Brian Crombie Radio Hour

Brian interviews David Robert Peterson. David is a Canadian lawyer and former politician who served as the 20th premier of Ontario from 1985 to 1990. He was the first Liberal office holder in 42 years, ending the so-called Tory dynasty. I talk with David Peterson about his life in politics and afterward. What leadership he feels our world is desperately in need of today and what he says make a gre...

Brian interviews Kelly Harris. Kelly is the Principal of Toronto-based Kensington Strategies, specializing in communications and government relations. A reporter by trade he has worked across Canada. In British Columbia in the former Gordon Campbell BC Liberal Government he served in several roles. In Ontario he was part of the Ontario PC Opposition under Tim Hudak. I talk with Kelly Harris about...

Brian interviews Micah Barnes. Born in Vienna and raised in Canada, Micah cut his teeth in the cabarets and jazz clubs of Toronto in his teen years, before joining The Nylons in 1989. Recording and touring as a member of the internationally celebrated A Capella group placed Micah firmly within the global music scene. Through managing a busy schedule of concerts and television appearances, Micah’s...

Brian interviews David Ian Gray. David, Principal, Retail Strategist, founded DIG360 to help retail and “retail minded” executives. He has built DIG360 as a solid core team with a truly collaborative network of diverse senior talents who share values, ethics and interests. Anticipating the future, David Ian Gray delivers insight, provocative questions, and new metaphors as catalysts for reinventio...

Brian interviews Yulia Kyrpa. Yulia is an Executive Partner at AEQUO law firm, a leading law firm in Ukraine, ranked among top 10 most innovative Lawyers by Financial Times. Yulia is a Board member of the Register of Damage caused by Russian aggression to Ukraine. The register is established in the Hague as a platform for intergovernmental cooperation, acting within the institutional framework of...

Brian interviews Peter Biro. Peter is the Founder and President of SECTION 1. He is a passionate advocate for democracy, civil liberties, human rights, civic engagement, wildlife conservation and animal welfare. He is a lawyer, educator, writer, businessman and community leader and is CEO of Newcon Optik, a world leader in the design and manufacture of electro-optic equipment. He is a Senior Fello...

Brian interviews Melanie Paradis. Melanie is the President of Texture Communications and a veteran Conservative campaigner. We talked about her article: “Homesteading and the unfolding feminist revolt. A generation of women is angry. That's showing up in their hobbies, and in their vote intentions.” She writes: “A political shift is happening among Canada’s women. Up until March 2020, it had becom...

Brian interviews Fasana Patel. Fasana is an author and transformational coach. We talk about her new book: "Self Love: Purpose before Partnership: Your Introduction to Higher Self Love". “In the 8 years that I’ve taken a stand to follow my Higher Self’s guidance and build a life(style) that fully honors my higher purpose, I’ve been through MANY ups and downs that have molded me into the woman I am...

Brian interviews Ewan Whyte. Ewan talks about the sexual assault and other issues in the Grenville College litigation. “Many of its former students claimed varying levels of shocking maltreatment at the hands of the school’s administration and staff, including severe corporal punishment, constant verbal and emotional abuse, sexual harassment and sexual abuse, yelling, scapegoating, shunning, sleep...

Gail Kirkpatrick's writing has been published in various literary and trade magazines in Canada and the UK, and "Sleepers and Ties" is her first novel. She currently resides in Victoria, BC. I talk with Gail Kirkpatrick about "Sleepers and Ties", a book about trains, and family, and grief, community and connectivity, and honouring the legacy of those that have left us.

Brian interviews Brent Toderian. Brent is a top national and global thought leader on cities, and an acclaimed, award-winning practitioner with 32 years of experience in advanced urbanism, city planning, transportation, urban design, and complex urban change management. Last week he presented “Mississauga in Fifty Years” challenging the audience to contemplate Climate, housing, health, etc, and ho...

Brian interviews Tom Axworthy. Tom is the Chair for Public Policy at Massey College and former Chief of Staff to PM Trudeau. He talks about former Prime Minister Jean Chretien, who last week celebrated 30 years since he was in government, 60 years since he was first elected as an MP and 90 years of life. Here is a sample of his comments about Jean Chretien: "We should reflect on what made Jean Chr...

Brian interviews Kim Singh. Kim is a relentlessly focused visionary global executive, an independent mom, coach, mentor, speaker, MC, women’s empowerment, DEI&B and mental health advocate, and a Global Peace Ambassador. Her journey was not an easy one, from loading trucks at night, making candles during the day, and going back to school while being a new bride in North America. In Kim’s leader...

Brian interviews Kate Rogers. Kate is a poet and the co-director of the Art Bar Poetry Series in Toronto who launched her co-authored chapbook, The Homeless City. She also has a full-length collection of poetry coming out in February with AOS Publishing, The Meaning of Leaving, which touches on homelessness, and more broadly, society's disregard of violence toward the vulnerable, including violenc...

Brian interviews Ted Tsiakopoulos. Ted is a senior economist, best-selling author, university instructor and sought-after expert speaker. His extensive private and public sector experience analyzing real estate and financial markets enables him to extract value-added insights from data to help empower audiences. Ted was a guest on the Brian Crombie show several years ago sharing valuable insights...

Brian interviews Daniel Foch. Daniel talks about his Canadian Real Estate Podcast and the real estate market, interest rates, selling prices, volume, how we go to this housing crisis, what we need to do to get out of it and how can you and I manage in this little expensive market.

Brian interviews Rick Anderson. Rick is an advocate for sensible policy and energy transition pro (and optimist). Principal at e4 Strategies, Senior Fellow at CD Howe Institute, Advisor, 2020 Net Zero Leadership Initiative, Director, Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Assn. Highly active in politics and public affairs commentary throughout his life he has served in senior advisory positions to prime ministers...

Brian interviews Leanne Townsend. Leanne talks about her transformation: “Nothing compares to the feeling of accomplishment that I have for transforming my life over the last year. I didn’t like my body and I was doing nothing to change the situation. Finally as the saying goes, I was sick and tired of being sick and tired. I decided to start making changes. Over the last year my passion has becom...

Brian speaks with Heather Exner-Pirot. Heather is a Senior Fellow at the MacDonald-Laurier Institute and she published op-eds on Canada’s energy situation, on the Supreme Court decision on the Environmental Assessment Act, nuclear energy, critical minerals and who has damaged our economy the most in 2023. Heather Exner-Pirot talks about an article she wrote: "Ruthless, reckless and damaging to our...

Brian speaks with two different guests. First is Shilpa Mishra. Shilpa is the managing director of capital advisory services at accounting firm BDO. She talks about Raising Capital in a challenging market. She says: “The banks are being very, very conservative. They are being more cautious. We think they are going to continue to stay cautious, and the alternative lenders are scooping up that busin...

Brian interviews Ron Butler of Butler Mortgages. Ron has twenty years of experience in the mortgage business, is a prolific writer of opinion pieces on the market and interest rates and we have a spirited debate where he argues that housing prices are down almost record levels, interest rates won’t be reduced until late 2024 and we all need to adjust. Ron talks about the real estate market, intere...

Brian interviews Martin Pelletier. Martin is a Senior Portfolio Manager at Wellington-Altus Private Counsel out of Calgary, Alberta. Martin has over 20 years of public and private market experience. He is a weekly columnist for the Financial Post, which is published every Tuesday. We discuss his thoughts on last year’s rally and how we’re positioned heading into 2024. What worries him the most thi...

Brian interviews Kiki Hurwitt. At 50, Kiki was diagnosed as being pre-diabetic, had very high cholesterol and was severely depressed. Poor mental & physical health was the result of traumatic life events, a life-threatening illness and a corporate career that, despite being successful, was misaligned. Rather than venture down the road of prescribed medication, Kiki found inspiration from Train...

Brian interviews Dr. Gleb Tsipursky. Dr. Tsipursky was lauded as “Office Whisperer” and “Hybrid Expert” by The New York Times for helping leaders use hybrid work to improve retention and productivity while cutting costs. He serves as the CEO of the future-proofing consultancy Disaster Avoidance Experts, and wrote the first book on returning to the office and leading hybrid teams after the pandemic...

Brian speaks with Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown. Mayor Brown talks about the divorce in Peel, the separation of Mississauga and Brampton, that was recently rescinded. We discuss why it was first considered, the economic analyses about it, how it would impact the cities and why the Premier changed his mind. We have a fascinating debate about some alternatives. Then, Brian interviews Robert Laidlaw....