Welcome to Episode 5 of KevJet's Run-Up to Canada Day London. I'm excited to introduce this week's guest Executive Director of Canada Day London, john Baldwin.
Speaker 2:I love Canada. I mean, I was born and raised in Vancouver, grew up in nature, the mountains, the oceans, the rivers, moved to Calgary, got to live in the Rocky Mountains. You just feel this global pride for being Canadian. To show off who we are as a people, as a welcoming society, is a really, really cool thing to do.
Speaker 1:I ask him how vital sponsorship is for this event.
Speaker 2:What Air Canada has meant to us as a partner is. I can't even really explain it. If it wasn't for them, we wouldn't be doing this, we wouldn't have the opportunity to bring these Canadian bands over, we wouldn't have the opportunity to build this big stage, and they've become. You know, I can't even call them a sponsor. They're an incredible partner for us.
Speaker 1:I quickly discovered interviewing John wasn't going to be as straightforward as I thought. I'm going to follow my notes. You're the guest. You sit back and follow my lead. No, I'm the executive director. You might want to take another drink. Let's talk about the village it takes to actually make this event happen.
Speaker 2:There's people like you, Kevin, who just are so passionate about back home, live in London, love our homeland, want to see the best, want to see us on the national stage and want to see us in Trafalgar Square on the grand scheme of everything. So it's an incredible team of people that we've surrounded ourselves with.
Speaker 1:Oh, he just put his drink down. This is serious so let's talk about hockey.
Speaker 2:We have the NHL Global Fan Tour coming, so it is eight family-friendly hockey skills activation. We're working with the NHL to try and help grow the game of hockey.
Speaker 1:How important is the partnership of Pride in London with Canada Day London.
Speaker 2:The Canada Day London and the Pride in London relationship actually goes back to the early 2000s. Pride in London is a huge event. I think the organizers told me they get upwards of a million plus people coming down in Trafalgar Square. They shut the doors at 8 pm and by nine o'clock Trafalgar Square is clear. The cleaners then come in and do their best to clean up all the glitter. So, kevin, with your help, I think it's something we want to work towards for 2025 to really represent.
Speaker 1:I was multitasking and John took it personally.
Speaker 2:Watching a TV. That's what you keep looking at. I was watching.
Speaker 1:Grab North. I'm like he's looking at something important I turn around.
Speaker 2:He's watching bloody like oh, am I that boring? I'm sorry man, like I'm getting emotional, like I'm pulling some heartstrings. No, no, fuck it. Kevin's watching graham north so just how did kevjet partner up with canada day london you and I kind of got to talking about your KevJet podcast and this opportunity to run the Canada Day.
Speaker 1:London.
Speaker 2:It was a really cool experience and, honestly, I've listened to the Terry Fox with Neil Johnson, I've listened to the.
Speaker 2:Nick, and At one Time recording this, the Tokyo Police one hadn't come out yet. But it really is a proud moment to sit there as you know, not just an event organizer, but as a Canadian, to listen to the content of people talk about their pride of it, and so I have to say thank you so much for doing this with us. It's absolutely incredible to see this come to fruition. I mean, it was a whim on a social media chat maybe two months ago, and now here we are sitting here with this incredible podcast series about Canada and London.
Speaker 1:Sit back, relax and enjoy this playful conversation with John Baldwin. Welcome to KevJet the podcast. John Baldwin, executive Director of Canada Day London. This is episode four of the run-up to Canada Day London. We're very excited to have you in person in the studio.
Speaker 2:Thank you very much. Happy to be here.
Speaker 1:Welcome. Why don't you just explain to me how you got involved with Canada Day London? It was.
Speaker 2:November 2022, actually, I had just moved to London with my wife I was approached by my former CEO in Calgary, a gentleman named Clark Bruet, who's an amazing mentor of mine in life. In Calgary a gentleman named Clark Bruet, who's an amazing mentor of mine in life, and in Calgary I'd worked for him for the Calgary Telus Convention Center, where I was kind of hired to create new events for who the city of Calgary was. So we were designing tech events, designing indigenous reconciliation events, things like that During COVID time, when that killed it all. Carla and I packed up our life and moved to London with no thoughts. We just moved here.
Speaker 2:Clark caught wind of it and gave me a call and he said John, I used to produce Canada Day from 2008 to 2013. He was the iconic one who brought the Tragically Hip here. You know that small event that I live in the shadow of forever A lot to live up to. So, yeah, clark approached me and he approached another amazing person, marcy Grossman, and I remember the three of us met at Trafalgar Square on our way to Canada House, where we met the Deputy High Commissioner, robert Fry. Clark's like let's bring it back, let's bring it back. I said, yeah, of course let's do it. And so me, marcy and Clark met up in the High Commission of Canada, canada House, and we had a handshake deal with Robert Fry and we got the support of Canada House and we walked outside and said, okay, let's do that.
Speaker 2:And that was in November 2022. And then we then filed our application process to the Greater London Authority and said can we please run Canada Day again December 29th? We got the okay in 2022 to put this event on in six months, six month run up to Canada Day again December 29th. We got the okay in 2022 to put this event on in six months, six-month run-up to Canada Day 2023. We had to raise all the money, we had to get all the bands, we had to get all the food trucks, we had to get everything done and we pulled it off miraculously as a great team Did you feel that anybody you would have approached were happy to get involved.
Speaker 1:You would have approached were happy to get involved.
Speaker 2:No. So you know the, the, the TSN turning point for a great Canadian saying was I was at the Canada UK chamber Christmas dinner Christmas lunch, sorry. Andrew Smith from the high commission introduced me to Steven Gerard from air Canada and said John Steven, you guys need to meet. When we got the okay from the greater London authority, steven Gerard was the first one for Air Canada to say I support you guys, I support what you're going to do, we will sponsor you and we will help bring all the bands over from Canada. This is probably about three weeks after the Greater London Authority gave us the okay. Air Canada said yes, yes, yes, we're in. And that's big, that's huge, absolutely huge. What Air Canada has meant to us as a partner is no-transcript.
Speaker 1:There's.
Speaker 2:Prosecco and whiskey, so I don't know.
Speaker 1:Well, actually I'm going to follow my notes. You're the guest. You sit back and follow my lead. No, I'm the executive director. What makes you so passionate about Canada Bay?
Speaker 2:I love Canada. I mean, I was born and raised in Vancouver, grew up in nature, the mountains, the oceans, the rivers, moved to Calgary, got to live in the Rocky Mountains and the soul of the Canadian people. That I find is an incredible group of people. We grew up in Canada where nobody locked their doors. Everybody knew everybody, everyone smiled at each other, everyone helped each other If anybody fell down.
Speaker 2:You picked them up right and it was really an inclusive, supportive country. You just feel this like global pride for being Canadian and so being able to like take that happiness and inclusiveness and love of our country and put it into central London and show the world about who is Canada and show off our culture, show off our music, show off our food, to show off who we are as a people, as a welcoming society, is a really, really cool thing to do.
Speaker 1:It's such a big event. It's in Chabagra Square massive stage. There must be a massive team behind that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there is, there really is. I guess the biggest shout out I have to give to is to my two incredible event managers, cassidy and Kinga.
Speaker 2:I sometimes have to just call them and thank them for believing in my crazy ideas I remember I sent the two of them a text the other day and said like thank you guys, thank you so much for believing in me. There's one thing to have the thoughts of what we do and how to build the stage and how to have these crazy events happening. Another thing for people to believe in you to actually execute and make it happen. And then, beyond that, I mean there's a whole team of volunteers, our marketing team of Jackie and Sergio and Ken incredible people who give their time and heart and soul to what we're doing over here. And then I have my incredible board of directors from Celebrate Canada Worldwide. These five very influential, very amazing, happy Canadians who all live back home in the homeland and they give so much of their time to make sure what we're doing here in London follows the Canadian mandate, make sure that we're we're, you know, showcasing the best that we're in very inclusive, that we're showing the best talent and involving the right people and did a slide to the high commission of Canada the other day and there's really nine of us and Adam who helps me on on sponsorship as well, too, and making sure the sponsors are taken care of.
Speaker 2:There's, I think all in total there's about 14 people who are the, who are the key to making Canada Day London happen. And then, on top of that, we have 40, 50 volunteers a year who come down to Trafalgar Square and take part on the day of and it's amazing. It's people like you, kevin, who just are so passionate about back home, live in London, love our homeland, want to see the best, want to see us on the national stage and want to see us in Trafalgar Square on the grand, the grand scheme of everything. So it's an incredible team of people that that we've surrounded ourselves with. Without them, I couldn't be doing any of this. I like to take credit, but really, really, it's my team that, uh, that that's it's. It's why we're having such a good time. I'm so successful with it.
Speaker 1:I think I say in every episode of the run up to London is how iconic the atmosphere is in Trafalgar Square. You've got Canada House beside you. I mean it's the fountains. It's an iconic atmosphere and it's just. It's probably the perfect location for it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean you forget. Even across the street from Trafalgar Square is the Canadian Pacific building and the history of that one, and that's where I believe it was Mackenzie King, the prime minister at the time when they were trying to build the national railroad across Canada. He sat there for months and months and months until they signed off on the deal. So if you're looking at Trafalgar Square and behind Nelson's Palm you'll see Canadian Pacific building and then you see Canada house and it's just, it's an incredible location.
Speaker 1:It just oozes Canadian history right there in Trafalgar Square, and even on any given day. Yeah, it doesn't have to be the celebration of Canada Day, because you just walk into Trafalgar Square and it's maple leaves everywhere. Yeah, it's just iconic.
Speaker 2:You know, 2025 is actually the 100th anniversary of Canada House on Trafalgar Square, and so we're all, as a Canadian community here, we're all kind of working towards the big celebration 100 Years Canada House has been there representing us in London.
Speaker 1:Let's talk about the day, let's talk about the festival. Let's talk about the music.
Speaker 2:Music, the amazing music, yeah.
Speaker 1:How do you go about choosing the music and who's on that panel?
Speaker 2:We get a lot of questions. A couple of things happen. We put out an application process to across Canada to bands to apply to play and we work really closely with our friends from the national arts center in Ottawa and air Canada to select these bands. So two things happen. The national arts center helps us fund our top two bands. So obviously this year big news Tokyo police club, alan Doyle, incredible headliners coming down. So we work with them to select who are our top two bands and then we bring another six bands from across Canada and we again do this application process from across Canada.
Speaker 2:We had 300 bands apply this year and so we created a music committee of Alison Gooding from the High Commission, dr Shane Shapiro, who's a London music icon, myself, heather Gibson from the National Arts Centre, marcy Grossman. The 300 bands apply and now it's up to us to whittle this down to six. It's a tough task. You get 300 amazing bands. You kind of go through the spreadsheet and I get my Spotify out to sit there and listen. Band one, band two Do you go?
Speaker 1:by their names and think, oh, I know that there and listen. Band one, band two. Do you go by their names and think, oh, I know that name and I like them. Or do you actually listen to all of them? I listen to every one of them yeah every one of them.
Speaker 2:It was an undertaking, I think. I started at 6 pm and went to bed around 3 am and I mean I only to get my 10 choices right, and then I took my 10 choices and I sent them into the rest of the committee and so all the other committee members also sent their 10 choices in and collectively as a group we got down to 60. And then we took that 60 and it went to the voting committee again and we took it down to the top 15 and went through another round. And now at this point we start looking at not just if you're good music, but like are you going to resonate in the UK and do we think that as Canada, london, we can help your band succeed in the UK? One of the things that's really really important for us when it comes to the music side is it's not just like come over, play candidate and leave, but it's come over to Canada today and can you pick up more gigs? Can you, can you become a successful Canadian artist in a foreign market and how can we help you to do that over here?
Speaker 2:So when it's coming down to the final 10 choices and there's six of us kind of. I mean I wouldn't say we're bickering, we're getting along really well at this point. But everyone has their opinions what the stage lineup that we kind of came through up to this year is a really good selection of bands that we think really represent Canada as a whole. I mean we have people from Halifax through to Edmonton this year, right across the country, from many walks of life, many different styles. We think these bands have a chance to be better and grow their music over here. That was really the determining factor at the end was can you make it in the UK and can we not? It's a really great lineup we have this year.
Speaker 1:It's also a bigger organization outside of Canada Day because you get the music industry involved.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we sure do. I mean one of the special sessions that we host. We call it the UK Music Market Session and this is really driven by Alison Gooding from the High Commission of Canada and Heather Gibson from the National Arts Centre. Before the bands even play on the stage, we invite them down around 10.30 in the morning, prior to going on to the Canada London stage, and we pair them with music agents from the uk market. There's there's five incredible people coming this year and they're going to talk to the bands about how to tour, how to be market yourself, how to prepare for yourself for uk market expansion.
Speaker 2:It's the same way we we would help a canadian business succeed in the uk we now take the same kind of business approach to our bands to do it, and so that one-to-one matchmaking we do is becoming a really important session.
Speaker 1:The whole touring experience is so different in the UK to Canada when it comes to summertime and festivals. I often tour manage for friends of mine who come over. They always say we could have never managed to do this without someone who was here and knew on the groundwork here, because it's so different.
Speaker 2:It's way. I mean you look at music back in Canada and you have your epicenters, you know Vancouver, calgary, edmonton, et cetera, such as we go Toronto, across the country, and you pick a small town and there's a festival of 100,000 people. That just happens, and I've been blown away living here. And someone asked me once is London a festival country? I was like, are you kidding me? Like it's. It's like if every village doesn't have a festival, there's something wrong with it, almost exactly. And it's just the. The music industry here is a crazy. I mean even let's look at london. I mean london has 50 events, 50 concerts, happening in a single night. And how do you stand out from that?
Speaker 1:you know.
Speaker 2:We saw sam roberts, a proud canadian guy, a few weeks ago in in the islington area and a place for 200 people. I saw the Arkells down in Brixton Academy for maybe 1500 people. Back home these guys are selling out 20,000 seat stadiums like nothing, and London is just another Tuesday. So you're right, it's really about knowing the people on the ground to navigate the music industry and to understand where to tour, how to tour, what shows to play and how to get on the radio stations and how to get your music downloaded.
Speaker 1:Those are my favorite experiences Seeing people who I've grown up and loved in the most intimate venues here.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:That never happened at home.
Speaker 2:Meeting Sam Roberts was a really cool experience.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:After the show I walked up to his manager and introduced myself, and then Sam just came right off the stage. I said hi, I'm John, great to meet you, and we had a couple of beers and I begged him to play Canada Day. I'm pretty sure, sam, if you're listening to this, you're playing next year.
Speaker 1:You heard it here. First. We're going to hold you to it. Let's talk about hockey, because hockey is going to happen in Chafalgar Square this year. Okay, so I posted this online. Oh, he just put his drink down. This is serious.
Speaker 2:I put out a post online. When we said the NHL, I mean first of all, when I got the phone call saying the NHL is considering coming to Canada, I had to take a step back and had to take a breath. I almost needed my quiet space. And then we signed the contract with them and I got to post online and literally I think I said this is the proudest thing I've ever said as a Canadian. But the NHL is coming to London and me and my team were the ones who helped facilitate this. It's such a proud moment in my life.
Speaker 2:So we have the NHL global fan tour coming, so it is eight family-friendly hockey skills activations. We're working with the NHL to try and help grow the game of hockey in. I'll say ice hockey because it's the UK, the game of hockey in the UK. In the past there was always the hockey rink, the street hockey hockey ring field, which was like a few people could play. The kids might shoot around. But now there's skill competition. So your hardest slap shot, your stick handling, your accuracy shooting. There's bubble hockey, there's kid zone, there's video gaming, there's all these cool things going around. So while on the main stage there's incredible music happening, there's a whole bunch of different places you can go and try hockey, all brought to you by the National Hockey League, which is extremely exciting. It's some fathomless is happening.
Speaker 1:I think that's where we're going to find John.
Speaker 2:Well, see again. I grew up playing goalie my whole life, so I might just stand in front of the hardest slap shot and be like just relive my youth, or something.
Speaker 1:That's a good question actually, like just relive my youth or something. That's a good question actually. During the day, are you going to be in a specific spot or are you going to enjoy the whole day and just be out and about?
Speaker 2:Well, I have a lot of managing to do. So I'll be backstage quite a bit getting the bands on stage. We'll be in the VIP tent quite a bit making sure our guests are taken care of. We'll be trying my best to engage in all the activities. Trying my best to engage in all the activities. You know, like funny story, last year we had all these amazing food trucks come. I didn't try any of them. We were like I demanded Nanaimo bars last year because I'm from British Columbia yeah, me too. My mom made them growing up Same and so we had this amazing barbecue food truck. I think they're from Oxford. Come down and they made me Nanaimo bars specifically.
Speaker 2:Amazing I didn't even try the food truck. It was, but you know, actually, in my defense, neither did Cassidy, my event manager. We're both running around. I think at one time I tried someone's poutine. We have three different food trucks serving poutine, so I'm hoping this year to enjoy it a bit more and not just run around like crazy.
Speaker 1:Exactly.
Speaker 2:You know, from our side it's all about the production and making sure that the music on stage is flowing properly. The bands are taking care of the. You know everyone's having a good time.
Speaker 2:That's my number one priority, really, with my team we also have meet the mounties yeah, you know, in 2023 it's I'll never actually forget this that we had three canadian mounties show up in 2023 and we had them backstage to get ready. And when they left the backstage area to try just to walk simply across to the other side of Trafalgar Square, they got mobbed. They got mobbed terribly.
Speaker 1:And it was so funny.
Speaker 2:I went across the street to Canada House and I got the high commissioner's personal security detail, the guys who work the front door of Canada House. I'm like guys, I need two of you. The Mounties are trying to cross the square and so these two really big, nearly nice guys kind of followed us in the Mounties and kind of kept it. I've never seen Mounties treated like that in my life.
Speaker 2:It was astounding to see them there and the representation how much the British market. There's a huge lineup of followers with them and kids and adults.
Speaker 1:I saw lots of children dressed as Mounties last year, which was so cute.
Speaker 2:I honestly don't know who was more excited the kids or the adults of it. I guess my softball team loves to remind me about that do south tv show that everybody over here loves, and I didn't. I didn't think the mountains would get that much attention that we had to put that much of a security detail on them. So this year we're prepared. We're hoping to get one mountain to come down I believe he's coming and to stand at the canadian consular services tent for some photo ops for a couple hours, and it was really really, really cool to see him there last year it's a great representation of canada sure is yeah so let's talk about partners for canada day well, yeah, you know, like, like, like I talked about air canada.
Speaker 2:Canada london is a free family event to attend. If without our major partners it's not going to happen, and I think there's four really really main ones we really need to recognize as a group. And Air Canada again, they're working with us to fly the bands over. We work with the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, who helps us select the bands, helps us pay for the bands, helps us pay for the band's hotels, takes care of the bands. To come over, mccain Foods I can't say enough about them as well too.
Speaker 2:You know, mccain Foods helps provide all the fries, for all the poutine, and they're just incredible partners of ours and Sussman Corporate Security. There's an individual gentleman named Michael Sussman who is a huge supporter of Canada Day and he's very, very proud to get his name and brand behind us and he sponsors a lot of our VIP experiences and he sponsors a lot of our VIP experiences and he's just a really proud Canadian working with us. And I do have to also give a really big shout out to Canada House and the High Commission of Canada the amount of time and effort they put into supporting us and partnering with us and collaborating with us on ideas and just helping pull us all together through their trade commissioner services, and if it's not for these partners, it's not going to happen. And I think I was looking at the entire list of supporters of Canada Day 2024, and there's probably 25 brands that are getting behind us, from minor level up to presenting partner level, and every one of them is so integral to pulling us off so we can all celebrate Trafalgar Square.
Speaker 1:It's a great day. It really is. I think it's very important that we speak about Pride in London, because you're working in partnership with Pride Sure am. And share a stage Share a stage.
Speaker 2:So I guess for anybody who doesn't know the history, so the Canada Day London and the Pride in London relationship actually goes back to the early 2000s. So back in the day, canada Day used to be Saturday and Pride was the smaller event that would go on Sunday, and so we would start, build the stage and then they would convert our stage and then put the Pride Festival on the next day. We all know that has changed. Now Pride in London is a huge event. I think the organizers are telling me they get upwards of a million plus people coming down, and when we got the okay to move ahead with Canada Day, the first intro we got was back to Pride in London, and Rebecca and Chris, the two lead organizers, have become incredible friends of mine and so, yeah, we share everything on Trafalgar Square together.
Speaker 2:It's an amazing partnership. Pride comes in, they build up the stage, they put the Pride branding all over it, they throw their events. We have the same tech teams. We have the same lighting teams. We have the same bathroom teams. We have the same bar vendors. We have the same everything. We share it exactly. There's a lot of sustainability discussions around this. I mean, trafalgar Square is such a special place. We have to really look at our impact of not damaging the square, so that's part of the reason we do it, but really the love between our two events is incredible. You know, we're really working hard to not just share the infrastructure but share events and how we can as well too, but they are integral partners in what we're doing and we have a lot of fun with that group.
Speaker 1:I know it's quite funny. We often say it's going to go from rainbows to maple leaves overnight. That's true. It's the one thing I say all the time, and so it actually is. So pride will finish and overnight it transforms.
Speaker 2:Yeah to canada, exactly so. So pride in london, in trafalgar square. I mean pride's all over london, but in trafalgar square they shut the doors at 8 pm and by nine o''clock to Falkirk Square is clear. The cleaners then come in and do their best to clean up all the glitter and all the beautiful Pride colors.
Speaker 1:It's not so beautiful at 9 o'clock. I can tell you that.
Speaker 2:You know what I've heard, I've heard, I've heard, and so we've had some funny conversations with the Greater London Authority cleaning team and the Pride Festival organizers about that because had some funny conversations with the greater london authorities leading team and the pride festival organizers about that, because I hear pride's a lot of and it's all true, yeah, but at about 10 pm we sign off to canada today.
Speaker 2:So pride is done, canada day begins and so that is when the overnight crew kicks in there, although the infrastructure share, we work with a great company called ellis events who also produces pride, but they also do british summertime festival. You know they do some of the best and biggest events in london and they they get in there at about 10 pm and start taking down the signs of pride and start putting up canada day. So at 7 am when we show up on site maybe 6 am for cassidy, if you're listening to this when they, when we show up in the morning, I should be gone and it should be all canada and it'll be an amazing logistical event feat and it's something we're really proud of, working together to be able to do that, because it's not a lot of events that get the pleasure to work together to do this kind of partnership, and it's really nice to have two like-minded organizations.
Speaker 1:Very large organizations as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's two big events. It's two big, powerful, happy events, should say. But you know, I've done a lot of events in my past and you meet a lot of event organizers and the pride team is just, they're just, they're very canadian, I guess I say. They're so full of love and and energy and that they're very happy to to share with us and everything, and it's a. It's really a win-win situation, right even from, I mean, when nick and nat was on your podcast, okay, so let's bring this one up here. So we've been trying to find ways over the last year and a half how to tie pride and canada day together more and we're trying to, like you know, look for musical artists who might be able to play both stages. Well, this year we decided to work with social media influencers and see how we we can do together. So, you know, huge thank you to Nick and Ant to get involved in both events. I believe at Pride they're going to be calling the parade at some point.
Speaker 1:They're on podium, not sure where, but they'll be calling brands as floats that come by.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Which brings me to, by the way they were episode two. Episode two yes, on the series it brings me to. Is Canada Day going to be represented in the parade at all?
Speaker 2:Not this year. That's like I said with the partnership. That's the next goal, you know, I know the Canadian High Commission has a small contingent of a group going into the parade, but, you know, one of my goals, one of our goals as Canada Day London, is to have more representation into the Pride Parade, and so we're trying to work with our partners like Air Canada, who have this incredible drag queen float that uh, steven keeps telling me about that they're willing to bring over, and how can we have a beautiful contingent of canadians represented that flows, you know, through the pride parade into trafalgar square, where there's already like a canada tent on trafalgar square, which we then leave in for Canada Day as well too. So, kevin, with your help, I think it's something we want to work towards for 2025 to really represent and have a great contingent of all our corporate partners, our friends, hopefully our musicians get everybody involved in Canada Day into the Pride Festival as well too.
Speaker 1:What was just rewinding a bit. What was the decision to ask influencers to be part of this?
Speaker 2:So why choose influencers? Well, obviously the social media world is important to growing any brand and I've been watching social media influencers. I'm a little bit above the Instagram age. Tiktok is well beyond me. It's really important for us to involve influencers to promote the event, to grow the event, to grow the community, to really get the word out for everybody to come down, get the word out for everybody to come down.
Speaker 2:Nick and aunt, specifically, is because of one of my best friends, jeff duncan, who runs a management company in in vancouver called ingenuity live and he represents nick and aunt and jeff is is somebody I know from a long time ago in the event industry and I I reached out to him like jeff, like I can't believe I'm doing this. I'm producing canada in london and you know we're sharing the stage with Pride and we're doing all this great stuff. And he's like, oh my God, you should meet my influencers, nick and Ant. They're this amazing gay couple. One is British, one is Canadian, they live in London, they're really interested to get involved in Canada Day and Pride. Can we talk about this? And I'm like, of course we can, of course we can. And so I I didn't really choose nick and as much as they chose me to to be a part of it, and you know I actually listened to them on your podcast about what they're talking to say last week they were sat right on the sofa.
Speaker 2:You're where you're sat yeah, I really enjoyed their podcast. I was really actually uh, taken back by, um, their kind of kind words to us selecting them, and I feel the completely opposite. I feel nick and I kind of came to us selecting them. I feel the complete opposite. I feel Nick and Ant came to us as a thankfulness. It was not planned, it was not like we want you. It was kind of like the world told us that Nick and Ant are working with you guys, thankfully again with Rebecca from Pride she bought in right away Really excited to have those two part of both events and really part of Canada and London.
Speaker 2:At the end of the day, we hope we hope they grow their brand and we hope we grow our brand and we get more followers and we get more attention and the world looks at us a little bit more because we have worked with these two incredible people like nick and aunt yeah, they're very excited, so we do. I'm excited to see them on the day yeah, on the main stage they're gonna they're gonna be introducing ellen doyle Alan Doyle, so that'll be a fun experience.
Speaker 1:The two of them, as well as myself, will be at Pride the day before, so we'll see what the.
Speaker 2:I did listen to your podcast again and I do agree Don't drink so much. I heard you both say that. All three of you say that, and I will reticence that statement. Yes, please don't drink so much. We're going to be very responsible.
Speaker 1:What else happens around the festival? What happens at Canada House?
Speaker 2:The general public sees Canada Day London as this shiny, beautiful festival in Trafalgar Square, but the reality is is behind the scenes. There's a lot of work that we do to involve the Canadian business community. Without the Canadian corporate community again, we go back to our partners. If it wasn't for the Canadian corporate community, canada Day would not exist. Canada and the UK are some of the largest trade partners in the world. I think it's $26 billion we traded in 2023 between our two nations.
Speaker 2:When I first started Canada Day again, one of the first people we met with was a gentleman named Nigel Bacon from the Canada-UK Chamber of Commerce, and Nigel sat me down and says John, canada Day is not going to succeed if you don't really fold in the Canadian business community corporate community. And so Nigel represents 250 plus businesses with the Canada UK Chamber of Commerce here. And so, after talking to Nigel, after talking to Andrew Smith, who is the head of the trade commissioners at Canada House, we came up with the Canada UK Business Summit, and this business summit is a really good way to celebrate the corporate relationships between Canada and the UK. So we talk business, we talk big business, we talk trade. We really connect Canada and UK together through this conference that we do.
Speaker 1:I also see the word pancake breakfast.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, Nigel's other baby. How is that?
Speaker 1:thrown into the chamber of commerce.
Speaker 2:So so the Canada UK chamber of commerce is I mean this is a very big Canadian or Albertan tradition, very Albertan, especially because the government of Alberta is coming over this year, which we're really excited about. But I mean really, what's more Canadian than pancakes and maple syrup and on you syrup, and once again at Canada House. So the High Commission of Canada graciously opens the door to Canada House for us for all these beautiful business events. So Nigel and his team especially you, izzy, if you're listening they put on the pancake breakfast for the Canadian business community and this is specifically for Canadians from the corporate community to come down to Canada House eat some pancakes.
Speaker 1:Is it real pancakes or is it the pancakes that the Brits call pancakes? They're real pancakes.
Speaker 2:It's nicely catered, there's lots of maple syrup. It's on the Friday morning before Canada Day on Sunday. It's a great event. It really ties the Canadian business community in together. It's just a happy event. The High Commissioner, the Honourable Ralph Goodale, comes down and speaks, we have all the top Canadian leaders of the business community come down and we have a little social event. We eat some pancakes, dump some maple syrup on it and just have a great morning.
Speaker 1:That's my favourite thing when my mum comes to visit is pancakes in the morning like real pancakes in the morning and real maple syrup.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, real pancakes in the morning and real maple syrup yes, so we celebrate Canada worldwide.
Speaker 2:So let's talk about the not-for-profit. Yeah, so I alluded to them earlier. So Celebrate Canada Worldwide is a not-for-profit. That was started at the same time as Canada Day. London got founded and it was really spearheaded by Marcy Grossman, the former Canadian ambassador to the UAE, and Clark Rue, who's president of Clear Sky Global and the former producer of Candidate London, and the two of them have gathered a team of my board of directors of Jeff, linda, janet. They are five incredible people who pretty much mandate what I do. I answer to them in the lovingest way. They volunteer hundreds of hours of their time, they open so many doors to us to have these conversations of great Canadian brands and they really make sure that when we produce Canada in London we're staying true to our Canadian roots. I guess is the best way to put it.
Speaker 2:It's really a fun experience working with them. They're all extremely knowledgeable, they're extremely friendly, they're very Canadian. I guess is what I'm explaining here, and they're an integral part of what we do. They really really keep us on track to making sure we're putting on the best event from the business side, from the government side, from the consumer side, that we're really following suit to, to staying true to the Canadian roots of everything we're doing here in London. To staying true to the Canadian roots of everything we're doing here in London.
Speaker 1:Speaking of Canadian roots, let's talk about Terry Fox.
Speaker 2:Terry Fox Foundation. Yeah, our great friends.
Speaker 1:So that's an amazing brotherhood. I guess you would say yes.
Speaker 2:Neil Johnson was also on your podcast. He's a joker, he's a funny guy. He's become a really good friend of mine over the. I think it's only about a year and a half when I first met Neil Johnson. So so Neil himself was a cancer survivor, like he mentioned to you, and you know he grew up in London. He spent a lot of time over here when he caught wind of us producing Canada day.
Speaker 2:I got this random email one day like hi, I'm Neil from Terry Fox and you know me being from Vancouver. Terry Fox is a legend, he's from Burnaby, he's from my hometown, and so I was like, of course, let's talk, neil, and I'll really never forget that, because at the time I was on vacation down in Brazil and he was on vacation, I think, in the Dominican Republic. We both called each other from these tropical locations. I think it was January, rainy London, and we just hit it off immediately. We started talking about our goals in life, our philosophies in life, what he sees Terry Fox doing over here in the UK, and I talked to him about what we see Canada, london, doing over here in the UK.
Speaker 2:Neil's. Neil's goal is to raise a million pounds for cancer research here in London and I should say the UK, and I bought into that immediately and he will, he will, oh, he will, neil will. I'll give him that one. The more and more we've talked, the more him I've become good friends, more we align our visions together about what we do. We see a serious growth in the UK between Canada, london and the Terry Fox growth. We see these intertwine together. I think he's got three runs this year. He's got the one in London, the one in Hampshire.
Speaker 2:Thank you. And obviously the big news, one down in Wrexham for the Wrexham AOC Football Club that we're all going up for this year. So yeah, it's absolutely incredible what Neil is doing here and you know, with Canada in London, like the whole thing is giving back to the community. This event is run by a strong group of volunteers. It's, you know, our heart is in the right place. It's about giving back and it's really about showcasing the best of Canada and with that is Canadian charitable givings.
Speaker 2:And so you know, the Terry Fox is part of a bigger group called the Maple Leaf Trust, and the Maple Leaf Trust was actually started after World War I. I'm not sure if you're familiar with them, but it was started back in World War I when there was no money for Canadian war veterans who lived in the UK. So they fought in World War I. The Brits wouldn't recognize them because they lived there, canadians in the UK, and the Canadians wouldn't recognize them because they lived in the UK. So the Maple Leaf Trust is what started this. The Terry Fox now is part of the bigger Maple Leaf Trust. It also involves the Canada UK Foundation over education. So so we have veterans, we have education, we have cancer. We have all these incredible charities being represented underneath our beautiful Canada Day London banner.
Speaker 1:You just recently had the maple leaf ball we sure did.
Speaker 2:That was a beautiful event at the victorian albert museum.
Speaker 1:Yeah and is it true that you had to run the the wine bar.
Speaker 2:No, I didn't have to run I might.
Speaker 1:I might have run away with the wine from the bar, but did you?
Speaker 2:yeah, I appreciate someone watching a tv. That's what you keep looking at. I'm like I was watching. I appreciate you, zohan, watching a TV. That's what you keep looking at.
Speaker 1:I was watching Grab North. I'm like he's looking at something important.
Speaker 2:I turn around he's watching bloody like oh, am I that boring? I'm sorry man, I feel like I'm getting emotional, like I'm pulling some heartstrings. No, no, fuck it. Kevin's watching Grab.
Speaker 1:North. Let's talk about Kev jets run up to canada day london you know this, this podcast series.
Speaker 2:I mean, you and I met, I think, over instagram. We reached out to each other and you just were this very enthusiastic canadian who I immediately struck a chord with me as this passionate person you're like I do this, I'm, I'm kevin, I do this kev jet podcast, because you and I kind of got to talking about your kev jet podcast and this opportunity to run to Canada. Canada Day, london. It was it's a really cool experience and, honestly, I've listened to the Terry Fox with Neil Johnson and listened to the Nick and.
Speaker 2:Atwan. At the time of recording this, the Tokyo Police one hadn't come out yet, but it really is a proud moment to sit there as you know, not just an event organizer, but as a Canadian to listen to the content of people talk about their pride of it, and so I have to say thank you so much for doing this with us. It's absolutely incredible to see this come to fruition. I mean, it was a whim on a social media chat maybe two months ago, and now here we are sitting here with this incredible podcast series about Canada and London. What I really like about it is digging into the personalities, like, who are these people behind it?
Speaker 2:Okay yeah, it's great to see Terry Fox. It's great to see Canada and London. But, who are the people, and I think you really did a great job at digging into who are these people behind these logos, because we always see logos.
Speaker 1:Ask the questions Exactly. Ask the questions. Everybody has a story. It's not the story that a lot of people might think I have a question.
Speaker 2:Yeah, go for it. Where'd?
Speaker 1:kevjet come from. Well, I was a flight attendant oh, out of high school, and so kevjet was my nickname there you go.
Speaker 2:I hope that's on the quiz later, because I will definitely get that one right.
Speaker 1:I would never tell you that and it kind of got shortened to jet over the years. You'll hear people in my close circle just call me jet cool thanks, kevin. So just talking about the cab jet series, so we've had neil johnson, the chair of cherry fox run uk. We've just had nick and ant episode come out. Last week you just had graham wright from the tokyo police club, which is an excellent conversation. Can't wait for you to hear it. I'm uh, I am so excited about that band when heather from the national Police Club, which is an excellent conversation. Can't wait for you to hear it.
Speaker 2:I am so excited about that band. When Heather from the National Arts Center was like, she's like, john, I have a headline band for you. She's like, do you want Tokyo Police Club to come? I'm like sorry, what Like? Who? Like seriously, this could happen? And she's like, yeah, they're coming over. I am beyond excited. There's a lot of bands you you deal with they're the agents and for some reason, tokyo police club you deal with graham directly and he is one of the nicest, funniest guys I think I've ever had to deal with and we're really he has the best radio voice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he could put you to sleep at night.
Speaker 2:He's got the most is that a good thing?
Speaker 1:no, it's such a soothing voice and I even told him. I was like oh my god, what are you doing like? And and he said that he actually hosted a radio show, radio three. It doesn't exist anymore. They just played indie music years ago. He was the host on a few occasions and loved it and but he's got that voice and I was like he could do like an audiobook.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's the coolest part is that this is their farewell tour. It's their swan song and they chose London and they're so excited for it. I'm excited Like I'm going to be right. It's like I'll be like stage left, like rocking out pretty heavy. I'm really excited to see them come play here, as long as they play my song, new lose. I hope, graham, you're listening to this. I'm demanding right now, at this point.
Speaker 1:It was requested and I did use your title.
Speaker 2:That could have direct no no, but they're just like you know, even alan doyle. I mean, if you look at these two headline bands we have coming, I mean they are just like salt of the earth people I know that's a cheesy maritime, maritime and like northern ontarians and just really, really nice people. And I'm really excited that we get to put them in Chippewa Square for Canada and London. They're going to bring the party. I hope so. Yeah, I'm really excited to see it.
Speaker 1:They will bring the party. I don't know if I know, so who am I?
Speaker 2:kidding, but yeah, it's amazing to, like you know, back to the bands, like the amount of talent we have coming here. But having these two as our co-headliners and just who they are and what they represent, alan Doyle to Tokyo Police Club is completely different kind of music. But, here we are and they're going to be great to play together and the crowd's going to love it.
Speaker 1:And what a setting. Yeah, yeah, can't wait. Now we're going to move on to Canadian trivia. Let's see what you can do. Are you ready?
Speaker 2:No, let's see what you can do, are you?
Speaker 1:ready? No, let's go. Which Canadian city is considered Hollywood? North Vancouver?
Speaker 2:My hometown. Thank you, Deadpool.
Speaker 1:How many points does the maple leaf have? 11. It is 11.
Speaker 2:I'm not going to lie there's a Canadian flag right behind your head and I counted.
Speaker 1:Which city is home to North America's largest mall? Oh, edmonton. Yeah, you love Edmonton.
Speaker 2:I do love Edmonton, the Oilers and the Stanley Cup. Can we all just talk about the Oilers going to the Stanley Cup finals right now? How incredible this is NHL hockey and the Oilers in the Stanley Cup. I pray that they're going to win.
Speaker 1:Which Canadian chain first opened in Hamilton in 1964? Tim Hortons. Where is Canada's most visited national historic site?
Speaker 2:Oh, oh, that's a tough one, halifax.
Speaker 1:Halifax Citadel, national Site of Canada.
Speaker 2:I was going to say that. You see, you cut me off after I said Halifax.
Speaker 1:Which city hosts North America's largest single-day parade Toronto and what isday parade Toronto and what is the parade?
Speaker 2:Pride.
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:Toronto Pride no.
Speaker 1:I have no clue. It's Carabina Grand Parade which started in 1967.
Speaker 2:Wow, I got the city right, you did.
Speaker 1:There you go. What is?
Speaker 2:Canada's national sport Lacrosse. Come on, it's lacrosse.
Speaker 1:Every Canadian knows it, there's two.
Speaker 2:Well, the winter is technically hockey, but our real national sport is lacrosse, very good.
Speaker 1:Which city has the most restaurants per capita in Canada? I would have never got this.
Speaker 2:Let's go with.
Speaker 1:You should. Of all people, you should get it.
Speaker 2:Surrey.
Speaker 1:BC, victoria, right province. Which city was home to the first North American YMCA, ottawa, montreal, 1851. 1851.
Speaker 2:Oh well, it's only a two-hour drive Exactly. It's a big country.
Speaker 1:Which Canadian city ranks as the most educated in the country?
Speaker 2:Most educated London, ontario, ottawa.
Speaker 1:Ottawa, same province again. What is the most purchased grocery item in Canada?
Speaker 2:is poutine a grocery item? No, no the most beer. It's got to be beer craft dinner. Craft dinner, yeah, what is?
Speaker 1:beers aren't really a grocery, no it's not like here, where you can pick it up at the grocery store.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, that's true. I've been living in London for too long I forget you have to go to the beer store, you do?
Speaker 1:What is Canada's oldest city?
Speaker 2:Quebec City.
Speaker 1:That's what I thought, but it's St John's Newfoundland which was established in 1497.
Speaker 2:1497, wow.
Speaker 1:How many oceans border Canada?
Speaker 2:Three.
Speaker 1:And what are they?
Speaker 2:The Pacific, atlantic and the Arctic. Very good that's neat.
Speaker 1:Last question 80% of the world's supply of what comes from Canada Ice hockey?
Speaker 2:No, no, probably yes, but no 80% of the world's supply Wheat, no Uranium.
Speaker 1:Maple syrup.
Speaker 2:I apologize to all Canadians for not knowing that one.
Speaker 1:Thank you, john, this conversation was lovely. Thank you, john, this conversation was lovely. Thank you, too, jet.
Speaker 2:I really appreciated this conversation and I really appreciate you doing this podcast series. Thank you very much.
Speaker 1:It was great to have this conversation, and in person. In person yes, and to meet your lovely wife. And we're about to have more drinks and Indian food Excellent, I'm really interested. Let's do it. Thanks, man, that was great. That was great.