WHAT THE COLD MADE IMPOSSIBLE TO IGNORE

The first sharp snowfall in November was a clear signal that one night outside is hard and a season outside is unthinkable. Yet thousands of young people in our city face exactly that, night after night. On November 20th, I joined Covenant House Toronto’s Sleep Out to support youth experiencing homelessness and trafficking. One cold, restless night for me. Far too many for them.

The sidewalk strips everything back. Cardboard offers very little protection from the cold and the city noise never stops long enough to let you sleep. Lying there, you understand something deeper. The youth who endure this are not just fighting the weather. They are fighting to stay seen, safe and hopeful at an age when their lives should be expanding, not narrowing. This is the moment of truth Covenant House steps into every day, offering safety, stability and the chance to begin again.

I originally aimed to raise $10,000, then $13,000. You all helped me bring that total over $16,000. The 66 participants of the executive sleep out collectively reached over $1.2 million in donations and helped Covenant House exceed its overall target. That is what creative bravery looks like in real life. Empathy turned into action.

I want to thank every supporter by name. You stood with youth who need it most:
Jennifer Fraser, Domenic Gesualdi, Valerie Leach, Thomas Sharp, Proof Strategies, Barbara Howe, Mary Maddever, Nancy Lamanna, Neil Ewen, Shannon Lewis, Carol Lynde, James McIlroy, Sonia Carreno, Eloise Giancola, Ralph Grunier, Robert Jenkyn, Annette O'Gorman, Denise Howe, Janice Leach-Lynch, Matt Olinski, Richard Fofana, Stephen Brown, Kevin MacDonnell, Krystle Mullin, Kurt Rosentreter, Laurissa Stebeleski, Lawrie Graham Davis, Mark Weisbarth, Michael King, Nathaniel Greene, Walter Markham, Bianca Freedman, Carrie Lawson, Cristina Markham, Daniel O'Brien, Janet Patterson, Adrian Kirby, Allanah Howe, Anastasia Tubanos, Andrea Hunt, Anita Gravelle, Anita Kania, Brittany Burek, Cameron Howe, Christina Quelch, Christine Barclay, Connor Leach, Creative Niche, DAC, David Friedman, Diane Cote, Ernest Cappellacci, Gina DaRoza, Helene Bertucci, iFrate, Ingrid Hart, Janice Lawson, Jennifer Bermingham, Jody Hewgill & Balvis Rubess, John Pace, Laura Tucker, Lisa Faktor, Lydia Salvi, Michael Grimes, Norman Odell, Paul Denhartog, Randy Leach, Sabaa Quao, Susan & Gordon Stoneman, Tara Laidley, Tatjana Lalkovic, Tom Eymundson

Anonymous donors: thank you for your quiet courage and generosity.

Impact is not complicated. It is human. It happens when we choose to show up. For one cold night, we did exactly that. Let’s keep choosing it.

Thursday Nov 20th is coming fast!

Time is running out. On the night of November 20, I’ll be sleeping on the sidewalk with nothing more than a sleeping bag. It’s one night for me but for too many young people in our city, it’s every night.

Covenant House steps in when youth have nowhere else to turn. Their team provides safety, shelter, medical care and a path forward for kids facing homelessness and trafficking.

They rely on private donors for most of its annual budget, so every gift truly matters. Your support helps a young person find warmth, safety and the confidence to rebuild their life.

If you can give, please do. Even a small contribution helps push us closer to our goal and makes a meaningful difference for youth who need it most.

You're invited: Après Cannes 2025

Every year, the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity brings together the world’s best ideas, the kind that make you laugh, cry or question everything you thought you knew about creativity. And every year, I return with a notebook full of insights and a heart full of inspiration, ready to share what it all means for us here in Canada.

This year’s festival made one thing crystal clear: the future of creativity isn’t cautious — it’s courageous. From AI’s wild west to the rise of ROE (Return on Emotion), Cannes Lions 2025 reminded us that imagination still leads the way.

That’s why I’m thrilled to invite you to Après Cannes 2025, hosted by The Globe and Mail, the official Canadian Representative for the Cannes Lions Festival. It’s an evening dedicated to decoding the ideas, trends, and provocations shaping our industry — and to raising a glass to Canadian creativity.

I’ll be leading a 45-minute session, Decoding Cannes, where I’ll break down the standout campaigns and creative themes that defined this year’s festival. You’ll hear about the work that moved the jury rooms, challenged convention, and set new creative standards for the year ahead.

We’ll also be joined by Canadian jurors and Young Lions competitors who will share their own behind-the-scenes perspectives and festival highlights.

So, if you’re an agency leader, marketer, or creative soul looking for a spark of inspiration, join us for an evening of ideas, insights, and a little rosé.

Event Details:

Monday, December 8, 2025 | 5:00–8:00 PM

The Globe and Mail Centre, 351 King Street East, 17th Floor, Toronto

Let’s come together to celebrate creativity, courage, and the stories that move us.

Support My Sleep Out!

Armed with a sleeping bag, on the night of November 20th, I will be doing for one night what far too many kids have to do every night: sleep on the sidewalk.

Kids in our city are experiencing homelessness and trafficking and they need our support – now more than ever. That is where Covenant House steps and extends a life line.

With your help, I can reach my fundraising goal of $13,000 and ensure the Covenant House Toronto team can continue their life-saving work to provide essential services to youth everyday. Please donate what you can, and know that it all makes a big difference, 75% of Covenant House's annual budget comes from private donors.

You can help.

Your gift will help provide food, shelter and medical care to some of our city’s most vulnerable and will help these young people on their journey to independence.

Is human emotion the new ROI in the age of AI?

When Karen Howe and I first chatted over dinner at the 2025 Cannes Lions, she described the emotional arc she felt after arriving in a somewhat cautious headspace. By Day 3, she was reinvigorated by the festival, its speakers and the conversations she had throughout the week.

Howe is the founder of The Township Group and a Canadian Cannes Advisory Board Member. She’s attended the festival 12 times and knows about change within the industry. This year (yet again), AI is top of mind, which may be a harbinger of some of the biggest change human beings have ever seen. While that can be an unsettling prospect, Howe says her optimism comes from a deeper place – the value of humanity in the creative work. 

On Day 5 at Cannes, strategy interviewed Howe on what inspired her throughout the week, Canada’s status at the festival and the impact of AI on the industry. The below Q&A has been edited and condensed. 

What was your mindset was when you arrived in Cannes?

I felt that we (the Canadian industry) were largely in a defensive posture, and that’s been a stance against the whole AI revolution, what it means to us, where this business is going. Will it replace us? All those existential thoughts that we are all having. And I came out of it in a different place. I’m judging this from two places, from sessions I’ve been to and from work that I’ve seen, but also people I’ve spoken to. I felt that (Tor Myhren, VP of marketing communications for Apple) nailed it. He said, ‘AI should be a co-pilot or should ride shotgun for us, but the ideas have to be propelled from us.’

I think that’s very true. And I see it in the work. There’s some brilliant stuff that is AI-fuelled. It gives you the data behind the things you’re thinking to create. But I think that what I’m hearing is, emotion is going to be the new ROI, the humanity, empathy, emotion and humour, because those are the things that AI cannot replicate. And those are the things that motivate a decision. We are not rational people … we fall in love with an idea, a brand of thought.

I think you will see an ascendancy … of empathy-, emotive-based stuff, that humanity will be coupled with AI. I don’t think one is a replacement for the other, but I think they’re going to be like very steady companions. So I feel a lot better than I did coming in, because I really felt like, oh my god, it’s doom and gloom.

What helped you out of that mindset at Cannes this year?

I particularly liked the session with Jimmy Fallon, believe it or not. (His new show) ‘On Brand,’ it’s a reality show; it’s real advertising brands being given campaigns by real advertising people. And to me, it was like a love letter to our industry at a time when we really needed it. I think we all feel like we all have the boot on our throat, like AI is going to kill us. So, I feel like that was a really interesting and bold idea at a perfect time in our lives.

It’s a different kind of inspiration every year. I enjoyed seeing Tor (Myhren) speak from Apple. I think that what he gave me would be my rallying cry for the year – optimism. It’s been a very hard year for Canadians, politically, in so many ways, and I felt that people are so scared of it. I mean, our default position to change is typically caution. And I felt I came out of that session through such tremendous optimism, and beyond our business, but as a human being.

What can Canadian marketers and brands learn from other countries at Cannes?

That’s a funny question, because I think we’re pretty damn hot. I mean, I think we are one of the top five countries in the world in terms of creativity and awards. I think we’ve got some pretty great clients. And bravery is the hallmark, right? I think the thing is, when you have a smaller budget, you’ve got to compensate with a braver footstep. And I think that I see a lot of that out of Canada. I think we’ve got a lot to teach the world, rather than we’ve got a lot to learn.

I think there’s a very big movement this year called the democratization of – fill in the blank. The democratization of opportunity, which is what AI gives the smaller players, so they can now compete with the bigger players. And I think it was the democratization of winning this year. Often in Cannes you have what I call a juggernaut campaign. And (this year), there wasn’t; it was the democratization of winning this year. I think a lot of great campaigns went evenly across a lot of countries. There’s a lot of great work out there, but there’s nobody kind of commanding the stage. And I think that’s healthy. I think that’s okay, like we get our great years, we’ll have other great years, but this was a solid year, but we didn’t own the Palais this year, but nobody owned the Palais this year.

What is your mindset leaving Cannes as it relates to AI?

People are very unsettled, don’t know what AI means to us. We can’t possibly know; it’s the parallel to Gutenberg, and movable type, what made the Bible accessible to everybody, encyclopedias. It changed the world. I think we don’t know where it’s all going, but I came out of it with a feeling of positivity versus (what) some people are calling it, seeing the iceberg right in front of the boat. I don’t feel that way. I feel quite the opposite. I feel like there’s going to be a rejuvenation of creativity and humanity and empathy, and the accelerant will be AI.

My number-one message is optimism. That’s where I landed the plane. I feel a ton of optimism, not a ton of pessimism. Change is hard, it’s always hard, but I’m going full throttle, and I think that the people who go and embrace it, the brands that do that, the organizations that do that, the marketers who do that, will be the ones who will be standing strong five years from now.