World Briefing Plus: What We Won't Pay For, and What We Will

The West won't pay the price to stop Putin's probing of NATO; B.C. will pay $729 million for seven games. A look at where the money - and the nerve - actually goes

This week on World Briefing Plus, I’m connecting dots that too many in Brussels and Washington would rather leave unconnected.

We start with the Russian drone that tore into an apartment block in Galați, Romania this week, injuring two people while Moscow’s forces hammered a nearby Ukrainian port. Romania, Poland, Moldova - we’ve lost count of how many times this has happened. And the best NATO and the EU could muster was, again, words. Ursula von der Leyen said Russia’s war of aggression “has crossed yet another line.” But there’s a square in Moscow called Red Square, and you can fit an infinite number of red lines inside it. Putin keeps probing for soft tissue on NATO and EU territory - and he keeps finding it. I lay out why sanctions package number twenty-one won’t bite when Russia has Iran, North Korea and China helping it route around them, and why I think Poland or the Baltics could be next if this isn’t met with consequences that actually hurt.

Then I bring it closer to home: the 2026 World Cup, and the bill that just landed in my backyard. B.C.’s gross cost to host has spiked to as much as $729 million - almost triple their 2022 estimate. The Parliamentary Budget Officer just revealed that across Canada, taxpayers are on the hook for a staggering $82 million per game.

BC politicians (who, quite frankly, probably wish I wasn’t in the province at the moment) are playing a shell game with the math - pointing to hotel taxes and a last minute $100 million federal security bailout to claim their ‘net’ costs are lower - while promising roughly $1 billion in GDP and a million extra visitors over five years. But those of us who covered the Vancouver Olympics and the South Africa World Cup know how short-lived those windfalls really are. Economists warn that World Cups ‘supplant, rather than supplement’ regular tourism, and historically, these mega-events run 172% over budget.

We are dropping hundreds of millions of dollars in a province struggling with hospital beds, seniors’ care, an affordability crisis, homelessness, and addiction. And the homelessness and drug crisis I dig into isn’t just a Vancouver problem or an Alberta problem - it’s sitting on Ottawa’s own doorstep.”

The full breakdown — and where I think all of this is heading — is on the other side of the paywall.

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