Hard Numbers: Barbenheimer Canadians, GOP sees seas of trees, Nissan picks a plug, H-1Bs make a rush
3: Look, we don’t know where you stand in the great Barbenheimer debate of 2023, but you should at least know that there are no fewer than THREE Canadian actors with big roles in “Barbie.” Ryan Gosling, of course, plays basic Ken, while Marvel star Simu Liu plays an alternate Ken, and Michael Cera of “Arrested Development” fame plays Ken’s pal Allan. “Oppenheimer,” by contrast, features just one Canadian in a prominent role – “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” star Devon Bostick as American physicist Seth Neddermeyer. Both movies hit cinemas this Friday.
1,000,000,000,000: Speaking under a haze of Canadian wildfire smoke in the US state of Ohio, US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy proposed an ambitious solution for climate change: plant a trillion trees. Trees are great, of course, but critics say the idea distracts from the harder work of cutting fossil fuel production, something McCarthy’s Republicans generally oppose. Still, if McCarthy really wants to do the trillion, he should DM this Canadian TikTok star who planted 4,500 trees in a single day.
40: Nissan became the first Japanese carmaker to adopt the Tesla standard EV charging technology in the US and Canada, a move meant to help the company reach its target of EVs accounting for 40% of its US vehicle sales in North America by decade’s end. Nissan joins GM and Rivian in adopting the Tesla plug – a move that strikes a further blow to the rival Combined Charging System, which the Biden administration has pushed.
1: Well that was fast. Canada’s new program to draw tech workers from the US hit capacity after just one day. Last Sunday, the government had created 10,000 application slots for holders of the US H1-B visa. By Monday, they were all filled. Overall, Canada has welcomed more than 32,000 foreign tech workers over the past year.