nationalpost.com speed test — 20 Oct 2026

Measured from the wfix.shop server on 20 October 2026 at 14:34 UTC. Grade A (90/100), with the screenshots, the timings and the fixes that matter.

https://nationalpost.com/

20 October 2026 at 14:34 UTC · Free test · report pt_d947ee92fe1d
Grade
A
90/100
Performance95/100
Structure82/100

12 audit(s) passed, 4 need work

First byte (TTFB)357 msmeasured from this server
Fully loaded1.82 sfirst byte + slowest asset
Requests26document + assets
Page weight236.4 KBcompressed transfer
HTML document107.9 KBgzip
ProtocolHTTP/3istio-envoy
Third-party128.5 KBother hosts

Where the first byte went

  • DNS lookup 61 ms 17%
  • TCP connect 58 ms 16%
  • Server wait 238 ms 67%

Measured on the connection that fetched the HTML. Every other request on the page waits for the end of this bar before it can start.

How this page compares

First bytefaster than 63% of 4,999 pages tested here357 ms against a median of 449 ms
Page weightlighter than 77% of 4,999 pages tested here236.4 KB against a median of 650.5 KB
Fully loadedfaster than 51% of 4,999 pages tested here1.82 s against a median of 1.84 s
Requestssends more requests than 100% of 4,999 pages tested here26 against a median of 26

Every report published here is in this comparison, so it is a reference population of pages tested from one server - not a benchmark of the whole web.

What these numbers mean

  • The first byte arrived in 357 ms. That is workable, and the cheapest win left is caching or a warmer connection.
  • The page transfers 236.4 KB over 26 request(s). Images files are 54% of it, so resize and recompress the largest images before anything else.
  • The HTML itself arrives gzip-compressed.
  • It runs over HTTP/3, so the assets share a connection instead of opening one each.
  • 54% of the weight comes from other hosts (analytics, fonts, embeds), which also means their slow day becomes your slow day.

Fix first: Render-blocking resources - Add defer or async to scripts that do not change the first paint, inline the critical CSS, and load the rest with media="print" plus an onload swap.

Read on one shared server, not a visitor's phone: use it to compare pages against each other, not as a promise about every connection. We fix what these tests find.

No screenshot for this report.

The headless browser did not capture this page when the test ran, so only the server measurements are shown.

Page weight by type

What the page is made of

Images 25 requests
128.5 KB 54%

Transfer size, compressed as sent. 26 request(s) in total, 236.4 KB across all of them.

Top issues

Render-blocking resources

high impact

8 render-blocking resource(s) in the document head (2 script(s), 6 stylesheet(s)). The page cannot paint until each one arrives.

Fix: Add defer or async to scripts that do not change the first paint, inline the critical CSS, and load the rest with media="print" plus an onload swap.

Cache static assets

medium impact

1 asset(s) answer without a Cache-Control max-age, so browsers revalidate them on every visit.

Fix: Version filenames on change and serve them with a long max-age plus immutable. That is what makes a returning visitor fast.

HTML document size

medium impact

The document transfers 107.9 KB. A bloated document delays every other request, because nothing else can start until it is parsed.

Fix: Paginate long listings, move repeated markup into a template, and stop inlining large data URIs into the HTML.

Mobile viewport

medium impact

No viewport meta tag, so a phone renders the desktop layout scaled down.

Fix: Add a viewport meta tag with width=device-width and an initial scale of 1.

Waterfall

Slowest requests

IMAGESsmartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/nationalpost/wp-content/uploads/2026/1…
1.47 s
IMAGESsmartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/nationalpost/wp-content/uploads/2026/0…
1.44 s
IMAGESsmartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/nationalpost/wp-content/uploads/2026/1…
1.40 s
IMAGESsmartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/nationalpost/wp-content/uploads/2026/1…
1.35 s
IMAGESsmartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/nationalpost/wp-content/uploads/2026/1…
1.30 s
IMAGESsmartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/nationalpost/wp-content/uploads/2026/0…
1.29 s
IMAGESsmartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/nationalpost/wp-content/uploads/2026/0…
1.29 s
IMAGESsmartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/nationalpost/wp-content/uploads/2026/0…
1.26 s
IMAGESsmartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/nationalpost/wp-content/uploads/2026/1…
1.26 s
IMAGESsmartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/nationalpost/wp-content/uploads/2026/1…
1.26 s

Each bar is one request's own response time, scaled to the slowest. Assets were fetched in parallel, so the bars overlap in real time rather than stacking. first party third party

RequestTypeStatusTimeSize
https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/nationalpost/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/mortgages-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=116&sig=i_5UB_hXhVcuray4BMUHSQ, 3rd partyimages2001.47 s5.9 KB
https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/nationalpost/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/DigitalHousing4.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=116&sig=r2NmaZDt2HTmnN2fS_OozA, 3rd partyimages2001.44 s7.5 KB
https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/nationalpost/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/calgary_vote_oct19_jw005.ca_305848729.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=288&sig=zWoK04c90TG2qJEs7Cbsog, 3rd partyimages2001.40 s15.5 KB
https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/nationalpost/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Arsalan-Chaudhary-2.jpg?quality=5&strip=all&w=100&sig=3eMSJa9fBVPt78Svy7pffg 3rd partyimages2001.35 s825 B
https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/nationalpost/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/0918-na-choking_304336755.jpg?quality=5&strip=all&w=100&sig=pvEbgbyonXjFcJAidgXoIA 3rd partyimages2001.30 s777 B
https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/nationalpost/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/0324-na-foreign-students_300006532.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=116&sig=QJ9spwDNM7mwsP5Rdl3-0w, 3rd partyimages2001.29 s5.9 KB
https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/nationalpost/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/0324-na-foreign-students_300006532.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=116&sig=QJ9spwDNM7mwsP5Rdl3-0w 3rd partyimages2001.29 s5.9 KB
https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/nationalpost/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/DigitalHousing4.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=116&sig=r2NmaZDt2HTmnN2fS_OozA 3rd partyimages2001.26 s7.5 KB
https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/nationalpost/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/1006-galloway-trial-1-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=116&sig=Q6r-B04v0Pr6SsQN-Ab6sQ 3rd partyimages2001.26 s3.8 KB
https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/nationalpost/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/1006-galloway-trial-1-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=116&sig=Q6r-B04v0Pr6SsQN-Ab6sQ, 3rd partyimages2001.26 s3.8 KB
https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/nationalpost/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/pipeline-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=116&sig=db_FVO1fNoH8pVe7mcVpFA, 3rd partyimages2001.26 s4.7 KB
https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/nationalpost/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/pipeline-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=116&sig=db_FVO1fNoH8pVe7mcVpFA 3rd partyimages2001.26 s4.7 KB
https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/nationalpost/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/20261019db002.ej_305849007.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=116&sig=LOrRSNctOTeb2wG4FuOSCw 3rd partyimages2001.26 s5.7 KB
https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/nationalpost/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/wainwright-fire-pierre-poilievre.jpg?quality=5&strip=all&w=100&sig=U5VYsGH75eVjPUqG_J3OcQ 3rd partyimages2001.25 s839 B
https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/nationalpost/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/wainwright-fire-101826-9.Ca_.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=116&sig=1uaPoO_cID0OmPt72Yr5eA, 3rd partyimages2001.25 s6.9 KB
https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/nationalpost/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/20261019db002.ej_305849007.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=116&sig=LOrRSNctOTeb2wG4FuOSCw, 3rd partyimages2001.24 s5.7 KB
https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/nationalpost/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/PM0924-DTES-24.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=116&sig=y2haJo8-rWFix5XtjE_TlA, 3rd partyimages2001.23 s5.6 KB
https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/nationalpost/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/PM0924-DTES-24.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=116&sig=y2haJo8-rWFix5XtjE_TlA 3rd partyimages2001.22 s5.6 KB
https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/nationalpost/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/wainwright-fire-101826-9.Ca_.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=116&sig=1uaPoO_cID0OmPt72Yr5eA 3rd partyimages2001.22 s6.9 KB
https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/nationalpost/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/mortgages-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=116&sig=i_5UB_hXhVcuray4BMUHSQ 3rd partyimages2001.21 s5.9 KB
https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/nationalpost/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/2299250245.jpg?quality=5&strip=all&w=100&sig=1zG2unDS2FYido7AW1g5qg 3rd partyimages2001.20 s1.5 KB
https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/nationalpost/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/gettyimages-2239783654_304087827.jpg?quality=5&strip=all&w=100&sig=8vnkfjv96oG68jLeQ1vJ_w 3rd partyimages2001.19 s940 B
https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/nationalpost/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/calgary_vote_oct19_jw005.ca_305848729.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=288&sig=zWoK04c90TG2qJEs7Cbsog 3rd partyimages2001.16 s15.5 KB
https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/nationalpost/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/yyc-airport-airlines_304867251.jpg?quality=5&strip=all&w=100&sig=qFIavuAJe6S9aR96UTuNVA 3rd partyimages2001.14 s851 B
https://sb.scorecardresearch.com/p?c1=2&c2=10276888&cv=3.9.1&cj=1 3rd partyimages2001.12 s43 B
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