News for residents of the “11th province”: Canadians abroad.
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Pack No Canadian Booze for the U.S.
That bottle of Canadian whisky may be better left at home for now. The Canadian Snowbird Association is telling travellers not to pack Canadian-made alcohol when they make their way to the United States after new import restrictions took effect at the end of last month.
The ban covers packaged beer, sparkling wine, many table wines, cider, sake, rum, vodka, gin and some whiskies. A smaller dairy ban includes a wild mixed-bag of whey protein products, molasses and non-alcoholic beer. The association says travellers should go thorough their cars, RVs and luggage, and declare all food, agricultural products and alcohol at the border.
Part of the problem is that U.S. Customs and Border Protection has unhelpfully not clarified if Canadians carrying personal quantities are exempt. Border officers have the power to refuse the goods or just take them. U.S. residents are confirmed to be allowed to return home with a litre duty-free, but until Washington clears the story up for Canucks, the safest road-trip souvenir might be an empty trunk.
Read more: Canadian Snowbird Association / National Post
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Uruguay Tops the Retirement-Abroad List
Uruguay has taken top spot in a ranking of 46 countries courting retirees with passive-income residence programs. Mauritius, Spain, Costa Rica and Portugal rounded out the top five.
Global Citizen Solutions gave each country a score based on lifestyle, passport mobility and citizenship, taxes, application costs and investment requirements. Uruguay scored at least 75 out of 100 in every category. Applicants to that program are able to get permanent residence after proving stable income of just US$1,700 a month, and the country allows dual citizenship.
Mauritius led the five on taxes and doesn’t tax foreign pensions or income. Spain notched a 94 on quality of life but came last on taxes, with worldwide income, inheritance and net wealth potentially in the sights of the Spanish taxman. Spain also wants to see 2,400 euros a month in passive income and doesn’t let applicants work while on the visa.
Read more: Financial Post / Global Citizen Solutions
What a VPN Can and Can’t Hide
Your free airport Wi-Fi may end up costing more than the price of your coffee. A virtual private network encrypts the traffic between your device and the internet, which makes it harder for someone on the same public network to grab passwords, card details or work files.
For Canadians living abroad who spend time in airports, hotels and cafés, that’s useful to keep in mind. Additionally, a VPN can also mask your IP address from websites and keep your internet provider from seeing the details of your browsing.
But it isn’t an invisibility cloak - a VPN can’t protect you from phishing, malicious links, malware or a company that ham-fistedly manages to lose your data in a breach (next story). Websites can are able to know who you are when you sign into your account, and the VPN provider itself needs to be in a position of trust.
Read more: MoneySense
Quebec’s Separatists Are Back in Government
The Parti Québécois is back in power for the first time since 2014, and another vote on Quebec independence is back on the table. Quebec voters handed the party a minority government a couple of weeks ago after it had been reduced to only three seats after the 2022 election.
PQ Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon promised a sovereignty referendum when he won the party leadership in 2020. His party fell short of the 64 seats needed for a majority, but Québec solidaire could give him a path toward keeping his vow. The two sovereigntist parties won a majority of seats between them and more than 40 per cent of the popular vote. The PQ has talked about the possibility of running a referendum after U.S. President Donald Trump leaves office in 2029.
Despite the win, though, the result of the election was far from a clean mandate. The PQ took about 28 per cent of votes, and the Liberals won 24 per cent and ensconced themselves as the official Opposition. Five parties managed to best a 10 per cent showing. Many Canadians who remember the 1980 and 1995 campaigns may now have a familiar constitutional question to keep in the back of their minds once again.
Read more: Global News