Toronto’s well heeled celebrated The Obamas author Jodi Kantor at Victoria Webster’s Rosedale home

Toronto’s well heeled celebrated The Obamas author Jodi Kantor at Victoria Webster’s Rosedale home

Gabe Gonda, Jodi Kantor and Victoria Webster have a party for The Obamas (Image: Tom Sandler)

Fabulous Rosedale homes are meant for more than just real estate porn and housing Toronto’s aristocracy—they also provide a great backdrop for parties. Toronto Life contributor Victoria Webster and her husband, Gabe Gonda, weekend editor at the Globe and Mail, opened their home Friday evening to New York Times correspondent and The Obamas author Jodi Kantor. Complete with a question-and-answer period, libations and a book signing, this party was a proper toast among friends. Find out what Kantor had to say about Michelle Obama and who took his shoes off (when no one else did) after the jump.

Friends attending the fete included our own editor-in-chief, Sarah Fulford (who had interviewed Kantor at the Toronto Reference Library the night prior), Steve Paikin, host of TVO’s The Agenda (who removed his shoes), Zoomer’Suzanne Boyd, Suzanne Cohon and her CFL-commissioner husband, Mark (the couple live across the street), author John Ralston Saul (he’s also Adrienne Clarkson’s husband), Victoria Jackman, Ben Mulroney, Nancy Lockhart, Murray Frum and more.

Naturally, they were all there for Kantor, and the intrepid reporter didn’t disappoint. Her book, you see, is not without controversy. Michelle Obama herself cast aspersions on the biography on CBS, though other outlets, including the Washington Post, call the complaints unjustified. For her part, Kantor kept mum on the brouhaha, simply noting that Michelle was more likely reacting to the media’s reaction to the book than to the book itself (her message to Mrs. President: “If she doesn’t want to read the book, she shouldn’t read the book”). Kantor was graceful throughout the Q and A, and she even appeared attentive as we listened to Saul boast that he knew Barack Obama would be president one day after sitting on a panel with him prior to his election. We also overheard Kantor say the best experiences of her tour were Friday night’s party and having her honour defended by Jon Stewart (bless—we love The Daily Show). Of course, party conversation shouldn’t be limited to politics, so we enjoyed listening in as Mulroney commented on gossip columnist Shinan Govani’s greying five o’clock shadow. Sadly, there were no fist bumps to report.