Category: Chairman’s Desk

Pity the students who’ve trekked home, tired and hungry, this Thanksgiving. Before they can even pour the gravy, a well-meaning aunt or uncle or grandparent will inquire: “Do you think you’ll be able to find a job in this market?”

The concern isn’t misplaced. On Friday, Statistics Canada shared the latest numbers. Canada shed 68,000 jobs in September. Young people lost 48,000 of them. Workers 55 and over? They held steady. Youth unemployment now sits at 13 per cent, double the national rate. And that’s after 50,000 young people stopped looking for work altogether. Barely half of Canadians aged 15 to 24 have a job. That’s not a blip.

It’s a broken ladder.

A new graduate in Canada can expect to spend longer looking for work now than four years ago and is increasingly likely to end up in a job outside their area of study or training, also according to StatsCan. Ontario Premier Doug Ford has shown little sympathy; last fall, he said young people just aren’t looking “hard enough” for work and suggested they consider the fast-food industry.

Let’s get one thing out of the way. The problem is not the young people. They are not lazy. They are not entitled. Quite the opposite: they are desperate to contribute. This is the most credentialed generation in Canadian history. They’ve grown up in a rapidly changing world: two Trump presidencies, a pandemic, and a trade war. They’ve been waiting for their chance to respond.

Many point fingers at an external force — that new AI tools are wiping out entry-level jobs. Even those as politically divergent as Pete Buttigieg and Steve Bannon have sounded the alarm.

Closer to home, there is something worth looking at that’s within every organization’s control.

Recently, research from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York attributed nearly two-thirds of the rise in young graduates’ unemployment to remote work. At one Fortune 500 company in the study, the firm shifted to hiring workers about a decade older. It only went back to hiring new grads after a strict return-to-office policy.

Researchers at the London School of Economics reached a similar conclusion. They did the difficult work of parsing the impact of GenAI and working from home (WFH), which both took off in the 2020s. The result? “Our findings point strongly toward WFH exposure as a better predictor of the decline in relative early-career hiring.”

Remote work is yet another way we’re stacking the deck against the next generation, and blaming AI alone is the easy way out.

This past week, I sat down with a small group of CEOs for a candid conversation about the youth jobs crisis and what businesses can do.

Yes, a slow economy and rapid population growth have made things harder. That isn’t an excuse; it’s the reason to act. We must bring young people back into the very rooms where careers are learned. We must strengthen ties between businesses and schools, create internships, and make mentorship an employer duty.

My own firm takes an “office-first” approach. Our people typically come in five days a week. Flexibility matters, and sometimes it’s necessary. But when it comes at the cost of mentorship the price becomes too high. Skills get young people in the door, but it’s mentorship and belonging that help them climb the ladder.

When young talent is left on the sidelines, we all pay for it. In 2023, youth unemployment cost Canadian governments $4.3 billion in benefits and lost tax revenue, according to Deloitte research. Back then, 322,000 young people were out of work. Today, it’s 401,000.

The C.D. Howe Institute put it bluntly: “Act now, or pay later in lost talent, lower productivity, and a generation that might never quite catch up.” How maddening that we are failing Canada’s young people at the very moment we need their talent and ambition to break from the old order and build something new.

Business leaders across Canada must set a place for the next generation. This Thanksgiving, let the students enjoy their turkey and mashed potatoes. It’s not their job to solve the youth unemployment crisis. It’s ours.

Parliament is back with a substantive legislative agenda that reminds us: Democracy is nothing without accountability. For shame, then, that His Majesty’s Loyal Opposition is distracted by internal schisms and online echo chambers.

This fall, Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives must gain a foothold. The party’s own MPs know it. Conservative deputy leader Melissa Lantsman told reporters, “This is not the position we want to be in.”

Indeed not.

Since Prime Minister Mark Carney walked away from “a bad deal” with the U.S. in August, his popularity has reached new heights. What’s going unsaid is that this makes the Opposition’s role in Parliament even more important. Poilievre’s Conservatives owe it to their voters, and Canadians writ large, to unite as a principled counterweight to Carney’s power. They owe it to themselves, too. Recall that Paul Martin was once cruising to a “supermajority.” Fortunately, the Conservatives weren’t asleep at the wheel when the Sponsorship Scandal hit.

First and foremost, Poilievre must boost caucus morale and lay to rest internal spats. So long as there are rumblings and rumoured floor crossings, he won’t make headlines about anything else. Plain and simple. So, he must do what embattled leaders before him have done. Sit down with his detractors and agree to a détente. Show respect to his shadow cabinet. Be generous to his backbenchers. And if the rumblings continue, Poilievre will have to make the hard choice to remove caucus members who aren’t team players. Otherwise, who’s really leading the party?

Second, the Conservatives must put down their phones and look at the polls. Poilievre’s online activity suggests he still thinks X is a modern-day town square. It is not, and it hasn’t been for a long time. It is a place where influencers are rewarded for divisive commentary. Anyone who uses it as a barometer for public opinion does so at their peril.

Case in point: polling shows eight in 10 Canadians back the idea of closer relations with the European Union. Yet no sooner could young Canadians picture themselves studying abroad in Paris than they saw Poilievre come out swinging against European bureaucracy and taxes. He declared Canada will “never be the 28th state,” as though that was a concern around the water cooler.

What’s peculiar about this type of knee-jerk reaction is that the Conservatives know all too well how much time they have. Carney has a majority government that may well grow larger in the months ahead. There is exactly one silver lining to that. The Conservatives can take a breath and speak when there is something worth saying.

Third, the Conservatives must capitalize on the government’s forceful overhaul of environmental and labour rules — by giving the New Democrats ample room to voice opposition. To be clear, the Conservatives should maintain their pro-worker position and protect that ground. But the NDP could chip away at Carney’s left-leaning supporters who are concerned about the right to strike and environmental protections, and the Conservatives gain by letting them.

Fourth, get a range of Conservative MPs in front of the cameras this fall — such as Lantsman, Adam Chambers, and Shuv Majumdar. People who can intelligently contribute to the public dialogue. People who reflect Canada’s diversity. When the government introduces the fall budget, finance critic Michael Chong should lead the reaction. He can help the party reconnect with those centre-right voters who have taken a shine to Carney but are keeping a close eye on the Liberals’ spending habits.

Lastly, a note on tone. The Conservatives are facing off against a historically popular prime minister, who voters trust to defend the country against U.S. threats. So, Poilievre and his team need to be careful in their criticism. Carney’s chronic absences from Question Period are fair game. Once the media don’t have floor-crossing rumours to cover anymore, this could get more uptake. The Conservatives should also look for openings to propose. The upcoming budget is an obvious one. Other issues will emerge, like public concern around artificial intelligence. Discuss, debate. Then position the party accordingly.

In the words of John Diefenbaker, who spent years in opposition before forming government: “Freedom always dies when criticism ends.” The Conservatives must position themselves as the government-in-waiting — whether that wait is long or short.

Don’t blink this fall. It’s going to be a critical — and unpredictable — few months for our country. That’s why I’m watching three categories of events: cheers, jeers, and peers.

First up is a phenomenon called cheering theory, where people root for a proposition or person or institution. This is Canada’s secret weapon in the trade war against the United States, because Canadians are cheering for their federal government so loudly that it’s a self-reinforcing roar. People want Prime Minister Mark Carney to succeed — even plenty of people who didn’t vote Liberal in the last election. Seven in 10 Canadians support the decision to suspend trade talks with the U.S. rather than accept a bad deal, according to Abacus Data. When was the last time any public policy initiative had that level of backing? The Liberals are winning byelection after byelection. Look at the public comments on Carney’s latest Forward Guidance video and you’ll see more positivity than you knew existed on the internet. One Australian commenter said, “I don’t even know what elbows up means, but ELBOWS UP!” Whatever the game, people want Carney to win.

Now, the real question hanging over this enthusiasm is durability. The trade war is a lot easier to fight when it’s abstract than when it shows up as inflation or job losses. We already know plenty of Canadian households are stretched, picking up items and then putting them back on the grocery shelf because they’ve gotten too expensive. If this drags on and our collective stress mounts that patience won’t hold indefinitely. But don’t forget this: U.S. households are stretched, too. And U.S. President Donald Trump doesn’t have anything like Carney’s numbers to sustain him.

This leads into the jeers to watch. Trump’s approval ratings are in the mid-30s, drawing comparisons to Richard Nixon’s as Watergate unfolded in his second term. When the U.S. midterm elections are held in November, American voters are expected to seize on the chance to make their grievances known. In new polling, Abacus Data found the Democrats are pulling ahead in several U.S. Senate races directly hurt by the trade war, including Iowa, Michigan, and Ohio.

Cheering theory also works in reverse. It’s possible for anti-government momentum to become unstoppable and for the ground under Trump’s feet to completely erode. So far, what sustains the 47th president is how thoroughly he’s remade America in his image — and I don’t just mean the Gulf and the Lake. It goes much deeper. The hurricane of anger, blame, and cronyism he’s brought to public life has politicized the Justice Department and the Supreme Court; weakened America’s civil society; and cornered once-powerful corporations into kowtowing.

While Canadians would relish a bruising midterm verdict on Trump, any celebrations could be short-lived. We all know how well this president copes with jeers. When he hunts for someone to blame, Carney will be on the list. A cornered Trump is not a chastened Trump.

Canada is wisely choosing to keep different company, which brings us to peers. Carney welcomes the world to the Canada Investment Summit in Toronto this week. He is inviting investment in more than 160 projects spanning energy, minerals, infrastructure, and more. The very next day he is in France for the EU’s state of the union address — the first time a foreign leader is attending as an honoured guest. The following day, Carney will address the legislators himself. This isn’t ordinary networking. It’s a forceful pursuit of partnerships.

There’s an adage that politics stops at the water’s edge. Right now, I think it stops at the 49th parallel. Canadians understand this is a wartime footing, and for the moment, they’re prepared to stand together on it. This landscape doesn’t bode well for separatist forces in Alberta and Quebec this fall, as Alberta votes on whether to hold a referendum and Quebec chooses a new provincial government.

The key will be to watch the crowd, not just the podium. The cheers, jeers, and peers are all telling the same story from different angles: whether a government under siege can turn a rally-round-the-flag moment into something that endures. Carney as Time’s 2026 Person of the Year is a fun bet. Whether Canadians are still cheering by Christmas, however, is the one that matters.

Perhaps the Duke and Duchess of Sussex simply looked around Trump’s America and decided they needed out. From where we sit in Canada, on the battle lines of a trade war, that’s almost noble. But given the couple have spilled so much tea to “Oprah,” on Netflix, and in “Spare,” you might think they’d look at real estate on Mars before the Cotswolds.

Nevertheless, the prodigal prince and his imperious consort Meghan have returned to England for a second act.

Initially, Harry and Meghan will of course face obstacles as they re-acclimatize to Britain’s press and England’s legendary drizzle. But if the Sussex’s play it right, they have every chance to succeed. To start, King Charles welcomes the family’s return. As a father and grandfather myself, I am with the King. You want all the Christmases you can get.

So, let’s ask the real question. Where does all this leave the Prince and Princess of Wales?

Like it or not, this drama — as Shakespearean as a drama can come — will prove a test of William’s fitness for the Crown.

So, we find Will and Kate in their usual place, on a pedestal. In July, William topped a YouGov poll as the most popular royal (76 per cent) followed very closely by Catherine (74 per cent). This widespread popularity isn’t inconsequential. It’s fundamental to the future of the monarchy. But a mark against William is that he’s known to have a temper. And his anger toward his brother is real. Harry levelled ugly accusations against Will, and against Kate too. Being half a world away was hardly enough. After the Sussexes announced their surprise U-turn, the former BBC royal correspondent Peter Hunt said William would be “apoplectic.”

Officially, there is nothing to worry about. The Sussexes will be living as private citizens outside of London and will not be working royals.

But here’s what that really looks like, in a small country with a small family. Harry, Meghan, and their children will be invited to family gatherings, like Christmas at Sandringham. Harry will be out and about doing charitable work, an area where he has always shone. Meghan could charm a new audience through a return to acting, perhaps on a West End stage. In 2027, the Invictus Games, which Harry founded for wounded soldiers, will make a splash when it’s held in Birmingham. That same year will mark the 10-year anniversary of the Grenfell Tower fire, an opportunity for Meghan to reconnect with the survivors she befriended when she first joined the royal family.

The community cookbook Meghan helped them to launch is still a highlight of her first go in England.

In recent polling, Harry’s popularity in his homeland has been ticking upward. Many Brits still hold a soft spot for him, as the 12-year-old boy who walked behind his mother’s coffin. The public will also be more likely, this time around, to spot and reject any racist undertones in press coverage of Meghan. Any public appearances they make with their two young children will further soften their image.

Until now, few have blamed Will and Kate for not turning up when Harry pops back to England for the occasional visit. But in this new reality, if they continue to be frosty, they risk getting frozen out themselves. Charles reportedly told his sons after Prince Philip’s funeral, “Please boys, don’t make my final years a misery.” He was speaking to both of them, equally. The public loves a redemption story, and if they see the makings of one, the Harry and Meghan bandwagon will fill up fast.

This means one thing: William and Catherine need to put on their best diplomatic faces yet. It’s easy to find a model example. The late Queen, who personified self-restraint and who led by listening rather than commanding. You know exactly what she would do. She would walk next to Meghan and Harry into church on Christmas morning — not strategically place other members between them. She would holiday with them at Balmoral in August. She would show up front-row at the Invictus Games and applaud.

The Sussexes may come and go — the couple is full of surprises — but the Waleses don’t have that luxury. Starting now, they need to rise above the fray and invite Harry and Meghan around for tea. That’s how William will show his fitness to lead as the next King.

Most FIFA scandals don’t last longer than a news cycle, simply because no one is surprised anymore. Bribes, rigged bids, a made-up “FIFA Peace Prize” for President Donald Trump. If you tried to keep a timeline, you’d need a spreadsheet and some extra strength Tylenol.

This latest mess, however, is worth pulling from the pile. It shows the specific ire that awaits elected officials who breach the public’s trust. From decades in crisis communications, I know that if the fallout is handled poorly, recovery becomes completely out of reach.

For Canadians who may have stopped paying attention after our team’s knockout round loss to Morocco, let’s get up to speed. Soon after the tournament, news leaked that FIFA president Gianni Infantino secretly planned to sell a 20 per cent stake in the World Cup to private investors. Even high-ranking FIFA executives and advisers had been kept in the dark. Waiting in the wings was Thrive Capital, run by none other than Joshua Kushner, the brother of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.

Anyone who watched the public’s reaction to the East Wing’s demolition, or the plan to open up Ontario’s Greenbelt, or the abandoned sell-off of England’s public forests could guess what happened next.

The people roared.

Britain’s new Prime Minister Andy Burnham tore into Infantino’s plan on social media: “The World Cup is not a product. It is the greatest competition in world sport, and it was never anyone’s to sell.”

The idea is so ill-conceived that Infantino leaving out fellow FIFA executives starts to look less like a shocking reveal, and more like the crux of the problem. If they’d been at the table, they might have stopped him.

Instead, that fell to Europe, where member nations voted unanimously to boycott all future FIFA tournaments if the deal moved forward. Imagine a World Cup without Spain, France or England. FIFA shelved the plan and released a statement to acknowledge that “the process should have been handled differently.”

This is the type of nonapology that, rightfully, no one accepts. It failed to provide a clear explanation of what transpired behind closed doors or outline any corrective action. So, the narrative remained intact: This man tried to sell the soul of the beautiful game.

In an “open letter to the football family” three powerful governing bodies — UEFA, which runs soccer in Europe; CONCACAF, which covers North and Central America and the Caribbean; and the AFC, which governs the game across Asia — teamed up to take aim at Infantino. They called what he had done “a fundamental breach of trust” and in their sharpest attack said: “When trust is broken through deception, when an individual places himself above the collective that entrusted him with authority, that duty has been abandoned.”

Suddenly, Infantino’s stroll to re-election is a climb.

Infantino has since gone uncharacteristically quiet. I can remember a time when we’d advise a client to lay low until the storm blew over. That’s nonsense today, in a relentless media environment where silence reads as admission. Here in Canada, Prime Minister Mark Carney says he has lost confidence in Infantino. So has the Canadian president of CONCACAF, Victor Montagliani, who co-signed the critical letter and could emerge as a unity candidate when FIFA’s 211 member nations vote in March.

Infantino hasn’t backed down. He’s circling the wagons. Powerful voting members including Mexico and Argentina still support his re-election bid, as does the Confederation of African Football. This is important because nothing builds credibility faster than having respected, independent voices speak out on your behalf. Such voices matter in a crisis. Then, there’s Trump’s.

The U.S. president declared on social media that it would be “a terrible mistake” to remove Infantino. “He is fantastic … If he is gone, [the World Cup] will never be as successful or profitable again!” All this served to do was remind people that Trump personally called Infantino to get the red card against Team USA’s Folarin Balogun overturned.

Whether or not Infantino keeps his job, this latest FIFA scandal is the one that should keep elected officials up at night. A breach of trust will grab the public’s attention and not let go, even in the dog days of summer.