What product is Wealthsimple, the upstart financial services company, looking to bring to Canada?Giordano Ciampini/The Canadian Press
Welcome to The Globe and Mail’s business and investing news quiz. Join us each week to test your knowledge of the stories making headlines. Our business reporters come up with the questions, and you can show us what you know.
This week: It was a bad week for Meta and Elon Musk, Air Canada chief executive Michael Rousseau is in hot water and Doug Ford has declared Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport a “special economic zone.” Why? Take our quiz and find out.
1This was the week when U.S. President Donald Trump kept talking – and talking and then talking some more – about the Persian Gulf. Which of the following statements is not his?
a. “The United States of America has beaten and completely decimated Iran”
b. “If Iran doesn’t fully open, without threat, the Strait of Hormuz, within 48 hours from this exact point in time, the United States of America will hit and obliterate their various power plants, starting with the biggest one first”
c. The U.S. and Iran have had “very good and productive conversations” about ending the war
d. “We do not plan on any negotiations”
d. Mr. Trump’s description of what is happening in the Gulf has been, um, changeable. The U.S. President began by declaring that U.S. and Israeli forces have decimated Iran. Then he started issuing threats about what he will do if Iran doesn’t open up the Strait of Hormuz (But wait, isn’t Iran supposed to be beaten?). Mr. Trump then shifted to insisting that the U.S. and Iran are having fruitful talks about ending the war. That news has apparently not reached Iran. The final quote is from Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who told state TV that Tehran has not engaged in talks to end the war and doesn’t plan to start.
2Wealthsimple, the upstart financial services company, is seeking to bring what product to Canada?
a. Prediction markets that allow people to bet on future events
b. Funds that allow individuals to invest in private credit
c. Financial planning using artificial intelligence
d. Inflation-protected annuities
a. Is it betting or is it investing? Maybe both. Wealthsimple has won approval from the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization to start offering prediction trading, a controversial form of wagering on future events. The approval permits Ontario-based Wealthsimple to offer prediction contracts that are tied to economic indicators, financial markets and climate trends – but not to sports or elections, which are among the most popular areas for prediction markets in the United States.
3Karen Hogan, the federal Auditor-General, warned this week that it would cost at least $4.2-billion to do what?
a. Improve response times at Canada Revenue Agency
b. Expand the port of Vancouver to handle large oil tankers
c. Protect Canada’s oil pipelines from terrorist attacks
d. Fix Ottawa’s broken software for paying public servants
d. A new report from Ms. Hogan estimates that it will cost billions to fix the troubled Phoenix pay system. A prime example of what can go wrong with large software projects, Phoenix has generated thousands of complaints from public servants since it was designed by IBM and launched in 2016. The backlog of complaints about inaccurate payments includes files that are seven years old.
4It was a bad week for Meta Platforms. What went wrong for the owner of Facebook and Instagram?
a. Its network suffered a debilitating hacker attack
b. Two juries found it guilty in key court cases
c. Its chief executive quit
d. It was banned in Australia
b. Meta lost two important court cases. In one, a jury in California decided that Meta and YouTube designed their platforms to hook young users without concern for their well-being. In the other, a jury in New Mexico determined that Meta harms children’s mental health and safety, in violation of state law. If upheld, the two judgments could open the door to a flood of similar suits.
5It was also a bad week for Elon Musk. What went wrong for the world’s wealthiest man?
a. His flagship, Tesla, reported plunging sales
b. He was found guilty of defrauding investors
c. He was snubbed by China’s leadership
d. He was left off the guest list for a White House meeting of tech leaders
b. A U.S. federal jury found Mr. Musk liable for claims he defrauded Twitter shareholders by trying to drive down the social-media company’s stock price so he could renegotiate or back out of a US$44-billion takeover in 2022. Damages have yet to be calculated but Francis Bottini, a lawyer for the shareholders, estimated they could total about US$2.5-billion.
6Brookfield Corp. and the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec are teaming up to buy Montreal-based Boralex Inc. for $3.8-billion. What does Boralex do?
a. It mines lithium
b. It designs software for self-driving cars
c. It generates renewable power
d. It builds telecommunications satellites
c. Deep-pocketed fund managers have been snapping up generators of renewable power and Boralex is a fine example. It builds and runs renewable energy projects in Canada, France, Britain and the United States.
7Leonid Radvinsky has died at 43 from cancer. The secretive billionaire is credited with reshaping which industry?
a. Plant-based food
b. Sports betting
c. Performance drugs
d. Pornography
d. Mr. Radvinsky, a Ukrainian-American entrepreneur, reshaped the porn industry with a subscription model. Under his ownership, OnlyFans turned from a platform that once avoided explicit content into an adults-only phenomenon with more than 300 million users and over US$1-billion in annual revenue, powered by erotic performers and celebrity influencers.
8Air Canada chief executive Michael Rousseau is being lambasted for his video message of condolence after the tragic death of two pilots who died in a plane crash at New York’s LaGuardia Airport. In the opinion of his critics, what was wrong with his message?
a. It was too long
b. It offered no explanation for the crash
c. It was solely in English
d. It played down safety concerns
c. Political leaders expressed dismay with Air Canada’s chief executive officer after his English-language condolences to the families of the pilots who died in Sunday’s plane crash revived questions about his ability and willingness to speak French. Mr. Rousseau said he was deeply saddened that his inability to speak French has diverted attention from the tragedy.
9Why is Ontario Premier Doug Ford declaring Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport a “special economic zone”?
a. To permit duty-free shopping
b. To allow jets to land
c. To open up the airport to foreign airlines
d. To permit the construction of a 35-storey hotel
b. Mr. Ford is playing hardball. He plans to declare the small airport on Toronto Island a “special economic zone,” meaning that any provincial or municipal law could be scrapped to speed up the extension of the facility’s runway to allow jets. The unprecedented move follows the Premier’s vow two weeks ago to expropriate the municipal government’s interest in the island airport, in order to get around Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow’s opposition to landing jets at the site.
10Who just cancelled thousands of bookings for hotel rooms in Vancouver?
a. Organizers of the coming FIFA World Cup
b. Americans who are lashing back at Canada’s “elbows up” attitude
c. Attendees at a University of British Columbia conference on the future of electric vehicles
d. Federal immigration officials
a. Organizers of the coming FIFA World Cup have begun cancelling thousands of their hotel-room bookings in Vancouver, Toronto and other host cities across North America. The British Columbia Hotel Association said FIFA organizers have cancelled between 70 per cent and 80 per cent of their booked hotel rooms in Vancouver, accounting for roughly 15,000 hotel-room nights during the tournament period between June 11 and July 19. Such cancellations are standard practice for large-scale events, according to the association, but it acknowledges the volume being cancelled is higher than expected.
11Canada’s military spending has finally hit the NATO target of 2 per cent of gross domestic product. How long has it been since Ottawa last hit that target?
a. Nine years
b. 15 years
c. 22 years
d. 35 years
d. Yep, it’s a long-overdue accomplishment for Canada, which has persistently lagged the spending goal that was set by members of the NATO alliance in 2006 and then reaffirmed in 2014. Ottawa’s 2025-26 year spending will represent the first time in roughly 35 years that Canada has devoted 2 per cent of its gross domestic product to defence.
12Nice work! Employees at CoolIT learned this week that they will be receiving cash payouts averaging US$240,000 each after the Calgary company was sold to a Minnesota-based business. What does CoolIT do?
a. It creates advertising campaigns for tech companies
b. It constructs massive air conditioners for semiconductor factories
c. It builds cooling units for data centres
d. It monitors public opinion on issues related to artificial intelligence
c. CoolIT builds cooling systems for data centres. Demand for its products has surged with the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence and the company was purchased earlier this month by Ecolab Inc. of St. Paul, Minn., for US$4.75-billion in cash.
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