Paul Waldie

Paul Waldie is Europe Correspondent at The Globe and Mail, with a body of work that uses business and finance reporting to explain how corporate decisions and political events in Europe affect investors and ordinary people. His coverage sits at the intersection of markets, policy and power, tracking the way leadership crises, regulation and global shocks translate into financial risk and opportunity.

He has reported for the paper since the mid‑1990s, covering business, sports, politics and war, a range that now underpins his finance‑focused perspective on European stories. Over that time he has developed a reputation for award‑winning business journalism, including multiple National Newspaper Awards for business reporting and recognition for investigations into how Canadian corporate money helped finance Islamic State terrorism abroad. His beat today combines European business and political economy with enterprise pieces that show the human and investor fallout behind headline events.

European politics and business through a financial lens

Waldie’s recent Europe coverage concentrates on political leadership and policy shifts that carry clear economic consequences. His reporting on British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s decision to bow to pressure and set out a timetable to resign by September tracks not just the political drama but the implications of leadership uncertainty for Britain’s direction and its partners. In related work on Starmer’s troubles over the appointment of Peter Mandelson, he follows how personnel decisions at the top of government quickly become questions about confidence, governance and future policy. These stories reflect his habit of reading political turbulence in terms of institutional stability and markets’ need for clarity.

He applies a similar lens to broader European policy stories, using business formats to explain official decisions. In a business brief on Canadian participation in a major Paris exhibition, he introduces the piece directly as Europe correspondent and frames the event in terms of trade, investment and the presence of 14,000 delegates, making clear why such a gathering matters for companies and economic ties. His coverage of the Isle of Man’s COVID‑19 response highlights a jurisdiction where pubs and restaurants were open and face masks were not mandatory, turning a public‑health story into a case study of policy choices, social behaviour and economic reopening. Across these pieces, he treats European politics not as isolated spectacle but as a set of decisions with measurable financial outcomes.

Corporate behaviour, investor losses and personal finance

Waldie has long examined corporate ventures and investor experiences, a line of reporting that still informs his finance work. In coverage of disgruntled investors “taking a beating,” he documents how specific investment schemes left people with losses, connecting abstract market movements to individual portfolios. His piece on a co‑operative wine venture that went sour traces a promising brand, 20 Bees, from launch to trouble, laying out how business plans, governance and market realities combine to determine whether investors see returns or write‑downs. These stories show his interest in the mechanics of deals and the consequences when they fail.

His business reporting extends to high‑profile cases where finance, law and personal tragedy intersect. He has been recognized for personal finance and investing coverage related to the deaths of Barry and Honey Sherman, treating the case as more than crime reporting by exploring what it means for a major business figure’s enterprises and for those whose money is tied to them. The National Newspaper Awards he has won for business reporting underline his ability to turn complex corporate and financial narratives into clear, accessible stories that still probe accountability. For communications work around finance, he is a reporter who will press on how decisions affect investors, employees and the integrity of markets.

War, refugees and the economic and human cost of conflict

Although his beat is grounded in business and finance, Waldie regularly covers war and displacement, often in ways that highlight the social and economic dimensions of conflict. In the “Too Precious to Leave Behind” series on Ukrainian refugees fleeing across the border into the town of Przemysl, he and photographer Anna Liminowicz ask people what they chose to carry with them. The project pairs short texts with intimate images of objects such as pine cones, passports and family photographs, using personal detail to make visible the scale of refugee movements that are otherwise counted only in statistics. It shows a reporter who understands that conflict reshapes labour markets, public spending and donor priorities, but begins with the lived reality of those affected.

His broader war coverage includes work on terrorist attacks and political upheaval in Europe, bringing the same focus on consequences to stories about security and instability. The investigation into Canadian corporate money reaching Islamic State fighters abroad reflected his willingness to follow financial flows across borders, linking boardroom decisions, compliance gaps and global terrorism. In conflict reporting, as in business, he is less interested in abstract geopolitics than in tracing how events change the incentives, risks and responsibilities facing companies, governments and citizens.

Investigative and explanatory business journalism

Waldie’s finance coverage is marked by investigative depth and explanatory clarity. His recognition at the National Newspaper Awards for business reporting and at other contests for enterprise work reflects sustained efforts to dig into documents, money trails and corporate structures rather than accept official narratives at face value. Whether examining investor losses, corporate ventures gone wrong or funds finding their way to sanctioned actors, he treats business stories as investigations into who benefits, who pays and who knew what when.

At the same time, he writes accessible explanatory pieces that connect complex systems to everyday life. His business brief on Canada’s presence at the Paris exhibition walks readers through why a trade show with thousands of delegates matters for companies, workers and national economic strategies. Feature work such as the cycling tour for cancer research, which chronicled a 30,000‑kilometre ride through 25 countries that raised nearly $50,000 for a major cancer centre, shows his capacity to fold philanthropy, endurance and international travel into a coherent narrative about how individuals move money and attention toward causes. Together, his work indicates a reporter who can move from high finance and regulatory questions to human‑scale stories while keeping the financial stakes in view.