When Canadian Identity Is the Strategy

A homegrown social network, a stadium sellout story, a podcast boom, and an inclusion gap finally getting closed.

June 30, 2026

In partnership with

Hey friend,

Tomorrow is Canada Day. And this week, almost everything we're covering has something to do with what it actually means to build something Canadian. A social network designed around Canadian values and funded by Canadians. A soccer club that turned 12,000 empty seats into 50,000-person sellouts by deciding relationships mattered more than reach. A podcast ecosystem that is bigger, more local, and more Francophone than most of the industry realized. And a screen sector putting research behind inclusion instead of just talking about it. The buy-Canadian conversation has been everywhere this year. And this week's issue is about what happens when that energy gets put to work.

Coming up

The Social Network Built by Canadians, for Canadians

The buy-Canadian conversation has been loud this year. Louder than it's been in a long time. And while most of it has played out in grocery aisles and shopping carts, a small team in Ottawa has been asking a quieter version of the same question: whose infrastructure are we building our online lives on?

Gander, a Canadian-built social platform backed by 2,517 Canadian investors, launches nationally on July 1. It already has 18,000 members from its beta period, several thousand of whom are also investors. The community, in a fairly literal sense, helped build the thing.

The platform is designed around principles that have become increasingly rare: no surveillance advertising, no algorithmic outrage loops, no selling of personal data. Canadian users' data stays in Canada, under Canadian law. A one-time human verification requirement means the conversation layer is reserved for real people. "Canadians aren't just looking for a better social network. They're helping build one," said Ben Waldman, Founder and CEO of Gander Social. Early member Marta Summers put it plainly: "Gander is such a breath of fresh air compared to other social media apps."

The timing of the July 1 launch is deliberate. So is everything else about it.

Summer's here. Larry handles calls, jobs, and memberships automatically.

Air Design used to spend hours every day manually calling their 600 members to schedule seasonal tune-ups.

They turned on Podium's AI Membership Coordinator. It contacted 471 members, booked 187 jobs, and generated $24,000 in revenue.

Across home services, the story repeats.

Magnolia Plumbing cut invoice-to-payment time to 6 minutes and saved 60 hours of admin work every month.

This is what Podium's AI Operating System does: phones answered, jobs booked, invoices collected — automatically, without adding headcount.

Across the Industry

Industry news, research, leadership perspectives, and campaign spotlights driving Canadian marketing forward.

Jeff Aylen, Vice President of Marketing and Brand for the Vancouver Whitecaps, joined host Lindsay Smith live at SocialWest 2026 to talk about what that turnaround actually required. Data, performance marketing, emotional moments, and scenario planning for seasons when the results aren't going your way. The throughline: fans aren't acquired. They're built.

Nearly half of Canadian adults now listen to podcasts every month, and the jump that got us here is the biggest the format has ever seen in this country. The growth is coming from places most media plans aren't accounting for yet. But the number everyone's going to be talking about isn't the top line.

The Screen Industry Built a Free 2SLGBTQIA+ Inclusion Training Program. Here's What the Rest of Us Can Learn.

93% of Canadian screen industry professionals say 2SLGBTQIA+ representation matters. Only 41% believe their workplaces are actually inclusive. That gap has been documented before. What's different this time is that Pink Triangle Press sat with it long enough to build something about it and what they built has implications well beyond a film set.

Watch & Learn

Upcoming live webinars, interviews and conversations in the SocialNext Marketing Alliance. Every Wednesday at 10 AM Mountain Time / 12 PM Eastern Time.

July 8: RILEY KEARL - HOW TO BUILD AN INTERACTIVE AI TOOL IN CLAUDE THAT POSITIONS YOU AS THE EXPERT

Most consultants and employees have more expertise than their clients or managers ever see. The problem isn't the knowledge — it's the visibility.

In this session, Riley Kearl walks through how he built a LinkedIn Newsletter around a single marketing philosophy and turned it into an interactive AI tool that positions him as the expert in his space. If you want to be seen as the go-to person by your clients, team, or manager, this one's worth your time.

Coast-to-Coast Job Opportunities

The marketing job market in Canada is more difficult than ever. To help those on the hunt, here's a snapshot of what's open right now across the country. 

WaitWell, a Calgary-based SaaS scale-up, is looking for a hands-on performance marketer to own paid digital campaigns end-to-end across Google, Meta, LinkedIn, and Reddit. You'll shape the creative, build or direct the landing pages, and measure everything in between. Close to the founding team, close to the action.

  • Run paid campaigns end-to-end across search and social

  • Direct ad creative and landing pages with a CRO lens

  • CA$60,000 to $80,000 annually, hybrid in Calgary

And a few more opportunities across the country:

Follow us on LinkedIn for job openings across every province and territory in Canada every Friday.

Let’s connect on Gander tomorrow!

Until next week,

Marketing News Canada 🍁

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