Turning the page 📖- Canadian indie bookstores unite on new website, Cricket Canada is in shambles

In today's episode, we explore how Canada's independent bookstores are banding together through Booksellers.ca, a new digital marketplace that pools inventory from 160 indie sellers to compete with Amazon and Indigo. Then, we dive into the turmoil at Cricket Canada, where constitutional violations, match-fixing investigations, and leadership controversies are threatening to derail one of the country's fastest-growing sports. Plus, Apple tests a chatbot-style Siri, Alberta's oil pipeline deal faces delays, BMO launches blockchain tokenization, and more Canadian business news.

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Fast Canadian business news. Get up-to-speed quick with a fun and smart breakdown of the three biggest Canadian and global business stories in less than 10 minutes.

Alex Blumenstein: 00:30

Hey, Peak Pals. I'm Alex Blumenstein.

Jay Rosenthal: 00:33

I am Jay Rosenthal.

Alex Blumenstein: 00:35

And what is this, Jay?

Jay Rosenthal: 00:36

Well, this is your Peak Daily for Wednesday, 03/25/2026, where we cover the biggest stories in Canadian and global business finance and tech, all in less than ten minutes.

Alex Blumenstein: 00:47

Jay, where else in the world would you like to live if you could live anywhere?

Jay Rosenthal: 00:53

Good question. I like New York.

Alex Blumenstein: 00:56

K.

Jay Rosenthal: 00:56

Not notwithstanding the fact that it's in The United States right now. I do like Always gonna

Alex Blumenstein: 01:00

be in The United States. Always was. I

Jay Rosenthal: 01:03

Paris. I like London. I'm a city guy, so the bigger the city, the better for me. What about you?

Alex Blumenstein: 01:10

Now what if you could live somewhere out of this world on the moon? No. Okay. Probably the right answer. So NASA was planning to send people to the moon again and have a permanent orbiting space station on the moon.

Alex Blumenstein: 01:26

But they've now changed that plan to just put it right on the moon.

Jay Rosenthal: 01:30

Oh, okay. I'm not into that. It's so quiet. It's too quiet for me.

Alex Blumenstein: 01:35

Yeah. I don't think I'd wanna live there either.

Jay Rosenthal: 01:37

Yeah. Like our neighborhood just fine.

Alex Blumenstein: 01:40

Yeah. Okay. We're sticking to Bloor Court.

Jay Rosenthal: 01:42

There. Let's do it. Well, you call it Bloor Court. I call it Bloor Dale, so we live on different sides of the street. Alex, aside from you moving to the moon or not, what do we have for peep pals today?

Alex Blumenstein: 01:52

Well, first up, Canada's indie bookstores are teaming up. Next, Cricket Canada is in shambles. And for our big picture, Apple is cooking, Pipeline deal is falling behind, BMO buys into the blockchain, and more.

Jay Rosenthal: 02:08

For our first story, betting that there's strength in numbers, Canada's indie bookstores are joining forces to take on Big Book. Alex, tell the Peak Pals about this rebel alliance, and could this been a headline, like, fifteen years ago, twenty years ago? But go ahead.

Alex Blumenstein: 02:23

Yeah. Well, I guess I haven't. And, Jay, I appreciate what you tried to do there with Rebel Alliance, but that's such a movie reference, not a book reference.

Jay Rosenthal: 02:30

I understand.

Alex Blumenstein: 02:32

I did write that for you just so I could say that.

Jay Rosenthal: 02:34

That's good. No, I get it. I get it. Yeah.

Alex Blumenstein: 02:36

Online bookseller, Les Library in des Pendants. I can actually pronounce that probably better, du Quebec, but I'm not gonna. Not because I don't respect the French language, but because I did it badly, and we're just gonna move on. Okay, so that aforementioned group has expanded to eight more provinces and launched an English version of its website, booksellers.ca. The company pools the inventory of independent bookstores across Canada in one digital marketplace, akin to Amazon or Indigo, with only titles from local book shops.

Jay Rosenthal: 03:10

The operation recently added 30 new stores and now has 160 independent booksellers on the platform, not far off of Indigo's network of 172 stores. The goal is to add 100 new sellers by the end of the year.

Alex Blumenstein: 03:22

Yeah. Huff, because that would be basically all of them. I hope they do, but it's yeah. That's kind of it. After hundreds of closures in the early 2000s, indie bookstore sellers have seen a resurgence in the past few years.

Alex Blumenstein: 03:35

See, as I was saying, as of 2024, there were at least 300 across Canada.

Jay Rosenthal: 03:39

And here's why it matters. Indie bookstores often have strong support from neighborhood regulars but fall behind big retailers when it comes to online sales. The booksellers.ca model, which has already proven successful in Quebec, could be a win win for readers and sellers alike.

Alex Blumenstein: 03:54

Customers get a much wider selection than they would at a single bookstore with the online convenience of ordering a book on Amazon, all while supporting small businesses. For indie sellers, that platform allows them to ship books for far cheaper than they can themselves and puts their collection in front of a much larger group of customers.

Jay Rosenthal: 04:13

Zoom out. Reading in general has suddenly become cool again. One survey found that Canadians now spend more time reading for fun than they do exercising. It would have been great if reading books took time away from doomscrolling TikTok instead of working out, but you can't win them all.

Alex Blumenstein: 04:30

No. You can't. Cricket Canada is caught in a sticky wicket. Jay, you're a sports guy. I'm sure you've been following this very closely.

Alex Blumenstein: 05:13

So can you, without reading a script, explain what's going on?

Jay Rosenthal: 05:16

I will try. Okay. So a BC Supreme Court judge ordered that Cricket Canada, which is, of course, the country's national governing body for the sport, hold a meeting with an independent arbiter to resolve issues with four provincial level cricket bodies that had taken it to court. How'd I do?

Alex Blumenstein: 05:32

Fantastic. The petition was launched by BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Ontario cricket orgs alleging that Cricket Canada had violated its own constitution and bylaws. While the judge found this to be true, he also cited violations committed by all involved parties.

Jay Rosenthal: 05:48

The judge said, here's the quote, Squabbles before the court appear to be driven at least in part by egos and ambitions, noting that would be okay if the parties involved weren't, quote, charitable organizations operating on donations, player fees, taxpayer dollars.

Alex Blumenstein: 06:03

Yeah. Let's zoom out. Oop. Intercene bickering is just the tip of the iceberg. Cricket Canada is dealing with a raft of controversies, including a match fixing investigation, a wrongful dismissal suit from ex national team coach Poobodoo Dasanjake, and the hiring of Salman Khan as CEO, even though he was accused of fraud and theft while at the Calgary and District Cricket League.

Jay Rosenthal: 06:29

Here's why it matters. Cricket has been tabbed as one of the fastest growing sports in Canada, and the national team has made impressive strides on the world stage. The opportunity to build on this momentum will be squandered if those in charge can't get their house in order.

Alex Blumenstein: 06:44

And here's the bottom line. It's not just cricket that's facing a reckoning. A commission studying the future of sport in Canada released its findings yesterday and called for a total overhaul of how athletics are structured in the country. And Jay, here's a pitch for you. We should make a docu series about Cricket Canada.

Alex Blumenstein: 07:01

This sounds electric. Hey. Jay, hit us with that big picture.

Jay Rosenthal: 07:08

Sure. Apple is testing a refreshed version of its Siri that gives the voice assistant a chatbot like user experience in a standalone app. The new Siri is set to debut in June. Meanwhile, Apple launched a new business platform that, among other things, will let companies advertise in Apple Maps.

Alex Blumenstein: 07:25

Already don't use Apple Maps. Alright. Alberta premier Daniel Smith told CBC News that the first set of goals for the memorandum of understanding for a new oil pipeline to BC are not expected to be met by their April 1 deadline. Meanwhile, Canadian officials spoke with Trump officials about reviving the Keystone XL oil pipeline.

Jay Rosenthal: 07:47

Next, BMO is partnering with Google Cloud and CME Group, the largest US derivatives exchange, to offer cash tokenization. Institutional clients will be able to convert U. S. Dollars into digital representations on the blockchain that can be moved outside regular trading hours. It comes as global markets pivot toward 20 fourseven operations.

Alex Blumenstein: 08:07

And here's what else is on our radar and should be on yours too. Investigators found that the fire truck in Sunday's Fatal Air Canada collision wasn't equipped with the transponder needed to trigger the runway warning system.

Jay Rosenthal: 08:19

Nintendo is cutting quarterly production of its Switch two console from 6,000,000 units to 4,000,000 units after surprisingly weak holiday season sales.

Alex Blumenstein: 08:28

Canadian AI company Cohere signed a memorandum of understanding to work with Swedish aerospace and defense firm Saab, on its global eye surveillance jet. Hey. Peak pals. Thanks for making us the most listened to business news podcast in Canada.

Jay Rosenthal: 08:45

If you got a second one, follow this podcast on your app of choice and leave us a review.

Alex Blumenstein: 08:50

If you want more Peak, make sure to subscribe to our daily newsletter at readthepeak.com.

Jay Rosenthal: 08:54

Thank you to Reframe Video as always for producing this Peak Daily, and have a great day, Peak House.