This paper applies Sentence-Bert embeddings to the analysis of three competing constructions in Canadian English: be perfect, predicate adjective and have perfect. Samples are drawn from a Canadian news media database. Constructional exemplars are vectorized and mean-pooled to create constructional centroids, from which top-ranked exemplars and cross-construction similarities are calculated. Clause type distribution and definiteness marking are also examined. The embeddings-based analysis is cross-validated by a traditional quantitative study, and both lines of inquiry converge on the following tendencies: (1) prevalence of embedded – and particularly adverbial – clauses in the be perfect and predicate adjective constructions, (2) prevalence of matrix clauses in the have perfect, (3) prevalence of definiteness marking in the direct object of the be perfect, and (4) greater statistical similarities between be perfects and predicate adjectives. These findings support the argument that be perfects function as topic-marking constructions within a usage-based framework.