Chamandy is the right man for its future. As Robyn Doolittle, Nicolas Van Praet and Andrew Willis report, this means assessing his past, including labour-abuse allegations in Central America, where Gildan opened its first overseas factory in Honduras.
Out with a bang: The long weekend tradition of fireworks could be coming to an end
Phatboy Fireworks sells a variety of fireworks, firecrackers and sparklers out of a trailer in Halton Hills, Ontario on May 16, 2024.Sammy Kogan/The Globe and Mail
Firework bans are becoming more common across Canada. Noise complaints, threat of forest fires, risk of injury – the reasons to ban them are many. Halton Hills’ city council voted earlier this month to introduce a personal fireworks ban by September, meaning the upcoming Victoria Day and Canada Day weekends mark the last time residents can legally set off their fireworks.
Is the Jewish moment in North America over?
Some of the North American Jewish artists who have made their mark internationally in the 20th century. Top row, from left: Nora Ephron, Tony Kushner, Mordecai Richler; second row: Mel Brooks, Leonard Bernstein and Helen Frankenthaler.The Globe and Mail
For decades, writes author and journalist Noah Richler, Jews were ascendant in the ranks of the moneyed and the politically powerful, and made their mark in literature, art, theatre and song. It lasted more than a half-century, lagging behind the 90 years of good fortune under the Hapsburgs before Nazi Germany brought that era to a close. Being a Jew is nothing to be scoffed at, but Richler believes that no matter the outcome of the war in Gaza, this much is clear: The Jewish moment in North America – the Golden Age of acceptance, freedom, flourishing and cultural contribution of Jews on this continent – is done. Our culture, and the Jews’ place in it, he says, is changing.
On the rocks: The death and life of Canada’s little bars on the Prairie
A local, since deceased, stops by for an afternoon drink at the Hillcrest Miners’ Literary Club in Crowsnest Pass, Alta.Kyler Zeleny /The Globe and Mail
Over the past three years, Kyler Zeleny and Ian Canon have visited nearly 30 Canadian small-town bars, a mission started with a challenge: Zeleny bet Canon that they could walk into any bar on the great plains and come out with a story worth repeating. On this journey, they saw the small-town taverns of Alberta and Saskatchewan were in trouble. So, they sat down for one last drink with their local legends.
Alice Munro is gone, but her lives of girls and women continue
Alice Munro at The Royal Scot hotel in Victoria October 11, 2013 where she was staying where she first heard the news of her winning the Nobel Prize for literature. (John Lehmann/The Globe and Mail)John Lehmann/The Globe and Mail
Alice Munro brought her readers into an emotional world that originated in her small-town roots, but spoke to all times and places. The Nobel Prize winner had a talent for turning ordinary life into art, cementing her global reputation among writers and critics. Her subject matter, the emotional lives of girls and women, deepened over time as she matured as a writer, Sandra Martin writes.
Learn the best time to visit this artsy Newfoundland town.Tom Cochrane/The Globe and Mail
For the seventh edition of Hidden Canada, The Globe asks travel writers to reveal 10 corners of the country that will fuel your wanderlust and sense of adventure. Among tips for places from nearly every province, they invite you to spend a night in a Quebec lighthouse, search for fossils on a Nova Scotia beach, stroll a riverbank neighbourhood in Saskatchewan, find four seasons of fun in a New Brunswick national park and explore a Yukon village that’s set up for adventure.
What is Queen Camilla reported to have said to Jonathan Yeo, the artist who painted the King Charles III portrait unveiled this week?
b. “Oh.”
d. “I always said red was his colour.”
Test your knowledge with this week’s arts and culture quiz here.