Iain Dobson is an internationally recognized expert on city development, urban mobility and transit systems. He advocates for fact-based planning decisions. He currently publishes a bi-monthly report on how many office employees are back in the office. His talk will examine the lasting effects of the COVID pandemic, the new debate about work-from-home and the financial impact it is having on city centres.

Since 2000, when Iain retired from a successful 25-year career in commercial real estate development, he has focused on bringing the principles of evidence-based value planning in the private and public sectors to development and investment decisions. He co-founded the Strategic Regional Research Alliance, a research body which partners with all levels of government and the private sector to provide a better understanding of the components and complexities of making informed infrastructure investment decisions. He also co-founded The Value Planning Group and the Real Estate Search Corporation, which satisfies the ever-growing need for comprehensive, reliable, accurate independently collected data.
Continue reading Iain Dobson, The Impact of Remote Work on Cities, September 26, 2023 →

Fellow Whiffer, Chris Twigge-Molecey, has been asked to give us an update on his March 2019 talk on China. With the coronation of Xi Jinping for a third term as CCP General Secretary, have China’s global ambitions changed and what should we, as Canadians, really worry about?

Chris has been developing and leading businesses in China for over 20 years and brings to us a businessman’s perspective on opportunities during these times of troubled bi-lateral relations. Swamped with stories of Chinese IP theft and election interference, we have lost sight of the Belt and Road Initiative, (the BRI), China’s massive and largely successful geopolitical strategy.
Continue reading Dr. Chris Twigge-Molecey, Understanding China’s global ambitions and the Belt and Road Initiative, April 25, 2023 →

Ken is a long time active member of the Toronto Whiff who now lives in Peterborough. Born and raised in North Toronto, his post-secondary education saw him attend Ridley College and then the University of Toronto, majoring in psychology. He then began a 30-year executive career with Imperial Oil Limited, Exxon Corporation and Esso Inter-America which meant moving 18 times to support his roles in marketing, strategic planning and human resources. In his 50s, he joined accounting giant Coopers and Lybrand as a management consultant and, on behalf of the Canadian Executive Services Organization, served as a company consultant in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia until his dream job was offered to him – running Outward Bound Canada.
Continue reading Ken Powell, “Civilizations Collide in the Search For a Northwest Passage”, March 28, 2023 →

John Fraser is no stranger to the Whiff membership. John first spoke to us 12 years ago, when his topic was Through a glass darkly: Why academics (and journalists) should never try to predict anything. His most recent talk was at our November 2020 Whiff@Home meeting on What to do about China!. Following that meeting, he became a member of the Whiff. Continue reading John Anderson Fraser, The Monarchy in Canada: an update, February 28, 2023 →

Ted Barris is an award-winning journalist, author, and broadcaster. His writing has regularly appeared in the national press, as well as magazines as diverse as Air Force, esprit de corps and Zoomer. He has also worked as host/contributor for most CBC Radio network programs, WNED’s Canada Files, and on TV Ontario. And after 18 years teaching, he recently retired as a full-time professor of journalism at Toronto’s Centennial College.

In 2022, HarperCollins published Ted’s 20th non-fiction book, his largest work to date, on the longest battle of WWII, the Battle of the Atlantic: Gauntlet to Victory.
Continue reading Ted Barris, Author, Journalist, Latest Book: Battle of the Atlantic: Gauntlet to Victory, November 29, 2022 →

Jean Paul (JP) Gladu is currently Principal of Mokwateh and previously served as the President and CEO of the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business (CCAB) from September 2012 until April 2020. Anishinaabe from Thunder Bay, JP is a member of Sand Pont First Nation located on the eastern shores of Lake Nipigon, Ontario. JP completed a forestry technician diploma in 1993, obtained an undergraduate degree in forestry from Northern Arizona University in 2000, holds an Executive MBA from Queens University and the ICD.D from Rotman School of Management University of Toronto.

JP has over 25 years of experience in the natural resource sector. His career path includes work with Aboriginal communities and organizations, environmental non-government organizations, industry and governments from across Canada. Currently, JP serves on the board of Suncor, Noront Resources, Chair of Boreal Leadership Champions and previously served on the Board of Ontario Power Generation and past Chair of the Mikisew Group of Companies. He is a senior fellow with the Macdonald-Laurier Institute and served as the Chancellor of St. Paul’s University College Waterloo from 2017 to 2020. His previous appointments include Canadian Electricity Association Public Advisory Panel, Colleges and Institutes Canada (previously ACCC), the Northern Policy Institute, Canadian Foundation for Economic Education, advisory member to the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, a committee member to the Ontario Provincial Forest Policy Committee.
Continue reading Jean Paul Gladu, Executive Director, Indigenous Resource Network, “Reconciliation from an Economic – Business Point of View”, October 25, 2022 →

Robert Charles Jefferys Baines, CD, MA, is the President and CEO of the NATO Association of Canada, where he is focused on communicating the importance of NATO and the international-rules based order to Canadians. The Association is a charitable non-profit which hosts events across Canada, publishes hundreds of articles online every year and engages young Canadians about NATO through social media. Robert is a regular commentator on NATO issues in the Canadian media and has represented the NATO Association at the side conferences of the 2016 NATO Warsaw Summit, the 2018 Brussels Summit and the 2019 NATO Leaders’ Meeting in London.

In 2017 he became a director of the Canada-Turkey Business Council. Formerly he was Executive Director of the Canada-Albania Business Council and Corporate Development Officer of the NATO Association. Robert is Past President of the St. George’s Society of Toronto (Toronto’s oldest charity) and is Co-Chair of the Young Professional Board of the Canadian Opera Company.
Continue reading Robert Baines, CEO, NATO Association of Canada, September 27, 2022 →

4:40 PM, April 26^th, 2022

What do archaeologists do when the world is at war?
Surprisingly, many of them turn spy. During wartime, archaeologists on all sides have become involved with military intelligence, turning their in-depth knowledge of the land and the peoples they studied to support their countries at war. This was no more apparent than in the Middle East where prominent archaeologists played a very political game during the First World War. Some of these names, such as T.E. Lawrence, also known as Lawrence of Arabia, would become legendary. Others, when the war was over, simply went back to their museums and their excavations.
Continue reading Dr. Amy Barron, PhD, “Digger, Teacher, Soldier, Spy”, What do archaeologists do when the world is at war? April 26, 2022 →