It’s that time of year to bring back one of The Hub’s favourite traditions: giving our readers a head’s up on what they can expect in the year to come. As for how well our contributor’s crystal balls work, well, check out last year’s predictions and judge for yourself. Looking ahead, here are some can’t-miss predictions for 2025.
2025 will see the end of Iran’s clerical rule
By Patrick Luciani, a writer and book reviewer for The Hub
Last year, I predicted that of the three autocrats who rule China, Russia, and Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei would fall. I was close. Iran’s President Raisi died in a suspicious helicopter accident.
Given the destruction of Hezbollah and Hamas along with the fall of the House of al-Assad, I’m doubling down and predicting that 2025 will see the end of Iran’s clerical rule. And with Trump in the White House, the Iranian opposition will be energized knowing the U.S. won’t help the regime as it did under the Democrats.
Israel and Saudi Arabia will finalize the Abraham Accords; China will occupy one of the islands that surround Taiwan to test the reaction of the Trump Administration and Ukraine; and Russia will reach an armistice not for humanitarian reasons but because Putin needs time to rearm and make Trump look good on his promise to end the war.
Italy’s Giorgia Meloni will become Europe’s de facto leader as the heads of France, Germany, and the U.K. flounder.
Closer to home, the PM will stubbornly hold on to office and try to delay the election for another year while his finance minister steps down—yikes, what’s this? Freeland has already resigned!
A bike-car war will break out in Toronto. Adding more underused bike lanes in a city that moves by car and truck will worsen traffic congestion in a city constantly under construction.
Broken bottles from the library wines of Saintsbury winery fill a grape bin following an earthquake Sunday, Aug. 24, 2014, in Napa, Calif. Eric Risberg/AP Photo.
Unfortunately, wine will be a target of Trump’s tariff war
By Malcolm Jolley, The Hub’s wine columnist
In Canada, we are looking at the implications of a trade war with the United States. Wine drinkers who prefer California labels might do well to stock up before retaliatory tariffs hit their favourite Cabernet Sauvignons. They could switch to Canadian wine, but even if B.C. weren’t crippled by the disastrous freeze from last January, we just don’t make enough to fill all the glasses in the nation.
If the American administration expands its trade war to Europe, wine might again be a tariff target. Maybe we’ll benefit from a glut of European wine redirected from New York to Montreal, or Boston to Halifax. Hopefully, the Loonie will be worth enough that we can still buy it.
A bright spot might be wines of the Southern Hemisphere: Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Argentina, and Chile. The wino fashion cycle seems to be turning back to them, partly because there is a new generation of winemakers south of the equator. They’re making modern, sophisticated, and food-friendly wines. One thing’s for sure, we’ll be glad for any comfort we can get from that glass of Malbec, Carménère, or Pinotage.
