The Buzz Dec 27th 2025: Horseshoes, headlines, and a little hope for…

The Buzz Dec 27th 2025: Horseshoes, headlines, and a little hope for 2026

Welcome to the weekend and welcome to The Buzz

Here we are in the midst of the holidays, couple of days after Christmas and a couple more after Hanukkah, and still with all the excitement of New Year’s still to come.

This is the time of year where we tend to make lists: best stories of the outgoing year, top newsmakers, and looking ahead, some resolutions, all of which many of us tend to forget within days if not hours. But we do them anyway. Back in those awful days when I used to smoke two packs a day (and horrors, American cigarettes to boot), I’d promise midnight December 31st would be my last inhale. Never happened. When I did finally do the right thing and quit back in the mid-nineties, it wasn’t a new year’s resolution that did it, it was being forced to stand outside the CBC building, huddled with the other smokers, to puff away that did it. And it was in the fall, not New Year’s Eve. I just did it. Cold turkey.

This year, at 77, I’m determined to do more exercise, especially outside. It’s such a pleasant walk around town here in Stratford, but it’s so icy outside --- maybe I’ll wait till March. There’s always an excuse if you want one.

Fortunately this week, there are some great columns to read that focus on the kind of year end stuff you want. Like this one from the Toronto Star’s Susan Delacourt about the year gone by in Canadian politics:

🔒 Five things that shook Canadian politics in 2025

It’s all about horseshoes, and how properly placed, they can make your year.

Here’s another one from my friend Lisa Van Dusen, the editor of Policy magazine.

Mark Carney’s 2025: Baptism by Horseshoe

This has been a challenging year for a lot of Canadians, and they’re spending this holiday season hoping that things will turn better in 2026.

When you scan the horizon of issues, they could all use some turning for the better don’t you think?

But there is at least one thing about Canada that Halifax writer Michael Harris is convinced finds a brighter side. We’ll never, claims Michael, elect a Donald Trump:

🔒 One of the best things about Canada is we’ll never elect a Donald Trump

Canadians used to drink a lot of Kentucky bourbon...

Jim Beam especially. Not anymore. And Jim Beam workers who have lost their jobs recently can thank, at least partially, the aforementioned Donald Trump for that:

Major Kentucky bourbon maker Jim Beam shuttering distillery for 2026

We like at this time of year to look to the future...

Okay here’s something timely. We like at this time of year to look to the future. Well, here’s someone the future is almost certain to be highlighting, even though he’s already highlighting the present. And he’s just a kid playing with and against men. And he’s better than good. Here’s a video, thanks to the CBC’s Adrienne Arsenault, that will help you draw out all your emotions:

NHL rookie to watch: The making of Matthew Schaefer

Lately I’ve been getting mail about the issue of ads for sports gambling...

I get a lot of mail each week. And I enjoy reading through the ideas many of my listeners and viewers have. Some agree with what my programming suggests, others don’t and make their case sincerely and often forcefully.

Lately I’ve been getting mail about the issue of ads for sports gambling. No one who writes in is in favour of it, and I must say the mail of late has been growing on this topic.

It’s also an issue that’s hit Parliament Hill as you can see in this offering for National Newswatch from Senator Percy Downe:

Canada must stop gambling with public health and ban sports betting ads

I’ve just realized that The Buzz almost had it all in this week’s short holiday edition. We had smoking, drinking and gambling. We missed sex.

There’s always next week! Just kidding. Enjoy the holidays, The Buzz will be back in seven days

The Buzz is a weekly publication from National Newswatch that shares insights and commentary on the week’s developments in politics, news and current affairs.