Tag Archives: Canada

News

Porsche Ice Experience Canada Turns 15

If you’ve ever wondered how a 911 behaves when the road turns into a skating rink, Porsche has been refining the answer for 15 years. This February, the Porsche Ice Experience Canada marks its 15th anniversary, and the brand is celebrating the milestone the only way it knows how: by putting people behind the wheel of its latest sports cars and letting them loose on snow and ice.

The setting is Mécaglisse, a purpose-built winter driving playground just outside Montreal. Think of it as a frozen laboratory for oversteer, complete with multi-turn circuits and expansive skid pads. Everything is designed to let drivers explore the limits of traction in a safe, controlled environment—where spinning out is part of the lesson, not a reason to panic.

Beyond the driving, the location does a lot of the heavy lifting. The Laurentian winter scenery looks like a brochure for Canadian tourism, and Porsche layers on the kind of five-star hospitality you’d expect from a global luxury brand. Mont-Tremblant is nearby, too, making it dangerously easy to turn a driving course into a full-blown winter holiday.

According to Trevor Arthur, President and CEO of Porsche Cars Canada, the anniversary isn’t just about nostalgia. The goal remains practical: showing how Porsche’s sports cars can be both thrilling and confidence-inspiring, even in brutal winter conditions. With Porsche-certified instructors riding shotgun, participants learn real skills—how to manage throttle on ice, read weight transfer, and correct a slide before it becomes a pirouette.

The program lineup is broad enough to suit just about anyone with a driver’s license and a pulse. There’s Ice Trial for beginners, Ice Intro and Ice Experience for those looking to step it up, and the more intense Ice Force and Ice Force + for drivers who want to push closer to the edge. Returning for the anniversary season is Ice for HER, a program designed specifically for female participants and taught by female instructors—same cars, same ice, just a more tailored learning environment.

Canada’s program is part of a much larger frozen empire. Porsche’s winter driving concept started in Finland, where the Arctic Center north of the Arctic Circle hosts advanced events on frozen lakes. There’s also an Ice Experience in Mongolia aimed at Chinese customers, along with smaller winter programs in Italy, Switzerland, and Austria. In other words, Porsche has effectively turned “bad weather” into a global training brand.

At its core, the Ice Experience isn’t about pretending everyone will become a rally driver. It’s about learning how performance cars behave when conditions are less than perfect—and doing it in a way that’s equal parts education and adrenaline. Fifteen years in, Porsche has figured out something important: sometimes the best way to understand a sports car is to take away its grip and see what’s left.

Source: Porsche

News

ICE Orders Canadian Armored Trucks Amid Trade Tensions—Because Capability Still Beats Politics

In an era of “America First” procurement talking points, you’d expect federal agencies to keep their shopping carts strictly domestic. Yet, while the Trump administration continues to spar with Canada over tariffs and trade, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has quietly signed a contract for something built well north of the border: 20 Roshel Senator armored vehicles, manufactured in Ontario.

The deal is worth $7.23 million USD—a tidy $10.08 million CAD—and follows hot on the heels of another federal order, this time from the State Department, for 25 additional Senators totaling $8.19 million USD. So in the middle of steel tariffs and rhetoric-heavy press conferences, Canada’s armored-vehicle industry is suddenly doing brisk business with Washington.

Why the Senator? Capability and Logistics Win Out

Procurement documents shed some light on the apparent contradiction. ICE specifically sought armored vehicles certified to B7 protection levels, meaning they can shrug off fire from serious rounds—think .308 Winchester, 30-06, and 7.62 mm rifle ammunition.

According to a report from Canada’s Global News, Roshel was the only manufacturer capable of meeting all technical requirements while also delivering within a tight 30-day window. In the world of armored vehicles, speed matters nearly as much as armor thickness.

That combination—high protection, quick delivery—seems to have overridden the ideological preference for domestic sourcing. When you need armor, you buy armor.

A Fleet for a Hardline Mission

ICE’s acquisition spree ties into the agency’s ongoing enforcement efforts. A recent Texas operation netted 3,593 arrests, categorized by ICE as “criminal illegal aliens.” The agency noted that the group included individuals convicted of serious crimes ranging from homicide to driving while impaired. Others were linked to auto thefts and hit-and-runs.

Those headlines paint a picture of field teams operating in environments where ballistic protection isn’t a luxury—it’s a requirement. The Senator, built on a commercial truck platform but wrapped in purpose-built armor, is engineered for exactly that mission profile: rapid deployments, urban operations, and the ability to stop small-arms fire without breaking a sweat.

Diplomacy? Not So Much. Business? Absolutely.

The political backdrop only adds flavor. Earlier in the year, President Trump and Ontario Premier Doug Ford had a public dust-up over anti-tariff messaging. But if relations on the podium were frosty, Roshel’s order book suggests things were much warmer behind the scenes.

Ford even seized the moment with a hint of humor. “We’ll take orders anywhere in the world,” he told reporters. “And thank goodness the Americans are ordering it off us.”

It’s a rare bipartisan point of agreement: when it comes to specialized armored hardware, even a trade war won’t stop a good product from crossing the border.

For all the political fireworks, this purchase underscores a simple truth that automotive and defense procurement teams know well: mission requirements beat messaging. When federal agents need high-protection, high-reliability armored trucks—and need them fast—capability trumps nationality.

The Roshel Senator may not be American-made, but for ICE, it appears to be the right tool for the job.

Source: GlobalNews

News

Ontario Just Killed Its Automated Speed Cameras. Now What?

Ontario has officially yanked the keys from its automated speed-camera program, setting off a province-wide argument that’s equal parts safety debate and political street fight. Premier Doug Ford, never one to mince words, called the cameras a “cash grab” and insisted they do little to curb bad behavior behind the wheel. Whether you agree or not, one thing’s certain: fewer drivers in Ontario will be getting nasty surprises in their mailboxes anytime soon.

But ditching the cameras doesn’t mean the province is coasting on road safety. Instead of automated enforcement, Ontario is steering CA$210 million ($149 million) into physical traffic-calming infrastructure—things you can feel in the driver’s seat, not just see in a fine notice.

The New Plan: Less Flashing, More Slowing

Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria laid out the plan: CA$42 million ($30 million) will go toward old-school, mechanical persuasion—speed bumps, raised crosswalks, roundabouts, new signage, and more police presence—targeting the same school and community zones where cameras once perched.

The remaining CA$168 million ($120 million) will land in municipal budgets early next year. What those municipalities do with the money—fix roads, redesign intersections, or fill potholes deep enough to qualify as wildlife habitats—is still to be seen.

If you ask Ontarians what works, though, the answer seems surprisingly analog.

A fresh Abacus Data poll of 2,000 adults shows a full 50 percent prefer physical traffic-calming tools to automated cameras. Only one-third said they think cameras actually improve safety. And 80 percent of respondents claim these measures genuinely made them slow down. The humble speed bump, the poll found, is the reigning champion of behavior modification.

So maybe the province is onto something.

Follow the Money—It’s Not a Small Trail

Critics argue the cameras did more than snap speeders—they funded important safety programs.

Of all the revenue generated by the automated enforcement system:

  • 35% covered the operating costs
  • 24% flowed to the province
  • 41% paid for Toronto’s Vision Zero efforts—including school crossing guards, the Road Safety Program, and 18 police officers dedicated to traffic safety

And now? That revenue stream has dried up like a rural highway in August.

Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow is asking the obvious question: Who pays for those officers and crossing guards now that the cameras are gone?

Ford’s government hasn’t given a spelled-out replacement funding plan yet. Critics fear municipalities may be left patching financial potholes with political duct tape.

Safety vs. Revenue: The Long Road Ahead

Ontario’s move taps into a bigger automotive debate: Are automated cameras a safety tool or just a municipal ATM with a lens? Drivers hate them, pedestrians say they need them, and governments love them—at least until they don’t.

If the province’s new investment truly reshapes neighborhoods with smarter design and better enforcement, we might actually see safer streets without the sour taste of automated fines. If not, expect this debate to return faster than an Ontario commuter seeing an open lane on the 401.

Right now, the only thing certain is this: Ontario’s taking a very different route toward traffic safety. Whether it’s the scenic route or the wrong turn—that’s a story still being written.

Source: CBC News