Amanda Lang plays host to Toronto’s money at a party for CNN’s Ali Velshi

By Fraser Abe | February 14, 2012

By Fraser Abe | 02/14/2012

Amanda Lang, senior business correspondent for CBC News and Canada’s answer to Maria Bartiromo (though, sadly, it’s too late to have Joey Ramone write a song about her), played host to Toronto’s society set to celebrate the launch of pal and “Hairless Prophet of Doom” CNN Chief Business Correspondent Ali Velshi’s book How to Speak Money: The Language and Knowledge You Need Now. Guests—which included Moses Znaimer, John Tory, Kevin O’Leary, Andrew Coyne, Howard Wetston, Michael Budman, Suzanne Boyd, Shinan Govani and a slew of BNN hosts—were greeted at her sprawling Forest Hill manse by her chocolate lab Bella before diving into Yorkshire pudding wrapped roast beef, miniature rack of lamb and sliders. Find out what ridiculous jacket Znaimer wore, how Boyd feels about Velshi and check out our gallery of the scene after the jump.

Znaimer, never one to miss an advertising opportunity, sported a collegiate leather MZ Media jacket, emblazoned with the Olympus and Zoomer logos (chic!), while Boyd praised Velshi’s financial skills, noting “he probably learned this stuff in grade 8.” The mood was kept light by Lang who insisted “parties are more fun without speeches” (we tend to agree) and Velshi, who scarfed down a slider, joking “does this body look like I don’t eat? I’m expecting twins.” (He actually asked us to photograph him eating—he was really adamant about it.) As guests shuffled off to their own homes (or in the case of Tory and Znaimer, we presume castles), we started to think we should probably learn how to speak money too.