Thursday, February 25, 2010

Guess who is speaking at Canada at 150...

The Liberal Party has posted the list of speakers for its thinkers conference Canada at 150 that's coming up in Montreal at the end of March (I hope to attend if my request for blogger accreditation is approved, fingers crossed).


There's some interesting names on the list. Former UBC president Martha Piper is one that caught my eye, as was former Liberal foreign affairs minister Lloyd Axworthy. Other notables include banker David Dodge and diplomat Robert Fowler, plus lots of other I'm sure very interesting people whose names I don't recognize.

The name that stood our for me the most was Derek Burney. I had to read the bio to confirm that it was indeed THAT Derek Burney:
Derek H. Burney is Senior Strategic Advisor to Ogilvy Renault LLP. He is Chairman of the Board of CanWest Global Communications Corp. and a Visiting Professor and Senior Distinguished Fellow at Carleton University.

Derek headed the transition team for Prime Minister Harper from January to March 2006. He was President and CEO of CAE Inc. from 1999 until 2004. Prior to joining CAE, Derek was Chairman and CEO of Bell Canada International Inc. from 1993 until 1999.
(Burney was also a chief of staff to PM Brian Mulroney back in the day.) Glad to see Burney there, as the event is intended to be somewhat non-partisan, or at least as non-partisan as a thinker's conference organized by a political party can be.

Should be an interesting event. The full list of speakers, and more on the agenda and themes of discussion, is available here.

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2 comments:

Ted Betts said...

What a list of people. From all over the map in business, politics (including a former Charest cabinet minister and form Charest chief of staff), academia, community/global organizing/advocacy, regulatory, think tanks (including the CEO of CD Howe) etc.

And not just participants. These are all from among the leaders in their fields.

RuralSandi said...

Wow - covers every area. With seniors' issues/babyboomers coming on - the guy from Baycrest should be interesting. Baycrest is an amazing seniors facility.

Looks like expertise in every area is covered.