Star Trek meet SpaceX. Elon Musk's futuristic space exploration company has applied for a Canadian telecom license as it plans to start beaming high-speed internet to hard-to-reach places in Canada.

The Context: If you've ever lived or visited rural Canada, you know that access to high-speed internet is a real issue. Whether you're a student or an accountant, reliable and fast internet access is no longer a luxury – it's a necessity.

Residents in hard-to-reach communities are disadvantaged by the lack of digital infrastructure and they have been advocating for years for better access.

Now they finally might get it...

What does SpaceX offer? Over the past 5 years, SpaceX's internet division Starlink launched hundreds LEO (Low Earth Orbit) satellites into space in a race to offer universal high speed internet access.

On Starlink's website, they say they aim to offer service in the US and Canada by 2020 and near global coverage by 2021. That means that by next year every Canadian household – even those in the most remote areas – could have access to the same high-speed internet as our biggest cities. Pretty cool, huh?

Is Starlink alone? No. In fact homegrown Canadian company Telesat is among Starlink's two most advanced rivals. Telesat, which has secured $85 million in funding from the Canadian Government, received the same approval as Starlink to operate in the US.

Zoom out: One of the drivers of inequality is the digital divide. Universal access to high-speed internet could close the gap and create equal opportunity for both urban and rural Canadians. And that's something we can all get behind.

Jeff Bezos is looking meaner than Regina George. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Amazon is limiting the ability of brands to promote devices that directly compete with Amazon's own products, such as digital doorbells, smart speakers, and tablets.

Why does this matter: A seller's position on Amazon's search results can make or break the success of their product. This is why ads have become big business for the e-commerce giant, only ranking behind Google and Facebook in the size of their digital advertising business.

But Amazon's become so big that if a rival merchant can't promote their own product on the platform, the seller loses access to the biggest retail channel in the world. And while that's good for Amazon, it seems like a pretty raw deal for the third party merchant...

And governments are starting to take notice:

The big picture: Amazon has built a hugely profitable business around their ability to outcompete with third party merchants on the platform. Any action by government to undermine this could significantly impact their bottom line and transform the e-commerce landscape.

Yesterday, Ford reached an agreement with the union representing the company's Canadian workers on a deal to keep its only vehicle-assembly plant in the country open.

The deal was praised by union leader Jerry Dias as a home-run. Here's what it includes:

What's the catch: Neither Unifor, the union representing the auto workers, or Ford would clarify how much of $1.95 billion is coming from Government.

Takeaways: It's always great to see manufacturers committing to keep jobs in Canada but it's probably worth having a conversation over if a corporate handout is the most effective use of our taxpayer dollars.

It's been a rough year for the airline industry. With air traffic seeing an 80-90% drop, airlines are pleading for mandatory testing to get more people traveling.

Their plan: The IATA (International Air Transport Association) wants countries to adopt universal and mandatory COVID-19 testing for departing passengers. New rapid antigen tests, available next month, would make testing at this scale possible.

The IATA argues that universal testing would remove the need for mandatory quarantines on arrival and make pandemic travel more accessible.

Will this happen: Hard to say, but up to this point, countries have been very hesitant to surrender their public health policy to outsiders. The IATA argues that if countries don't come together to develop a unified travel policy many of the world's largest airlines may go bust.

That's probably their best argument since airlines are some of the world's biggest employers.

COVID: US Coronavirus related deaths top 200,000 as cases in previously spared parts of the country surge.

Carbon Tax: Ontario and Nova Scotia struck a deal with Ottawa to impose a carbon tax on industry. The move was meant to strengthen the province's Supreme Court case against the federal government.

Flu Shot: Ontario invests $70million to purchase 5.1 million doses of the 2020 flu shot to avoid 'twindemic'.

Fundraising: Boston-based Providence Strategic Growth acquired a majority stake in Nova Scotia startup Wagepoint. The investment includes $10 million in new capital.