Wealthsimple

June 29, 2026

In This Issue

8 min read

Welcome to TLDR’s special quarterly markets edition! One housekeeping note before we get started: we’re taking the week off for Canada Day! We’ll be back on July 13. In the meantime, we’d love to know: what’s the biggest pay bump you’ve gotten by switching jobs, and how old were you? Leave a comment in the feedback module below! —The Editors

We asked a bunch of Canadians (with neat jobs!) how much money they make … and their answers revealed way more than just a number. More below. | Illustration by Tom Etherington

The Week in Markets

Spotting the difference between bubbly and frothy

The second quarter of 2026 is over at last, and what a decade it was! April opened with a double whammy of panic: the Iran war was going to crater the global economy and the AI bubble was (any day now) about to burst. Instead, while ordinary drivers and airline passengers got creamed, barrel prices never approached the direst $200/barrel predictions. Meanwhile, even as doubts persist about the pace of AI adoption and profits, the companies that sell the hardware powering AI — aka chipmakers — went on a run for the ages. AMD: 2x year-over-year profit. South Korea’s Hynix: 5x. Micron: fifteen x, which we spelled out just to make clear it’s not a typo. That spate of cartoon multipliers helps to explain the wild volatility atop the list of the world’s 20 most valuable companies: it has shuffled 30% since this time a year ago, and all six newcomers are AI princes.

So then why did Q2 end with a stretch of June gloom? Are investors just congenitally grouchy? More likely it’s just a double dose of reality: maybe AI isn’t a bubble, just a bit too frothy. And maybe the Iran war isn’t WW3, but it’s still a huge mess with no end in sight.

The chip bonanza minted new market leaders

Q2 Report Card April 1 – June 28

TSX:	+6.1%

S&P 500:	+11.9%

Bitcoin:	-10%

Magnificent 7:	+6.6%

WTI Crude Oil Futures:	-22.8%

Biggest Canadian Gainer*	Bank of Montreal: 36.3%

Biggest Canadian Loser*	Canadian Natural Resources Ltd.: -18.3%

*Universe: TSX 60. Total returns shown in local currency. TradingView data. Bloomberg Mag7 index shown for Mag. 7. Data through June 28 close.

The Big Important Story

Salary Confessions: 7 Canadians Get Candid About Their Wages

We all do it: someone tells you their line of work, and you instantly think, Gosh, I wonder what that job pays? Often there’s a more anxious question lurking behind it, which is: Am I keeping up? That question has gained new urgency as growth in tech, energy, health care, and beyond has swelled some workers’ pay, while others have seen wages stagnate. We asked seven Canadians to divulge how they’re faring, and to reveal their annual salaries.

Doctor, medical specialist

Montreal

$800,000
Up to $200,000 extra for paid appearances

I make a great living, but I work f*cking hard. My specialty requires that I be on call nights and weekends, and that often means being awake for the majority of the night. It’s stressful. Doctors often quit because the job is just incompatible with a normal life, but I’ve done it for three decades now. People often say my workload seems impossible. But Canadian medicine is mostly fee-for-service, so I’m paid by visit — and a follow-up patient only pays me $29. So it’s a volume game. I deserve 10 times what I make. I know what American doctors get paid for this same job.

Where do you land on Canada’s income ladder?

Snow scientist

Canmore, Alta.

$78,000

The research lab here operates about 30 weather stations that collect information on solar radiation bouncing off the snow. We do this in part to predict how much water is going to come down from the mountains and downriver. We quite literally hike up the mountain to check the stations and to collect snow samples; in the wintertime, we use backcountry skis.

It’s my first job. I can go for dinner a couple times a month and still have a bit left over to invest. If I were to have a family one day, it would not be enough, but as a single person living with a roommate, I do OK.

Scavenger and garbage picker

Montreal

~$50,000

I’ve become a master of finding stuff on the curb and knowing the resale value. I’m always after precious metals, like gold or silver, but if I’m really lucky, I’ll find jewellery that someone has undervalued. I used to sell on eBay more, but now with the tariffs, I mostly use Mobile Auction House, and I have yard sales for random, fun stuff that I enjoy selling. I have a degree in sociology. For a while I considered trying for a master’s, but I was sick of academia. So I started finding things on curbs. At first — this was about 15 years ago — I didn’t make much money, but I only paid, like, $300 a month in rent. Now I’m more professional and I have some savings, which is nice.

Lawyer at a legal-tech firm

Markham, Ont.

$190,000
Plus equity

My role isn’t the traditional in-house counsel role you’d see at a bank or a large corporation — our customers are law firms, and they want a lawyer who can speak their language. At a traditional law firm, compensation is completely fixed for the first six years — for instance, everybody in your year starts at $135,000 and then climbs by either $20,000 or $25,000 per year. After that, it’s negotiated up to a limit. At my current company, everything is up for negotiation.

Even though I’m conscious of lifestyle creep, it feels like every time I get a raise, I’m still making the same amount of money. My life doesn’t feel much different in 2026 making $190,000 than it did in 2024 making $135,000. The rising cost of living is part of it. As soon as you start to get ahead, suddenly a war breaks out and now gas costs nearly double what it did six months ago.

Therapeutic clown and circus artist

Toronto

$40,000

On Mondays and Thursdays, I teach aerial silks, a type of circus art. Private lessons are $80 an hour, and a group class can be $150 an hour. Tuesdays and Wednesdays are therapeutic-clowning days at a hospital and a recovery centre. That’s about $50 an hour. Sometimes on Fridays and Saturdays, I’ll have a clowning shift at a facility for people with complex needs. It’s not big bucks, but we get to help clients feel dignified and empowered.

Helicopter mechanic

Vernon, B.C.

$85,000
Up to $45,000 in overtime

My base salary is $85,000, but my pay is heavily dependent on how much the helicopter flies in a shift. It’s called “flight pay,” and the amount varies based on what machine you’re working on. The bigger the machine, the bigger the pay. With that, I make around $110,000 to $130,000. But I still feel heavily under-compensated, since one mistake could cost the lives of multiple pilots. A few times, I’ve been unable to sleep because of the stress. Once I even went to the hangar at 2 a.m. — a 45-minute drive each way — just to make sure I did a job correctly.

Where I live in B.C. is fairly expensive, but with my wage and my partner’s, we’re comfortable. Not thriving but comfortable. We take vacations, and we’re planning to buy a house soon. But my main goal in life is to own a small bush plane; the one I want costs about US$500,000.

Local news reporter

St. John’s, Nfld.

$70,000
Up to $3,000 in overtime

I’ve been doing this for two years. Sometimes I’m reading the news on air, sometimes I’m producing radio or TV segments, sometimes I’m reporting. It’s exciting, and it’s a great living. Or maybe not great, but it’s extremely doable here. I was looking to buy a home recently, but the housing market is freaking nuts. I could afford the list prices, but everything is going for $25,000, $50,000, or $100,000 over asking. So I’m priced out right now.

—Jenna Benchetrit

The FOMO Index

by Stacey Woods

Important

Kraft Heinz’s new product fuses macaroni and cheese with ramen. Now uni grads will have two reminders of just how broke they are.
Source

Meta ditches former collaborators and releases smart glasses they designed themselves. Style is irrelevant when you’re telling your glasses to “call Mom.”
Source

Sell the house, sell the car, sell the kids: Canada advances to the World Cup Round of 16 for the first time ever.
Source

Canada is officially eligible to compete in Eurovision. Rush desperately trying to remember where they packed away their kimonos.
Source

Crash & Burn

To the Moon

Elon Musk is no longer a trillionaire. In the blink of an eye, he went from having it all to still having it all.
Source

Scottish man treated for regularly using massage gun on his eyes, or, as they call it in Scotland, “self-care.”
Source

A cat at 10 Downing St. has outlasted six prime ministers. Attributes it to parliamentary confidence, strong poll numbers, and an odour-fighting, hard-clumping litter.
Source

U.S. removes the phrase “having a shell” from its definition of “shellfish.” It’s now any aquatic invertebrate that identifies as an appetizer.
Source

Who Cares?

Thoughts on today’s issue?

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This week’s newsletter contributors: Brennan Doherty (writer), Devin Gordon (writer), Stacey Woods (writer), Jenna Benchetrit (news writer), Ambrose Martos (fact checker), Ciara Rickard (copy editor), Maude Campbell (copy editor), Sara Black McCulloch (fact checker), Eva Grace Clement Cruz (specialist, product engagement), Lauren Edwards (production coordinator), Matthew Karasz (markets editor), Jared Sullivan (senior editor), Peter Martin (senior editor), and Devin Friedman (editor-in-chief).

Disclosures: Contributors to this newsletter own shares in Micron.

Interviews edited for length and clarity.

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💸 7 Canadians told us their real salaries