Few people can boast a resume that includes the following:
racing school scholarship winner
lead singer of two rock bands; one of them award-winning; one of them featuring a young Mike Turner who would later go on to be a founding member of Our Lady Peace
played with the likes of Harem Scarem, Frozen Ghost and Andy Curran
The impact of technology and media on the upcoming federal election. This title may b fake news. At the very least it’s most likely misleading. In the end it’s 100% manipulated content. Or is it?
Here’s what you’ll actually learn: What you need to learn about how to inform yourself, your family and friends on the real issues in advance of the Canadian federal election.
Our next guest is a strategic leader in government relations, public policy and communications disciplines. Our guest joined Karim Kanji and Gregg Tilston in studio to chat about local, provincial and national politics in 2018 and what we can expect in 2019.
This is Episode #154 of the Welcome! podcast. Politics in Canada, many will argue, is boring. 2018 may have changed all that. One needs to look no further than this past year’s Ontario election.
According to most observers Kathleen Wynne’s Liberals had run out of time. Patrick Brown’s Progressive Conservatives were poised to take power. Then everything changed.
Brown resigned after allegations of sexual misconduct. Brown came back to run only to drop out and throw his hat into the ring for chair of the Region of Peel.
But then Doug Ford won the Progressive Conservative leadership and eventually became premier of Ontario.
Ford would cut the size of Toronto’s government and even scraped the Region of Peel chair. This would force Patrick Brown to run municipally in Brampton against an incumbent. And Brown won.
Our guest is one of Toronto’s most sought after political commentators. He joined us in studio to help all of us make sense of this and everything else that happened in 2018 in politics. He also gave us his insights on what to expect in 2019.
Professor Skilton recently published his third book, The 4th Industrial Revolution, which aims to help business leaders navigate the impact Artificial Intelligence and other new technologies are having on the business world.
I spoke with Skilton on March 22 at the Future Now conference in Toronto.
Jay Soule, aka CHIPPEWAR, returned to Girth Radio studios for another chat about Indigenous life and culture in Canada. Visit Jay’s new website at www.ReclaimIndigenousArts.com.
It should come to no surprise to people who know Fallis that he’s written a story (The High Road is a sequel to his first book, The Best Laid Plans) about politics. For almost 5 years Fallis with the Liberal Party as the federal and provincial levels. After that, Fallis was a government affairs and communication consultant with a global PR firm.
While reading these latest exploits of protagonists Daniel Addison and Angus McLintock I couldn’t help but wonder if Fallis was giving us all an inside look into the Canadian political machinery. This is something we’ll definitely talk about when Fallis comes on my podcast in March!
Nonetheless, Fallis is at his best in this novel about two unlikely friends who take on the political establishment in another comedy jewel.
One of my friends, Dave Fleet, used to work for the agency Thornley Fallis. That’s when I probably first heard about Terry Fallis. Then came the popular MeetUps I used to attend in Toronto around media, PR and social media.
I think I heard about his podcast, Inside PR. But I definitely became aware of him when his novel, The Best Laid Plans, was made into a TV series of the same name.
And it’s taken me this long to finally read one of his book, One Brother Shy.
It’s been a while since I’ve read a book so funny. The first book(s) I remember reading that made me laugh was Robert Ludlum’s Road to Omaha and Road To Gandolfo.
Thanks Terry for writing a wickedly funny book set (for the most part) in Canada.
I see a little bit of Alex MacAskill in me. Naturally, I’m an introvert. However, unlike Alex, I’m born this way. Also like Alex, I can be gregarious as well.
If you’re looking for a book about family, overcoming setbacks, and international adventure with a touch of funny this is the book for you. Pick it up at your favourite local bookstore, Amazon, or public library.
2017 was a fun year for me for attending concerts. As you know I’m not much for words so here’s a quick re-cap:
The first concert of the year was The Sadies opening for Blue Rodeo at Oshawa’s Tribute Communities Centre. It’s a nice little venue that we’d visit again later in the year.
Also on that ticket was Said The Whale and Mondo Cozmo. Kahzmir and I saw Said The Whale again in Scarborough. Along with less than a couple dozen others braving a summer shower.
The smallest venue we visited was a couple of local community centres in Scarborough as part of SoFar Toronto (Scarborough). We saw a bunch of acts over 3 different concerts including the Saxaphone Brothers and Renee The Voice.
I went to NYC in September 2017. Besides seeing almost every taping of the New York late night talk shows I also visited the legendary Apollo theatre in Harlem. And this was during the famous Amateur Night where we witnessed more almost a dozen musical acts including the famous house band.
Throughout the year we also saw Neil Haden perform at least three times. Twice with his band, Two Left Feet and once at his Uncle Neil and Friends Christmas Toy Concert.
The Bach Children’s Chorus and Youth Choir also played multiple times during 2017. We saw them three times last year. It’s especially fun when our son, Kahzmir, is part of two of these performances every year!
2017 also introduced us to Kc Roberts and the Live Revolution (a fusion of jazz/funk/rock), A-Track and Chromeo (both DJs in the EDM space – I think!)
One of the last shows of 2017 (although not the last!) was Canadian Music Hall of Fame band Barenaked Ladies with support from one of Canada’s finest songwriter’s, Ron Sexsmith!
Finally. We’re at my favourite shows of 2017. It’s a virtual tie. But there always has to be a winner.
So, in second place was:
Opening Act: Broken Social Scene (I was so happy to finally see this band live after many near misses!)
Headlining: Arcade Fire. No matter what the critics think of their latest album(s) the power group from Montreal (via Haiti and USA) knows how to put on a show with their collection of rock anthems.
Headlining: Arkells. We saw Arkells for the second time in Oshawa. The venue was smaller than when we saw them in summer. Arkells is rock and roll. They have anthems, pop songs and love songs. They are tight but play with the enthusiasm and joy of teens. This was the most fun I’ve had at a concert all year. These guys are the real deal. And while they’ve arrived they will only get bigger and better. If you can, see Arkells.
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