January 16, 2026 — During a recent conversation, our Editor asked: “What to look out for in 2026 in Canada and the world and how could CanadianFilipino.Net (CFNet) provide our readers a broad overview about possibilities and expectations this year?”
As Canada hosts this year major international sport event and navigates key economic transitions while grappling with the unpredictable shifts in trade and foreign policies and coping with the incumbency of U.S. President Trump, many indeed are the issues to look out for. They range from the awesome and positive to precarious, ominous and awful.
Top dozen look-ahead, categorized in outlook
- Awesome: For the first time, FIFA Men’s World Cup 13 matches will be played on Canadian soil from June 11 to July 19, with Toronto and Vancouver as host cities and Toronto hosting the Canadian National Team's opening game on June 12. Remarked Prime Minister Mark Carney: “Canada will open our doors to the world to host the FIFA World Cup – one of the most anticipated sporting events on the planet. This is our moment to unite around our team, our fans, our flag – and show the world everything Canada has to offer.” Co-host with the U.S. and Mexico, Canada hosting the event is projected to create nearly 25,000 jobs in Canada and add approximately $2 billion to our economy;
- Awesome: NASA’s Artemis II mission —carrying a Canadian astronaut—is targeted to fly around the Moon in April;
- Positive: Progress is on track on the massive infrastructure, energy, and defense projects which will boost and diversify the economy and foster development of new trade partners in Europe and Asia and growth in emerging sectors like defense supply chain and A1 data centers;
- Positive: By this spring, the federal government's "Buy Canadian" policy will have been fully implemented, prioritizing Canadian suppliers for federal spending to bolster domestic industries;
- Positive: The Foreign Credential Recognition Program and the Internationally Educated Health Professionals Initiative – both in the federal budget – will improve the fairness, transparency, and timeliness of credential recognition in the health and construction sectors and, thereby, augur well for streamlined integration of skilled newcomers;
- Precarious: The mandatory review of the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement is set for July is volatile and could create major trade uncertainties for key Canadian exports (auto, steel and agriculture) and, thereby, adversely impact consumer prices; it is predicted many Canadians will continue to feel the pain of housing and food prices;
- Precarious: Economic and political volatility will remain high, creating uncertainty and requiring adaptive strategies.
- Ominous: The drastic reductions of new permanent resident admissions to 380,000 – with over 40% of them expected to be from those already in the country as temporary workers or students – and of the temporary resident population to 5% of the total population, combined with the pausing of certain caregiver pilot programs and the tightening of work permit eligibility for family members of temporary residents, will diminish prospects for family reunification and create longer wait times for status;
- Ominous: Peace has not dawned in Gaza, nor in Ukraine, nor in the greater Middle East. Iran is amidst a massive citizens’ protest against their government and Putin has continued his aggression against independent Ukraine for about four years now;
- Ominous: The New START Treaty - the last major nuclear arms control treaty between the U.S. and Russia and which provides extensive verification and transparency measures – is scheduled to expire on February 5. Unless both agree to maintain limits, the world will enter a period of possible unconstrained nuclear build-ups – a more complex one than the Cold War nuclear arms race given the destabilizing emerging technologies today and the ongoing four-year Russian war against Ukraine;
- Awful: It has been barely half-a-month past 2025 and already we have learned of more killings: 1) in Venezuela where some 30 guards of President Maduro were killed when President Trump, by military force on January 3rd, captured Maduro and his wife in their home and exfiltrated them to the US for indictment; and 2) in Minneapolis in the USA where 37-year old Renee Nicole Good, the mother of three dependent children, on January 7, was fatally shot in her car by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent;
- Awful: In the United States of America, President Trump’s repeated threats to annex Greenland, “the hard way,” if need, is not only disrespectful of the 56,699 citizens, of whom 89 percent are Greenlandic Inuit, but also absurd. Greenland is an autonomous colony of Denmark and, therefore, a member of the NATO alliance just as the US is. The alliance has a doctrine: a military attack on one member is an attack on all. Thus, it defies common sense. And the implications to global security, Canada included, are profoundly serious. Hopefully, the incessant threats simply stop with speed!
A New Column from CFNet
Elsewhere in this issue – on a more joyful atmosphere – CFNet welcomes From the Thresholds by Emmy Buccat whose actual day job is with the University of British Columbia. A journalism graduate from the University of Santo Tomas, she has been a volunteer staff to CFNet since its founding a decade ago.
It is with these lived experiences that she introduces her column with its first essay, The Cost of Being Reliable. Written in the reflective, analytic style of long-form cultural criticism, the essay examines the oft-heard compliment, “You’re so dependable,” that Canadian Filipinos hear in their workplace. It creates awareness about value – ‘who pays, who benefits, and what goes unaccounted for when dependability becomes an expectation rather than a choice.’ It offers a unique approach to effect needed societal change to serve higher societal goals: achieve fairness, elevate self-esteem and accord due respect – a literary prescription for a harmonious, fair and just society.
Expect to read From the Thresholds monthly. She envisions to engage readers in a series of reflective essays, “situating the Filipino Canadian experience not as a margin but as a lens through which to examine care, power, labour, and belonging in contemporary Canada,” blending institutional insight with critical analysis. This novel column exemplifies CFNet’s continuing commitment to serve our community even more and, thereby, enhance our rich multicultural heritage as a nation.
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