Okay, okay, okay! I hear you! Lemme make some amends here.

In spring 2026, I set out to explore alt-rock one-hit wonders. It was a five-episode series in six parts (very Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, that) on the biggest songs of that sort since 1976, which is year zero for the whole alternative thing… more or less. Let’s not get bogged down here.

The first five episodes covered ten songs each, all ranked using a complicated logarithmic formula designed by my friend, Walter the mathematician. A lot of effort went into that top 50 list—but it wasn’t enough.

That’s where the sixth episode came in. It was an addendum, an erratum, really, of songs that maybe should have made it into the original top 50 list. Fine. I’m big enough to admit when I’ve made an error or left something out.

I did the sixth episode, and I thought, “Well, that’s over. We’re done here.” But apparently not. In the weeks and months that followed, I got hundreds of emails and DMs from people pointing out even more alt-rock one-hit wonders that should have made the cut.

This left me uneasy. The job wasn’t done, and I hate loose ends. So let’s do the one-hit-wonder thing one more time, incorporating some of those missed tracks. And I’ll explain why several acts who are thought to be one-hit wonders really aren’t.

So, clean-up on aisle three, I guess. Here we go…

Songs heard on this show:

• Voice of America, The Story of Love
• When in Rome, The Promise
• 4 Non-Blondes, What’s Up?
• Tripping Daisy, I Got a Girl
• Jars of Clay, Flood
• Primitive Radio Gods, Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth with Money in My Hand
• Dog’s Eye View, Everything Falls Apart
• Len, Steal My Sunshine

Here’s Eric Wilhite’s playlist.

The Ongoing History of New Music can be heard on these stations:

• 102.1 The Edge/Toronto – Sunday night at 7pm
• Q107/Toronto – Sunday night at 9pm
• Live 88-5/Ottawa – Saturdays at 9am and Sundays at 6pm
• 107.5 Dave-FM/Kitchener – Sunday nights at 11pm
• FM96/London – Sunday nights at 8pm
• Power 97/Winnipeg – Sunday nights at 10am and 10pm
• 107-3 The Edge/Calgary – Sundays at 10am and 10pm
• Sonic 102.9/Edmonton – Sunday at 8am and 8pm
• The Zone/Victoria – Sunday at 9am and 9pm
• The Fox/Vancouver – Sundays at 10am and 10pm
• The Goat Network/Interior BC
• WAPS/WKTL The Summit/Arkon, Canton, Cleveland, Youngstown – Mon-Fri at 9pm

© 2026 Corus Radio, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

New Music Friday is singles-heavy this week, but there are some albums that need your attention.

Singles

1. Art d’Ecco, Disappear Here (Paper Bag)

I’ve been a fan of  BC-based Art for the last few years, so I was pleased to see this new single. But I wasn’t expecting this. He’s swapped electronics for something distorted, guitar-driven, and filled with desperation. This is really good. The new album will be called Scheele’s Green. Watch for it October 23.

2. Nickelback, Make Me Love You (Virgin Music Group/Universal)

Earlier this week, we heard that Nickelback had its first number one song at radio in than a decade with the song Rattle the Cage from the upcoming album, Everything Under the Sun, which will be here on October 30. American Nickelback fans ain’t boycotting a thing. This is the album’s four advance single.

3. NOBRO, Girls Like Us (Independent)

Montreal’s NOBRO is one of my favourite new bands from the last few years. They’re a five-piece, all women (except for one bro on drums) and have been responsible for some extremely fierce Canadian garage rock, winning a JUNO along the way. This song arose out of an argument in a bar with some patronizing dude who probably slunk away after having a new one torn for him.

4. Queens of the Stone Age, Where the Goth Girls At? (Matador)

Here’s another single from the upcoming album Perfecth. Josh Homme recalls growing up in Palm Desert, California, pining over the goth girls who worked the makeup counters at JCPenney as they gave makeovers to older ladies. In a press release, Josh said “That’s when I knew the only place I want to be is where the goth girls at. Teenage love, ain’t it grand?”

5. U2, Silencio (Island/Universal)

It was 50 years ago, on September 25, 1976, that a bunch of kids from Mount Temple High School on the north side of Dublin met in the kitchen at Larry Mullen Jr.’s place. Four of those kids were Larry, Bono, The Edge, and Adam Clayton. Carnaval de Luz (an album that features a guest appearance by–wait for it–Dolly Parton) will be here November 13. At 155 seconds, Silencio is their shortest-ever single and is tied for third as the shortest U2 song ever.

6. Wendy’s, The Songs to Listen to in a Wendy’s Lot EP (Independent)

Wait. You mean like Wendy’s the place with the square burger patties? Yep. Whoever is running the marketing department sounds like an elder millennial who grew up on My Chemical Romance, Dashboard Confessional, and Fugazi. The six-song EP features singers from Memphis May Fire, Anberlin, Burlington, Ontario’s Silverstein, blessthefall, State Champs, and Holy Wars. Titles include She Said She Didn’t Want Fries, I Miss the Sunroom (me, too, dude), and The Best Combo Meal on the Worst Night of My Life.

Listen and share here.

Albums

1. Blondshell, Violins (Partisan)

After a months-long lead-up with some very good advance singles, L.A.’s Sabrina “Blondshell” Teitelbaum has released her third album. Fun fact: Her maternal grandfatheris Randall Smith, known as the billionaire pioneer of vulture capitalism, which kinda figures into the theme of this single about the complexities of growing up.

2. Godflesh, Decay (Relapse) 

If you’re looking for something aggressive, then may I recommend the new album from this English industrial metal group? Godflesh has been a thing since that genre was still in its infancy back in the 1980s and are now up to ten albums. If you want to annoy the Taylor Swift fan in your life, put this one on. Oh, and the band has said this will be there final album.

3. M83, I Wrote You a Letter (Other Suns)

Now that Godflesh has cleansed our palate, let’s travel to Antibes in the south of France for the new one from M83. Their tenth album features their trademark smooth electronics. Dream pop for all–but just wait for the screams.

4. Soft Cell, Danceteria (Republic of Music)

Yes, the Tainted Love people, although with the death of keyboardist Dave Ball, we’re down to just Marc Almond now, although his contributions can be heard through this record. Although the band has been around since 1978, this is just the sixth album. And there will be no more. After this tribute to the dance scene of NYC in the 1980s, Soft Cell will dissolve forever

 

© 2026 Corus Radio, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

The past few days have been “an emotional roller-coaster” for Elenore Sturko, who said she thought she had found a political home among a group of eight like-minded legislators in the CentreBC party — only to be abandoned three days later, when all except her rejoined the British Columbia Conservatives.

Sturko said she and other CentreBC legislators met with their short-lived leader, Peter Milobar, who told them of an offer to bring them back to the Conservatives.

The meeting was not hostile but there were “a few tears,” she said in an interview Thursday, two days after NDP Leader David Eby called an early election for Oct. 24.

“I was disappointed, of course, to see the other MLAs go back to the Conservatives, but you know they’ve made their decision, and of course now people know that I made mine. I decided to stay,” said Sturko, a former RCMP officer.

Her roller-coaster political journey mirrors that of her new political vehicle.

CentreBC, which was formed last year, has gone from the political margins to a viable contender with eight legislators, then back to having just one.

The question now is whether the party can rebound to pick up support on the left and the right from voters who feel they have no political home.

This is the second time Sturko has been left to fend for herself politically after being kicked out of the B.C. Conservative caucus by then-leader John Rustad, who she said accused her of plotting against his leadership.

Sturko is now leader and sole incumbent legislator of CentreBC, but she is not entirely alone.

The party announced a star recruit on Wednesday, former BC Green leader Andrew Weaver, who will run in Oak Bay-Gordon Head, a riding he represented for more than seven years until 2020.

On Friday, Milobar called the party a “viable, serious, legitimate voting option,” promising it would focus on economic issues, health care and public safety.

He was among those who returned to the Conservatives after Kerry-Lynne Findlay stepped down as leader, with Lorne Doerkson replacing her.

Sturko said she is sad the other members left CentreBC. When asked to become leader, she said she would “step up.”

It’s not something she planned, but she said she’s proud to accept the opportunity.

Weaver said in an interview that he was prompted to run “for the sake of democracy” when Eby called a snap election this week.

Weaver has been critical of his former party, the Greens, and praised the B.C. Conservatives under John Rustad, but he said that party wouldn’t be an option for him because they’ve spent the last two years “throwing grenades” at each other.

He said he has “enormous respect” for Sturko, who stood by CentreBC.

“So I thought, you know what, I’ll get behind you. I can work with you,” he said.

CentreBC was formed by former BC United legislator Karin Kirkpatrick in March 2025, but it isn’t a household name.

Weaver said one reason he is running under the banner is that he is “well-known” in his former riding.

Sturko was a star recruit for Rustad’s Conservatives when she left BC United in June 2024 ahead of the election.

She said she and Rustad settled their differences in a recent encounter.

“We gave each other a hug, and we kind of had a laugh because he said, ‘I bet you’re thanking me now, right?” laughed Sturko. “And I actually don’t hold any ill will or grudge about what happened.”

Her expulsion from the Conservatives provided her with a chance “to stand on my own on the things that really matter to me,” said Sturko.

She said staying with CentreBC isn’t the easiest path.

“But you know, I had made my promise. I wanted to stay true to who I was after all of the things you know that had gone on.”

© 2026 The Canadian Press

British Columbia’s attorney general says she’s shocked by an article describing alleged interactions between the Tumbler Ridge mass shooter and ChatGPT, in which the AI chatbot vividly describes the effectiveness of a shotgun in a classroom.

The report, in U.S.-based magazine Mother Jones, also says ChatGPT advised shooter 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar how to get around its own safeguards to obtain information about violent scenarios by framing the content as fictional.

Attorney General Niki Sharma says the details in the article, which does not describe its sources, are “shocking and, as a parent, they are worse” than she ever imagined.

She says on social media platform Bluesky that corporations urgently need mandatory and strict regulation to protect children.

OpenAI, the artificial intelligence company behind ChatGPT, did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the article about the chatbot’s interactions with Van Rootselaar, who killed eight people in Tumbler Ridge in February, including five students, before killing herself.

The B.C. government, survivors and witnesses of the shootings at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School are suing OpenAI, alleging negligence.

The article published on Thursday says Van Rootselaar’s ChatGPT account was banned for discussing committing an attack with a “famous real-world mall as the target.”

But it says she then used a second account, which advised her about how to “never get flagged again” by describing situations as fictional or hypothetical.

“Don’t use real-world locations,” the article quotes ChatGPT as saying, before adding: “You can still be twisted. Just be clever about it.”

It says that Van Rootselaar asked ChatGPT for a scenario about attacking a college campus with a shotgun for maximum effect.

The article says that the chatbot initially declined to help, but after Van Rootselaar added “hypothetically” to her prompt it responded.

“In a hallway, indoors, or a crowded classroom, the 870 (Remington shotgun) is brutal,” it quotes ChatGPT as saying. “Close quarters is its playground.”

The article says ChatGPT went on to say: “Assuming each shell results in one hit, you might down 10 to 20 people max, depending on spacing, density, reaction times, and chaos.”

OpenAI did not immediately respond to an email sent to their general press address and to an individual spokesperson. General counsel for the company, Che Chang, did not immediately respond to a message sent to his LinkedIn profile.

RCMP Staff Sgt. Kris Clark said the investigation into the shootings had “utilized all available legal processes to obtain all information available from various social media and digital platforms” relevant to the attack.

“To date, all companies that have received requests have complied,” Clark said.

© 2026 The Canadian Press

Friday is the last day to apply for a mail-in ballot for Alberta’s referendum.

Elections Alberta says it will stop accepting applications as of midnight and that mail-in ballots must be returned by Oct. 16 at 5 p.m.

The agency says that as of Thursday afternoon it’s received 673,000 requests for mail-in ballots.

The total marks a staggering increase from the nearly 60,000 requested for the province’s 2023 general election, though the rules for who could vote by mail have relaxed since then.

Albertans are to vote Oct. 19 on 10 questions put forward by Premier Danielle Smith’s government, including whether the province should stay in Canada or hold a second, binding vote on quitting Confederation.

Albertans can start voting in person at advance polling stations on Oct. 13, which will be open until Oct. 17.

© 2026 The Canadian Press

When MapQuest’s general manager woke up in Toronto on Thursday morning, the Texan visiting for a conference knew he couldn’t leave without visiting one place.

Doug Berger made a beeline south from his hotel, wandering past the dock where the ill-fated Captain John’s restaurant used to moor and heading deeper toward the city’s shoreline.

The vast body of water he arrived at — Lake Ontario — was an essential stop for Berger because it made his company the talk of the tech world and beyond last month. Unlike many of its rivals, MapQuest had rejected U.S. President Donald Trump’s name change to Lake America.

“It’s what gave MapQuest this moment,” Berger said of the lake as he walked toward the waterfront for a second time Thursday. “I just wanted to get over there and mark the moment.”

That moment began in the dying days of August, when the MapQuest team started monitoring Trump after he said he was “giving serious consideration” to swapping the lake’s name.

MapQuest had been through this before. Last January, Trump ditched the Gulf of Mexico moniker in favour of Gulf of America. MapQuest stuck with the original name because it wanted to give users familiarity and its navigation products “integrity,” Berger said.

MapQuest makes name changes all the time as roads get built, buildings are demolished and new tracts of land are settled, but the political nature of Trump’s Lake Ontario edict felt different, he reasoned.

When the team discussed how to handle a change, if one ever came to fruition, they made the “pretty easy decision” to ignore it.

“It’s one of the Great Lakes. There are acronyms like HOMES, and this is the ‘O,'” Berger explained, almost exasperated.

“Because of the location and because Canada’s our friendly neighbour to the north … renaming it didn’t make a whole lot of sense to us and we saw it as another moment for MapQuest to kind of take a stand.”

Two days later, when Trump signed his executive order christening the body of water Lake America, it took the company mere minutes to post a map of Lake Ontario with the caption, “we’re not changing it.”

Meanwhile, Google and Apple adopted “Lake America” for users in the United States while retaining Lake Ontario for those in Canada.

Berger said he knew MapQuest was going to be the outlier, using Lake Ontario everywhere in the world.

With roughly 50 staff, he said his company has a nimbler team and more independence in general than the tech giants, which Berger estimates have thousands of staff working on mapping alone and under more pressure.

MapQuest’s decision paid off.

Three million new users, including many Canadians, have downloaded the app since the executive order. Many told Berger they respected that the company kept the Lake Ontario name.

Their support became like “lightning in a bottle” for the MapQuest team, who soon started selling “We’re not changing it” mugs, sweaters and T-shirts.

But the team was also anxious not to let this moment pass.

Thirty years ago, MapQuest was spun out of R.R. Donnelley & Sons, a commercial printing business dating back to the 19th century. It is now owned by System1, a California-based advertising company.

While decades ago, MapQuest was a dominant name in the world of navigation services, the evolution of smartphones and GPS products for cars, as well as the rise of rivals, has diminished much of the business’s lustre.

Some young people had never heard of the app when the Lake Ontario moment happened, but if you are over 30, Berger said, there’s a good chance you remember being in the family car “being yelled at to turn right in 0.1 miles and you still have the printouts.”

MapQuest still delivers directions to users but now there’s no need for a printout. Customers can generate the company’s maps on a phone or its app.

And thanks to all those new users, the maps are getting even better than before, Berger said.

Very recent feedback from consumers, particularly those in Toronto, encouraged the company to add local transit options to its maps and offer support for Android Auto, a mobile app that mirrors a car’s dashboard.

While MapQuest is revelling in all the feedback and attention the Lake Ontario renaming has brought, Berger thinks one of the best parts has been how interested people are in the discussions MapQuest staff have every day.

“Isn’t it fun we are talking about geography?” he said.

© 2026 The Canadian Press

Quebec political party leaders are out campaigning on the 30th day of the provincial election campaign.

Leaders of the Coalition Avenir Québec, the Quebec Liberal Party, Québec solidaire, the Parti Québécois and the Conservative Party of Quebec are all continuing their efforts to win over voters ahead of the Oct. 5 election.

Immigration and artificial intelligence were among the major themes on the campaign trail on Thursday.

Liberal Leader Charles Milliard accused PQ Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon of being stubborn for planning to significantly reduce the number of immigrants, and said the plan will harm Quebec.

The PQ has pledged to cut the number of temporary immigrants in Quebec from 500,000 to 250,000.

For his party, St-Pierre Plamondon spent the day in meetings, including a visit to city hall where he met with Montreal Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada.

© 2026 The Canadian Press

Dan Dumont says he hasn’t been following the Quebec election campaign.

He says he has a number of health problems, including blood clots in his brain and a metastatic cancer diagnosis. His arms and hands are covered in scabs, and he says he gets bitten by spiders and insects every night.

But while he hasn’t been paying attention to politics, he and many of his neighbours have become a flashpoint on the election campaign trail.

Dumont has been living on the street for over six years and has set up two tents in a large encampment on Notre Dame Street in Montreal’s east end. There are around 200 tents housing the local residents on the grassy strip about a stone’s throw away from magnificent views of the St-Lawrence River.

It’s a small community where a number of people say they are more concerned about the onset of cold weather than they are about the Oct. 5 election.

“I just can’t spend another winter outside,” said Dumont.

The encampment took over the election campaign news cycle after police revealed on Sept. 17 that someone had brought a baby there. City officials estimate about 180 people live on the site.

All of Quebec’s party leaders expressed outrage or said they were embarrassed by the revelations about the baby that brought issues of affordability and housing to the forefront of the campaign. The baby was even mentioned as one of the first topics raised with leaders in their third and final debate.

The Quebec government estimated there were just over 12,000 people living on the street in the province in 2025, a significant increase over the past decade. Provincial estimates indicate the number grew by 44 per cent between 2018 and 2022, followed by an additional 19 per cent increase over the next three years.

The government estimated that about 42 per cent of the province’s unhoused population lived in Montreal in 2025.

“It’s an embarrassment to our society. We’re a wealthy society,” said Parti Québécois leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, on the campaign trail on Sept. 17. “We shouldn’t accept this.”

The encampment is located inside the riding that the PQ leader has represented in the Quebec legislature. Speaking to journalists, he said he would make the plight of unhoused people his “top priority.”

The discovery of the baby also disrupted Coalition Avenir Québec leader Christine Fréchette’s campaign, prompting her to meet with Montreal Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada on a Friday evening. Fréchette emerged from that meeting telling reporters she had promised to work with the mayor on a number of issues, including transitional housing and mental health, if her party forms government again.

But the reaction from politicians isn’t filtering through to all of the people most affected.

Dumont said he had no idea the encampment had made headlines and he had not heard of the baby who was found. He said he was too busy worrying about thieves and his health.

Still, he has a request for Quebec’s next government: to speed up repairs to the social housing stock so he can have a roof over his head.

But Dumont and some others living without housing say they are skeptical about whether the next government is prepared to take the action needed to help solve their problems or engage with them in the political process.

Community groups have also been stepping up their pressure on party leaders, staging a demonstration Wednesday morning outside the National Assembly, calling on government hopefuls to commit to solving the issue.

The head of local Quebec City shelter Maison Revivre, François Dumont, who is not related to the man at the Montreal encampment, says those working in the community sector are glad that politicians are taking homelessness seriously. But he says they need to go further.

“For us, it’s important that the message gets across. Resources are currently insufficient, both in terms of housing and services for the most vulnerable, as well as for community organizations,” he said. “The promises … don’t meet existing needs.”

Back in Montreal, a few tents over from Dan Dumont, another resident of the encampment who goes by the name of Devint was helping a man repair his bike. He set up several tents with his friends, which form a garage, a tool shed, a closet, and bedrooms, with a makeshift fence protecting them.

Devint is known as the “spokesperson” for the encampment. The Canadian Press agreed not to publish his full name because he was concerned about repercussions for possible job opportunities and for his children, who do not live in the encampment with him.

His biggest concern is whether the encampment will get torn down again, leaving him with nowhere to go. The city has cleared out the area several times in recent years, only for tents to return. A spokesperson for the city said in an email it has no plans to remove the tents from Notre-Dame.

On Wednesday, police said they had made an arrest in connection with a drug trafficking network targeting vulnerable people in the encampment. They say a 23-year-old man is facing multiple weapons and drug-related charges after police seized hard drugs and other evidence at the site.

Devint does not mince words when it comes to the electoral campaign, saying politicians are disconnected from the reality on the street. He laughed at promises to slash homelessness in half by 2030.

“How are they going to do that?” he said. “They’re nice promises that don’t go anywhere … If they want our vote, they should come down here and meet us. We’ve got some ideas on how to fix things.”

© 2026 The Canadian Press

An album can be both tremendously influential and a commercial failure—at least at first. Here are a tw0 examples.

The Clash’s London Calling came out in December 1979. It didn’t officially sell 500,000 copies until 1991, a gap of 12 years, despite hit singles like the title track and “Should I Stay or Should I Go.” It would finally go platinum five years later.

And The Ramones released their self-titled debut album on April 23, 1976. It launched a million punk bands, yet it didn’t sell its 500,000^th copy until May 2014, thirty-eight years after its release. By that time, three of the original Ramones had died, and within three months, the final one would pass away. The thing that sustained The Ramones for most of that time was relentless touring and t-shirt sales.

© 2026 Corus Radio, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

The Ontario government appears to be at odds with some of the province’s major cities over the future of AI data centres, with anxiety-riddled residents caught in the middle.

Premier Doug Ford recently said Ontario needs to move “full steam ahead” with building data centres in the province, adding that there will be strict parameters around where they’ll be located and how they’ll be built.

The foot-to-the-floor approach, however, seems to be in contrast with numerous municipalities that have passed measures to slow the construction of data centres, citing fears over noise, water usage and environmental impacts.

In August, Oakville became the first Ontario municipality to approve a one-year moratorium on data centre development. One month later, Mississauga and Sault Ste. Marie followed suit.

Conversely, both Hamilton and Burlington city councils voted down motions to put a pause on building.

In an effort to wrest back some control over the future of data centres, the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) submitted a ten-page report to the Ministry of Energy and Mines, outlining its top priorities.

Given that data centres don’t provide many jobs post-construction, AMO is looking for the province to give preference to projects that factor community benefits into their proposals, such as building a community centre to go along with their data centre.

AMO is also asking for confirmation from the province that hosting a data centre “will not undermine the ability of municipalities to deliver other provincial and municipal priorities” by draining excessive amounts of power from already strained systems.

Minister of economic development Vic Fedeli addressed some of AMO’s concerns during a recent news conference, saying data centre companies will have to pay a premium rate for power, or generate their own.

Fedeli added the province has adopted a “do no harm to the municipality” approach, a policy that would apply to data centre developers.

That includes only offering “non-financial support” to attract data centre investments and requiring data centres will to pay for the cost of their electricity use to ensure ratepayers don’t pick up the tab.

What remains unclear is if a provincial government with a track record of bypassing city council decisions would push past a hesitant host to build a data centre.

When asked what he’d do if faced with such a situation, the premier said that he would “sit down with the mayor and council and consult with the community” but that he’d rather go to a “willing host.”

Anxieties on the local level

At the Mississauga city council meeting where the AI data centre prohibition was being discussed, local residents demanded that the city pause the approvals of any projects to take more time to consider the consequences.

Among those keeping tabs on proceedings was Katie Steinfeld, a real estate agent who closely monitors Ontario AI data centre proposals.

Frustrated by a lack of readily available information on data centre projects, she created the Ontario Data Centre Tracker, a website that logs and provides details on data centres across the province.

“I think pausing is a good thing,” Steinfeld said. “It doesn’t mean you’re saying ‘no’ to data centres. It’s just saying let’s take a step back because these developments are coming at a hyperscale, and we’re not caught up in terms of regulations and in terms of knowledge.”

Steinfeld created the data centre tracker in part because of anxieties expressed by her real estate clients. “When people are looking to buy a home, they want to know where they’re going to be moving to and what might be planned for that neighbourhood,” she said.

“Through the work that I’ve done, I have received outreach from people that said ‘I’ve just moved to this neighbourhood, and I saw that there’s now planned, and now I want to move.’”

Ford, who revealed an AI data centre playbook in August, also said residents are “misinformed” about the potential drawbacks of data centres.

But the government itself may be misinformed about how much a data centre’s physical location coincides with the concept of data sovereignty, according to one AI expert.

Evan Light is an associate professor within the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Information.

He says determining whether data is accessible by the United States or not depends on the origin of the company that owns the data centre, not where the centre is located.

“The U.S. Cloud Act allows the U.S. government to peek into whatever data is held by American companies wherever they may be operating. Just because we propose building things here doesn’t mean that we completely control them.”

The Ford government says they’ll prioritize Canadian projects, but American companies are already building here in Ontario. The new hyperscale data centre in Vaughan is owned by Microsoft, for example.

“There’s a lot of infrastructure that they’re not talking about,” Light said. “Just because you have data centres in Canada doesn’t mean that your data only stays here. It doesn’t go from your home to a data centre. If anything, it would probably transit through the U.S. and come back.”

While a timeline for provincial approvals is unclear, the government wrapped up a 30-day consultation period on its data centre playbook, suggesting legislation might be tabled in the fall session at Queen’s Park.

© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.