UnPeeled

An investigative series examining Canadian brands shaped by foreign acquisition, private equity extraction, policy failure, and strategic mismanagement. From HBC to Crown Royal to MEC, here is what brand sovereignty means, and what it costs when we lose it.

Did AI kill SEO, are all the websites dead. Are they all going to be modern day ghost towns? let's look at AI and if it will steal content without giving back or will be a partnership.

Dominic Barton understands thought leadership is a business strategy.

The name was Alcan.Aluminium

Companies had Plan for Trade War

A Douglas Fir glulam beam, forty feet long, holding up the roof of a mass timber building somewhere in North America. The tree it came from grew on the BC coast. It was felled on the BC coast. It was kiln dried on the BC coast before it crossed the border into Washington State, where WFP's glulam facilities glued it, shaped it, and sold it as a finished engineered beam. Western Forest Products | Mass Timber is not running away. They are not abandoning their BC mills, employee

Chapman's Ice Cream moved towards what Canadians wanted right away. The family sat down with each other, made three decisions in quick succession, and then told Canadians what they'd decided. Chapman's did not profit from Canadian patriotism. This is a story about what happens when a business decides its own margin is less important than Canadians ability to afford ice cream when everything else is gets expensive.

Kinder Morgan did not walk away from Trans Mountain because it was unprofitable. It walked away because it was trapped by political forces making it too expensive and difficult.

Canada sits on one of the most significant mineral endowments on earth. Nickel, copper, cobalt, lithium, graphite, gold, uranium, chromite, palladium. The list reads like a procurement list for every technology the next thirty years will require, from EV batteries to defence systems to AI data centre infrastructure. What Canada did not always have is a federal government willing to treat mining as a strategic priority rather than an environmental regulatory problem to manage.

Canada Pension Plan Investments Board is one of the most sophisticated active investors in the world, managing approximately 85% of its assets in-house through teams with direct investment mandates.

CBC and Rogers Sportsnet issued a joint statement, NHL is off CBC and living behind a paywall. But does that mean Hockey Night in Canada is Over?

The Oilers were never a brand Edmonton adopted. The fans made them and they believed they owned them not the owner.

by Shannon Peel | Brand Narrative Builder This is the story of RONA, a brand born out of defiance, built through decades of trust, stripped of its identity by a US giant, and is now trying to remember what made it matter to Canadian shoppers in the first place. Pull up a chair. It Started as a Fight The year was 1939. A group of roughly 30 independent hardware store owners in Quebec were being squeezed by a monopoly that controlled their access to supplies. They had two choic

Western Canadians loved WestJet. but then WestJet changed the brand promise and customers noticed. This is the story of how WestJet became just another airline after it had been a spectacular one.

The trouble with building something people love is that larger, better-resourced companies notice. And Microsoft noticed.

Every brand has a story. The best ones start with a problem, a purpose, and people who care deeply about both. Mountain Equipment Co-op had all three. What happened next is a masterclass in what goes wrong when a brand drifts from its identity, and what it takes to find its way back.

The story of Future Shop is a story about a scrappy Canadian brand built from scratch by an Iranian immigrant, sold to its biggest incoming competitor at what looked like a moment of strength, and then slowly absorbed until it ceased to exist. The central question this article examines: Was selling to a U.S. competitor the act that killed the Canadian brand? And if so, could Canadian law have stopped it, and should it have?

When Wendy's International acquired Tim Hortons. Tim Hortons never claimed to be Canada's coffee brand of choice. Then Wendy's changed the Brand story and created Brand Sovereignty

The Bay covered everything. Hatch, match, dispatch. Then it's brand sovereignty was destroyed when an american funnelled off its wealth

The trade war did not cause Diageo to abandon Crown Royal's Canadian manufacturing. The internal decisions were made two years before the first tariff. Here is the full story — from Samuel Bronfman's 600 blends to the empty field in Lambton County.