While we celebrate these milestones, Ontario needs to continue to reform its distribution system to reflect the addition of convenience stores to the expanded alcohol retailing market.

Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives survived their first major electoral test since a turbulent spring and summer, holding two seats in Thursday’s trio of byelections.

Marit Stiles’s NDP reclaimed Scarborough Southwest and denied the Ontario Liberals the breakthrough they had hoped would provide momentum heading into their leadership race.

Matt Strauss, the Conservative MP for Kitchener South—Hespeler, announced this Wednesday that he had taken out an Ontario Liberal membership specifically to support Lombardi in the upcoming leadership contest.

Canada has already seen how quickly provincial actions can become entangled with negotiations.

Ontario's previous U.S. advertising campaign featuring former president Ronald Reagan criticizing tariffs triggered a furious response from Trump and became another source of tension between Ford and the federal government over how the U.S. relationship should be managed.

That history may have made Ottawa particularly wary of another provincial intervention becoming a distraction from negotiations.

Van Koeverden added that the benefits extend well beyond high-performance athletes, saying governments should be looking for ways to get children and families away from screens and into community recreation. “As we build Canada strong, we also want to build Canada physically active at the same time,” he said.