Brian Crombie Radio Hour

Brian interviews Naomi McIlwraith. Naomi is an educator, poet, and essayist, with a mixed Cree, Ojibwe, Scottish, and English inheritance. She is a narrator at an Indigenous Centre I visited last month in Edmonton and profoundly moved me with both her talk but also her personal experience with Residential Schools and Murdered and Missing Women and Girls. She currently works at Grant MacEwan Univer...

Brian speaks with Dennis Mills. Dennis is a former politician elected from Toronto-Danforth for 16 years as MPP. He also was and is a successful businessman. On July 30, 2003, an estimated 500,000 people descended on Downsview Park for SARSfest. The idea for SARSfest was conceived by then-Toronto MP Dennis Mills, who had been brainstorming with the city on how to revive Toronto’s economy after SAR...

Brian speaks with Aled ab Iorwerth. Aled is the Deputy Chief Economist of CMHC. Groundbreaking research by CMHC has revealed that inadequate supply is a key driver behind escalating house prices in cities like Vancouver and Toronto. Along with Stats Can, CMHC has compared housing prices, approval replays and developer restrictions across major markets and finds the Greater Toronto area municipalit...

Brian speaks with Shirish Nadkarni. Shirish is a serial entrepreneur creating multiple consumer businesses. He was the co-founder of Livemocha, the world’s largest language learning site, and TeamOn Systems, a mobile wireless email pioneer that was acquired by BlackBerry. Shirish started at Microsoft where he engineered the acquisition of Hotmail and launch ed MSN.c om. He serves on the board of T...

Brian speaks with Dr. Mike P. Moffatt. Mike is the Founding Director of the PLACE Centre and an Assistant Professor in the Business, Economics, and Public Policy area group at Ivey Business School, Western University. Mike has conducted policy research on the nexus between regional economic development, innovation, housing, and climate policy in previous positions at the Mowat Centre, Lawrence Cen...

Brian interviews Jaime Watt. Jaime is the best-selling author of the new book What I Wish I Said, a collection of his most thought-provoking Toronto Star from the past six years... but with a twist. After each column, Jaime responds with what he wishes he’d said. It’s a candid and humorous look at recent times and, in this unique collection, Jaime presents fresh political insight and pulls no punc...

Brian interviews Martin Buckland. Martin is one of the world’s leading Executive Career Management Practitioners. He holds multiple designations in resume writing and coaching and specializes at the Senior Manager level and above and those who aspire to be business leaders. His client base is global, he travels to speak at executive conferences and business schools highlighting why professionals s...

Brian interviews Rachel Rappaport of McMillan Vantage. Rachel is a seasoned communicator and problem solver, having spent nearly a decade advising federal cabinet ministers and opinion leaders. She served in senior communications roles for top decision-makers, including the Attorney General of Canada, Minister of Labour, Minister of Heritage, and Minister of Indigenous Services. She recently wrote...

Brian has two guests. First guest is Anthony Florendo. Anthony talks about Motor Vehicle Accidents and a nonprofit he has established to help people in and traumatized or financially impacted by them. Second guest is Thomas Le Maguer. Thomas is a CEO and cofounder of Republix Platform Technologies Inc., a conglomeration of digital marketing agencies. Through partnerships and acquisitions, Thomas h...

Brian interviews Holly Doan. Holly is an award-winning journalist who joined the gallery in 1993. She reported for CBC and CTV in four provinces, was CTV Beijing Bureau Chief in 1995-98, and produced political history documentaries for CPAC. She is also a Blacklock’s reporter who covers news you won’t find anywhere else: bills and regulations; reports and committees; Federal Court and public accou...

Brian interviews Karen Chapple. Karen is the Director of the School of Cities at the University of Toronto, where she also serves as Professor in the Department of Geography and Planning. She talks about reimagining downtowns. Almost 50 million square feet of vacant office space is available in Canadian downtowns, with nearly 40 per cent of that becoming vacant since the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Tha...

Brian interviews Colleen McKay. Colleen is the founder of Transcending Minds and the renowned catalyst for unleashing your full potential and transforming your life into a remarkable success story talks about her coaching practice and Neurolinguistic Programming. Colleen is known for her ability to ignite transformation and help her clients unlock their capabilities. With a diverse range of expert...

Brian welcomes back Ron Butler. Ron, of Butler Mortgages, 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 we are already in a recession and housing prices are already down record levels, and we all need to adjust. Ron talks about the real estate market, interest rates, the...

Brian interviews Francis Saele. Francis is a veteran real estate expert. He says: "workplace today is a nascent industry that is now driving HR, technology, employees, and real estate together as never before. Novel solutions regarding how and where people work will have a dramatic impact on every company, no matter how big or small..." What happens with the offices if most of us work remotely? Wh...

Brian speaks with Kim Wright. Kim is the Principal and Founder of Wright Strategies. She began her career in public affairs in 2005 and started her own firm in 2018. She has worked in politics and campaigns at the federal, provincial and municipal levels since 1990. She knows Olivia Chow very well and speaks about the challenges she and Toronto will face. She has NIMBY Tears mugs and tells us abou...

Brian kicks off a week long series on housing affordability with Stephen Velasco who has developed Future Model Toronto, a digital depiction of Toronto today and in the future. Stephen is the VP of Marketing at YourTable and a Digital Marketer for People Bright Consulting. He is also the creator behind Future Model Toronto - a digital brand that visualizes high-rise construction and real estate de...

Brian speaks with Atul Kumar Mehra. Atul is a Registered Psychotherapist. He believes that disease is the body's way of telling us something important we need to listen to. Not that disease is good or something we should not treat, but something that is a critically important message from our body about something wrong with our life or our health or something. This I found to be a very thoughtful...

Brian welcomes two guests onto the show. First, Tim Gray. Tim is the Executive Director of Environmental Defence. Tim’s policy focus has been in the areas of forest policy and practice, conservation design and land-use planning, climate change and management of plastic waste. He has specialized in project development and management, negotiation, market development and government relations. He also...

Brian speaks with Trevor Parry. Trevor is a lawyer who specializes in the use of structure and insurance to achieve these goals. He says the state of current tax policy in Canada is punitive, re-distributive, politicized, incoherent and overly complex. It seeks to pick winners and punish others. Trevor believes our Tax System is inefficient, discriminatory, and damaging to our growth and entrepren...

Brian catches up with Anthony Furey. Anthony has been a journalist and commentator with over 15 years of experience in Toronto politics and civic affairs with Post Media. Anthony Furey was a mayoral candidate that came on strong near the end of the campaign last month. We speak about the campaign, the victor Olivia Chow and her challenges, the big issues for Toronto and the political future for An...

Brian interviews Linda Sztanko. Lindais a globally recognized Networking Expert, Co-Founder of The Network at Mastermind City, and a seasoned professional with over two decades of experience. Specializing in empowering organizations and entrepreneurs, her proven blueprint and strategic guidance drive increased referrals and bottom-line profits. As a captivating speaker, Linda shares her personal j...

Brian interviews Hadassah Jacobs. Hadassah is the chief content strategist for a marketing company in Chicago, Olive Tree Works, and the Executive Director of a new Think Tank ID3 Strategic Solutions. Hadas is a Content Alchemist and digital polymath who graduated cum laude from Florida Atlantic University with a BA in Jewish Studies and History. She holds an MA in National Security from Haifa Uni...

Brian interviews two guests. Roger DuMoulin-White, CEO, tells us about Theralase Cancer Treatment. The Theralase ( https://theralase.com/ ) research teams have pioneered technology that is capable of selectively infiltrating and killing cancer – at the cellular level. Avi Weisman, co-founder of The Fruit Cart tells us about getting fresh fruit delivered to your door weekly, the benefits, fun menus...

Brian speaks with John Campion. John is a senior litigator and constitutional lawyer who has an impressive 40-year legal career but is also a very knowledgeable history buff. Tonight John Campion talks about putting the Russian Mutiny from two weeks ago in the historical context of Russian history and the history of other insurrections and coups.

Brian interviews Paul Comfort. Paul is an author, podcast host, former government official and transit industry veteran. He spent 16 years on the radio as host of Comfort's Corner on WCTR in Chestertown, MD. Mr. Comfort is a published author of numerous articles published in magazines such as Governing Magazine, Mass Transit Magazine, METRO Magazine, Intelligent Transpor t, Business. com and AXIOS...