The Monocle Minute

For Canadians, doing the weekly shop has become a lot more complicated. In light of president Donald Trump’s threat to impose 25 per cent tariffs on the US’s northerly neighbour, Canadian shoppers are being encouraged to “buy Canadian”. Politicians have been actively pushing the message, while some shops are drawing battle lines in their aisles by adding a little maple-leaf flag next to Canadian goods or simply removing US products altogether. Buying local is a trickier proposition than it sounds given how entwined the neighbours’ economies are. Nevertheless, retailers are reporting an uptick in sales of homegrown products.

Yet the threat of a trade war is inspiring Canadians to shop around in other ways: a general election is set to take place on or before 25 October. But Trump’s looming tariffs are shifting the country’s politics and unifying swaths of the electorate, in a way that’s rare in Canada. This poses a particular problem for Pierre Poilievre, leader of the opposition Conservative Party, who has styled himself in a disruptive, Trumpian mould. While the incumbent Liberal Party of Canada, which was trailing the Conservatives in opinion polls by 25 points before the tariffs row, now looks better placed to take on Trump on trade – especially if former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney ends up at the top of the ticket.

Suddenly, an election that looked like a foregone conclusion only two weeks ago has become a lot tighter. With a pending deadline of 4 March for the tariffs to be introduced, the next few weeks will test the Liberal Party’s readiness to stand up for the country. Meanwhile, Canadians themselves are increasingly identifying with another definition of MAGA: “Make America Go Away”. It’s a slogan that’s been appearing on baseball caps recently – hats, we’re assured, that are made in Canada.

Tomos Lewis is Monocle’s Toronto correspondent. For more opinion, analysis and insight, subscribe to Monocle today.

European nations are spending more on defence (writes Julia Lasica). But how many frigates and F-35s would it take to secure its Eastern flank? The short answer: more. After all, the continent’s closest and most rapacious adversary, Russia, is spending more on defence than all other European countries combined. According to the latest edition of The Military Balance, an annual ledger of the world’s defence landscape published by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, Europe’s combined defence expenditure in 2024 was forecast to be €441bn ($457bn), while Russia’s spending for the same period is estimated at €445bn ($461.6bn).

Falling behind has real consequences. The EU missed its target of delivering a million 155mm ammunition shells to Ukraine in the first quarter of 2024 and last year Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte warned that the continent is “not ready for what is coming our way”. And this week the warning sirens sounded louder when Danish intelligence announced that Russia could be ready to wage a “large-scale war” in Europe within five years. So, again, how many jets and ships are needed? The long answer: a lot more.

The duo behind the 2024 print revival of Field & Stream magazine is dipping its toes into new waters by opening a luxury lodge. The historic American publication dedicated to hunting and outdoor pursuits had become almost extinct in the wild but found an avid audience again after being taken over by country musicians Eric Church and Morgan Wallen last year. And the outdoors experiences celebrated in the magazine will be right at home at the Field and Stream Lodge in Bozeman, Montana, which will open in May.

The hotel at “the gateway to Yellowstone National Park” is a fitting celebration of Field & Stream’s return to form and a testament to the new owners’ confidence in the brand’s appeal. The 179-key, year-round basecamp will enable eager adventurers to bed down a mile from downtown Bozeman but with easy access to the region’s wildlife, hiking trails and trout-rich rivers. There’s also the added bonus of hitting the lodge’s hot tub and sleeping in a comfy bed at the end of the day. The great indoors – now that’s blue-sky thinking.

The Loewe Foundation announced its shortlist for the 2025 Craft Prize yesterday, which celebrates artistic innovation. The 30 finalists will display their works at the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum in Madrid from 30 May to 29 June, with the winner of the €50,000 award to be announced on the night before opening.

The jury – comprising the foundation’s chairwoman, Sheila Loewe; the director of decorative arts at the Louvre, Olivier Gabet; and the winner of the 2023 Craft Prize, Eriko Inazaki – will have the difficult job of picking a standout. Japanese artist Rei Chikaoka is among the hopefuls. His work “Release Clear 3” features ribbons of translucent glass wound together to form a crystalised hollow tube. While Bahamian textile artist Anina Major, who won last year’s Pommery Prize, has sculpted and glazed stone in the style of traditional West African braids.

Developed in 2016 by Loewe’s creative director, Jonathan Anderson, the Craft Prize is not the only art-world competition backed by fashion-focused patrons. Elsewhere, the winner of the Fondazione Prada Degree Award is set to be announced in June, while applications are still being accepted for the second edition of the Louis Vuitton Watch Prize.

The Seed of the Sacred Fig tells a story of family tension during Iran’s 2022 “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests that took place following the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody. The making of the Oscar-nominated film, which took place in secret due to women appearing without a hijab on screen and led director Mohammad Rasoulof to flee the country, is as extraordinary as what takes place on screen. Here, Rasoulof tells The Monocle Minute about how he cast such a contentious movie, the film’s use of mobile-phone footage and the need to air the truth in Iran.

How difficult was it to find the right cast and crew for this film?
I’ve made many underground films and finding the right collaborators can be hard. But in 2022, after “Woman, Life, Freedom”, lots of people in the film world – especially women – declared that they would no longer take part in projects that enforce the compulsory hijab. So I knew who to approach.

You use real mobile phone footage from the protests in the film. How did that develop as an idea?
The use of this documentary footage was present in the script from the first draft. But it was an open question: I put it in the script but I didn’t know if it would work out in practice. Each snippet shown is very specific so that it tells a short story in its own right.

The act of filming is both a symbol of hope and a tool of oppression in ‘The Seed of the Sacred Fig’. Why did you show both sides?
Entities have different capabilities. On one hand, the regime is using cameras to present a fabricated version of events. Whereas the protesters are using cameras to show the truth. In Iran, revealing the truth is a daily battle.

We explore innovation in motion from the road to the skies. Polestar CEO, Michael Lohscheller, shares his optimistic outlook for the Swedish EV maker in 2025. And: we hop aboard Greece’s first scheduled helicopter airline, Hoper.