Speakers – Spring Tune Up 2023
Naheed Nenshi
During his 11-year tenure as mayor, Naheed Nenshi led Calgary through one of its most prosperous and tumultuous decades. Alongside unprecedented investment in quality of life, Calgary also saw four states of emergency called that included a devastating flood and a worldwide pandemic. Nenshi’s leadership earned him both national and international recognition, with him being ranked #2 on Maclean’s 2013 Power List and awarded the 2014 World Mayor Prize.
At Spring Tune Up, Nenshi will present “Our wet clay moment: Five simultaneous crises facing civilization,” a discussion about how as we emerge from the pandemic, we are a civilization community , facing challenges related to public health, mental health and addiction, economic justice, environmental emergency, and a reckoning on the issue of equity. Times seem dark, but this is also a moment, an opportunity for extraordinary creativity; a wet clay moment in which we can mold the future with our own service.
Emilie Nicolas
Emilie Nicolas is a columnist with Le Devoir and The Montreal Gazette, the host of the Détours podcast on Canadaland, and a regular analyst and commentator for CBC and Radio-Canada. Emilie has been published in several journals, magazines and newspapers, both in French and English. Most recently, she won the Quebec’s cultural magazine (SODEP) 2020 Excellence Award for Best Essay, for a piece in the Liberté magazine.
For Spring Tune Up, Nicolas will provide an overview of the federal political landscape in 2023, especially in the context of a minority government grappling with high inflation and other budgetary pressures – all while dealing with an increasingly polarized populace three years on from the start of the COVID pandemic.
Dr. Christina Colclough
Widely regarded as a thought leader on the futures of work and workers and the politics of digital technology, Dr. Christina J. Colclough is an advocate for the workers’ voice and for strong, quality public services. Dr. Colclough’s background is in labour market research and in the global labour movement, where she led their future of work policies, advocacy and strategies for a number of years. She was the author of the union movement’s first principles on Workers’ Data Rights and the Ethics of AI.
In AI and the future of public services, Dr. Colclough will make the case for greater involvement of public service workers in how AI and digital technologies are implemented by governments, ensuring technology supports service delivery while respecting worker and citizen rights – all with the public interest at the centre of the discussion.
Dr. Raven Sinclair
A powerful speaker and skilled facilitator, Dr. Raven Sinclair is passionate about conducting workshops on communication skills, cross-cultural education, Indigenous research, non-violent communication, Two-Spirit education and traditional Indigenous ethics and laws. Dr. Sinclair has an eclectic work history that includes the military, outdoor construction, computer systems operator, administrator, tree planter, and research assistant. Her areas of expertise and interest include Indigenous social work, Indigenous health research and ethics, Indigenous child welfare and youth issues, Indigenous transracial adoption and cultural identity, interpersonal communications, lateral violence intervention, trauma and recovery, and group process and facilitation.
Dr. Sinclair will be discussing the parallel topics of accountable communication and Indigenous ethics, looking at how ethical frameworks such as Nehiyaw weyesweywina (Cree laws) can inform the way we communicate and maintain a high ethical and accountable standard in our lives and work.
Tyler Meredith
Following seven intense years, ending as the lead economic policy advisor to Canada’s governing party, Tyler Meredith still firmly believes that public policy is about making life better for people. Helping oversee Canada’s economic response to COVID-19, he witnessed firsthand how solid non-partisan policy saved jobs, businesses, and lives during one of the most critical times in Canadian history.
First enticed into political life in late 2015, Meredith was recruited from a think tank to advise Canada’s Prime Minister on domestic economic policy. He helped deliver six federal budgets, held responsiblity for tax and financial sector policy, including all financial sector transaction reviews from 2019-2022, and architected two winning federal campaign platforms. Today, Meredith is a partner at Meredith & Boesskenkool Policy Advisors and a Fellow at both the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy and at the Maytree Foundation.
Rachel Gilmore – Emcee
Rachel Gilmore is an award-winning journalist who has covered federal politics since 2016. Her work has appeared on Global News, CTV News, iPolitics, CPAC and APTN. A bilingual native of Ottawa, Gilmore is a graduate of Carleton University.
