I have read your books, some of your articles, and previously attended your sessions in Ottawa and Kingston, ON. Have you every thought of doing an after-session with a sampling of the “elite” in attendance at your presentation; to see whether they “got it” or not?

After your presentation in Kingston, the City had a variety of after-sessions – supposedly to use your information to look at various issues towards making Kingston “better”. I was part of one of these groups; a group of 24 people or so who were all involved in the “arts” in Kingston. As people from the “arts community” began talking about your notion of “The Creative Class”; it became obvious to me that those “arts community” in attendance just didn’t get “it”.

And I wonder if any of the “elite” in Toronto will understand your notion of “exclusion” or “the creative class”. The reason for saying this – is the way the City of Toronto’s 50,000 residents living along the downtown waterfront are excluded from the political decision making process. On the other hand, twelve millionaires, totally control what happens along the downtown waterfront; including turning the neighborhood of 50,000 Toronto residents into the world’s largest illegally charter bus parking station.Which totally destroys the public open space in the above neighborhood.

We set out to make a point at this event; Toronto is a great city, but great cities don’t happen by accident or stay great without effort.

Your remarks helped us make it clear to the business and political leaders of our city that the Toronto Board of Trade takes the bigger view – that ‘great place to live’ and ‘great place to do business’ are two sides of the same coin.

However, you have left us with a problem. How do we top you as keynote speaker for next year?

- Glen Stone
Public Affairs Director
Toronto Board of Trade