It may have taken Donald Trump’s 51st-state rhetoric to stoke our national pride, but we kept the fire burning bright with subtle and not-so-subtle acts of patriotism all our own. In 2025, Mike Myers simultaneously trolled Americans and rallied Canadians on SNL; the heads of UHN and U of T welcomed world-class scientists and academics leaving the US; and Sheridan-trained animator Maggie Kang forced Netflix to revisit its entire business model with her unstoppable KPop Demon Hunters. The Jays united a city and a country eager for a resounding win against America’s top team, and while they didn’t end up with the trophy, they won the hearts of sports fans old and new. But 2025’s true MVP? Prime Minister Mark Carney, who, along with fellow inductees Doug Ford and Anita Anand, among others, spent the year pushing back against authoritarianism across the border and around the world.
We were this close. For die-hard fans and bandwagoners alike, the game-seven loss that ended the Jays’ best chance at the Commissioner’s Trophy in 32 years was fastball-to-the-face devastating. But remembering how we got there brought up other big feelings too: schadenfreude (Vladdy’s gleeful “Daaaaa Yankees lose!” shoutout after the ALDS win), admiration (when Mad Max Scherzer refused to leave the mound, then struck out Randy Arozarena to end the inning), elation (George Springer’s three-run homer that secured the Jays’ spot in the World Series), exhaustion (the morning after those 18 innings). And even now, beneath the sting of defeat, deep-seated gratitude. For four weeks this fall, the Jays gave Canadians the chance to cheer together and take a breather from the hostilities plaguing the world.
Up next:
If the Jays want to go all the way next season, they have some moves to make—the contracts of key leaders (Schneider and Shapiro) and players (Scherzer, Bassitt and Bichette) are expiring.
Thomas Skrlj/MLB Photos/Getty Images
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The Supporting Cast
Because baseball is a team sport
John Schneider
The manager
Having come up through the organization alongside Vladdy and Bo, he knows how his players tick. His “Start spreading the news, bitches!” ALDS victory howl should be a Canadian Heritage Minute.
Buck Martinez and Dan Shulman
The play-by-play guys
The fan favourite and the best baritone in baseball, respectively, guided the Jays faithful through a wild season with characteristic smarts, professionalism and a flair for the dramatic.
Hazel Mae
The on-field reporter
Mae has earned the players’ trust over years spent around the team. Instead of prefab soundbites, they give her real talk, both in her interviews and during Gatorade-soaked post-game dispatches.
Don Mattingly
The bench coach
An iconic former player and MVP whose experience and wise counsel proved invaluable to Schneider on the bench. His gravitas and intimidating posture didn’t hurt either. After the World Series, he stepped down (amicably) from his position and will likely get scooped up by a rival.
Pete Walker
The pitching coach
The organization’s biker-’stached secret weapon. Walker’s ability to transform mediocre pitchers into all-stars has earned him a reputation around the league as a miracle worker.
John Schneider
The manager
Having come up through the organization alongside Vladdy and Bo, he knows how his players tick. His “Start spreading the news, bitches!” ALDS victory howl should be a Canadian Heritage Minute.
Buck Martinez and Dan Shulman
The play-by-play guys
The fan favourite and the best baritone in baseball, respectively, guided the Jays faithful through a wild season with characteristic smarts, professionalism and a flair for the dramatic.
Hazel Mae
The on-field reporter
Mae has earned the players’ trust over years spent around the team. Instead of prefab soundbites, they give her real talk, both in her interviews and during Gatorade-soaked post-game dispatches.
Don Mattingly
The bench coach
An iconic former player and MVP whose experience and wise counsel proved invaluable to Schneider on the bench. His gravitas and intimidating posture didn’t hurt either. After the World Series, he stepped down (amicably) from his position and will likely get scooped up by a rival.
Pete Walker
The pitching coach
The organization’s biker-’stached secret weapon. Walker’s ability to transform mediocre pitchers into all-stars has earned him a reputation around the league as a miracle worker.
John Schneider
The manager
Having come up through the organization alongside Vladdy and Bo, he knows how his players tick. His “Start spreading the news, bitches!” ALDS victory howl should be a Canadian Heritage Minute.
Buck Martinez and Dan Shulman
The play-by-play guys
The fan favourite and the best baritone in baseball, respectively, guided the Jays faithful through a wild season with characteristic smarts, professionalism and a flair for the dramatic.
Hazel Mae
The on-field reporter
Mae has earned the players’ trust over years spent around the team. Instead of prefab soundbites, they give her real talk, both in her interviews and during Gatorade-soaked post-game dispatches.
Don Mattingly
The bench coach
An iconic former player and MVP whose experience and wise counsel proved invaluable to Schneider on the bench. His gravitas and intimidating posture didn’t hurt either. After the World Series, he stepped down (amicably) from his position and will likely get scooped up by a rival.
Pete Walker
The pitching coach
The organization’s biker-’stached secret weapon. Walker’s ability to transform mediocre pitchers into all-stars has earned him a reputation around the league as a miracle worker.
John Schneider
The manager
Having come up through the organization alongside Vladdy and Bo, he knows how his players tick. His “Start spreading the news, bitches!” ALDS victory howl should be a Canadian Heritage Minute.
Buck Martinez and Dan Shulman
The play-by-play guys
The fan favourite and the best baritone in baseball, respectively, guided the Jays faithful through a wild season with characteristic smarts, professionalism and a flair for the dramatic.
Hazel Mae
The on-field reporter
Mae has earned the players’ trust over years spent around the team. Instead of prefab soundbites, they give her real talk, both in her interviews and during Gatorade-soaked post-game dispatches.
Don Mattingly
The bench coach
An iconic former player and MVP whose experience and wise counsel proved invaluable to Schneider on the bench. His gravitas and intimidating posture didn’t hurt either. After the World Series, he stepped down (amicably) from his position and will likely get scooped up by a rival.
Pete Walker
The pitching coach
The organization’s biker-’stached secret weapon. Walker’s ability to transform mediocre pitchers into all-stars has earned him a reputation around the league as a miracle worker.
3
Doug Ford
Premier of Ontario
For being the irritant Trump can’t ignore
After years of cosplaying as Canada’s answer to Trump, Ford repositioned himself as the guy most capable of pushing POTUS’s buttons. What first felt like a gimmick (the baseball-hat slogans, the Fox News appearances) now lands like expert-calibre trolling. Ford’s recent Reagan ad—archival footage of the Republican president railing against tariffs, which aired during the first two World Series games and got roughly 12 billion impressions—led Trump to suspend trade talks and slap an additional 10 per cent tariff on Canada. But it also has American voters contemplating the crushing economic impact of Trump’s vendetta. Combined with Carney’s genteel geopolitics, Ford’s brand of brash may actually move the needle.
Up next:
Having signed a road construction partnership with the Webequie First Nation, Ford plans to kick off the Ring of Fire mining project next spring.
Christopher Wahl
4
Olivia Chow
Mayor of Toronto
For being more focused on the work than on the optics
If crime is always top of mind for voters going into an election year, Chow has nothing to worry about. The incumbent has a solid record to run on: 40 per cent year-over-year reductions in shootings and firearm discharges and a 51 per cent decrease in homicides. Police funding is up, 911 wait times are down and Chow is on to the next challenge. While she still loves to make a statement (who can forget her wrapped up in a yellow feather boa while calling out Home Depot for cutting its funding to Pride), she’s being largely driven by party-agnostic pragmatism. To wit: Chow has secured housing funds from both the feds ($2.55 billion) and the province ($67.2 million), the latter as a reward for meeting new-build targets.
Up next:
Chow is doubling down on her bid to support local businesses, building on the “Love Local” campaign launched last March with the new Red Tape Hotline for Toronto business owners. The city’s economic development committee will meet early next year to discuss what makes starting and maintaining a small business so onerous and then tweak by-laws accordingly.
Andrew Francis Wallace/Toronto Star/Getty Images
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5
Edward Rogers and Tony Staffieri
Executive chairman, and president and CEO, of Rogers Communications
Because they rule Toronto sports and telecoms
The Jays playoff run was a triple play for the company that owns not only the team but also the stadium and the broadcasting rights. Even before October, Rogers’ newly acquired 75 per cent stake in MLSE prompted a $5-billion third-quarter profit gain and installed Edward Rogers as the monarch of Canadian sportsdom. You can also thank the company for your Real Housewives binge (Rogers acquired Bravo, HGTV and Food Network), the emails you sent on your commute (Rogers expanded 5G service to TTC riders) and that time you spotted Dua Lipa at Giulietta (Rogers is TIFF’s lead sponsor for another three years). As CEO, Staffieri has kept shareholders happy with a 17 per cent overall spike.
Up next:
Rogers will likely exercise its option to buy the remaining stock in MLSE from Larry Tanenbaum in July.
George Pimentel (Rogers), Galit Rodan/Bloomberg/Getty Images (Staffieri)
6
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
Basketball player
For big wins on and off the court
In June, Gilgeous-Alexander joined a select club of greats—Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Michael Jordan and Shaquille O’Neal—to have won MVP, the scoring title and an NBA championship all in the same season. Turning in one of the best performances in league history while leading the Oklahoma City Thunder to victory and being hailed as the best player in the NBA would be impressive enough, but SGA is widely considered to be the league’s most stylish player too, sporting tunnel ’fits that are met with the same breathless adulation as his jump shots. His recently dropped Shai 001 collection for Converse sold out in 10 minutes. (His other apparel sponsors include Canada Goose and Skims.)
Friends in high places:
Drake recently inked over the LeBron James tattoo on his left arm with an image of SGA’s Thunder jersey. “I understand why it might seem crazy,” SGA said when asked about the tribute by GQ, “but to me, that’s just the homie.”
Joshua Gateley/Getty Images
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7
Keith Pelley
President and CEO of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment
Because he’s transforming the city’s sports landscape
In May, Pelley ended the Leafs’ so-called Shanaplan when he opted not to renew president Brendan Shanahan’s contract or hire a replacement. A month later, he terminated Masai Ujiri’s Raptors contract early. (It was status quo for football and soccer, but only because Pelley had already booted Bill Manning, former president of both the Argonauts and the Toronto FC, last July.) The moves seem to be less about money and more about running out of patience: Pelley has, in his own words, been tasked with “the relentless pursuit of championships.”
Up next:
Developing a partnership with the Buffalo Bills to grow Canada’s football fan base.
Chris Young/Canadian Press
8
J. Miles Dale and Guillermo del Toro
Producer and director
For supercharging the city’s film industry
While accepting the 2025 Ebert Director Award at the TIFF Tribute Awards, del Toro joked that it took a Mexican to remind Canadians of their country’s status as a beacon of hope and artistic excellence: a charming if somewhat circular compliment given how much said Mexican has done to get us there. Since 1997, del Toro has built an impressive catalogue of Toronto-shot films—including Crimson Peak, The Shape of Water and Nightmare Alley—and a local cottage industry around them. But he didn’t do it alone. Canadian producer J. Miles Dale joined forces with del Toro in 2011 for Mama and they’ve been collaborators ever since. Frankenstein is their latest co-pro—shot on Cinespace Studios’ rechristened “Guillermo del Toro Soundstages.”
Up next:
The pair is producing an adaptation of del Toro and Chuck Hogan’s horror novella series, The Boy in the Iron Box, for Netflix.
Michelle Mengsu Chan/Toronto Star/Getty Images
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9
Maggie Kang
Animator and director
For creating an international frenzy with KPop Demon Hunters
Since being quietly released by Netflix in June, KPop Demon Hunters and its soundtrack have demolished expectations and records: 400 million views on streaming, more than $18 million at the box office and multiple appearances at the top of the Billboard albums chart. The force behind it all is Kang, the movie’s Sheridan College–trained creator and co-director.
Your movie was released in theatres after it was already streaming—something Netflix vowed never to do. How does it feel to upend a giant’s business model?
This film was unlike anything I’d ever worked on, so I’m not surprised that it’s surprising us. It’s teaching us that not every film can be marketed or promoted the same way. My co-director, Chris Appelhans, put it really well. He said this movie is like a baby that we birthed—you release it into the world, and at first you’re like, “I hope you’re okay! I hope you’re making friends!” And now it’s just doing its thing.
Your heroines—demon-hunting members of a K-pop girl band—defy stereotypes. They’re unapologetically messy, they gobble ramen, they burp. Where did that come from?
I made the movie for young Maggie but also for me now. I felt like I wasn’t seeing the type of woman I wanted to see in film. Growing up in Toronto, I was a weird kid who did impersonations and made my sister film them. When I went into animation at Sheridan and became a story artist, I was surrounded by other hilarious weirdos. That’s where I honed my love of comedy. I want to inspire young girls to like each other, to be funny and silly. There’s massive power in that.
Original IP is the Holy Grail these days. Has the success of KPop Demon Hunters shifted your sense of what’s next?
Everything about this movie is a reflection of me. I worked on it until I was completely satisfied. I know what I can do now and how special that is. I just want to explore that more.
Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images
10
Anita Anand
Federal minister of foreign affairs
Because she’s repping Canada on the international stage
The foreign affairs portfolio has always been thorny, but in the current geopolitical crapstorm, it’s more like a razor wire. In a speech to the United Nations in September, Anand criticized the erosion in global leadership and confirmed her country’s commitment to filling the void. A month later, she was the first Canadian cabinet minister to visit India after two years of tense relations, and her groundwork scored Carney an invite to New Delhi for talks in the new year. Subsequent outreach in China had a similarly salutary effect, leading to a meeting between the PM and president Xi at the APEC summit.
Up next:
Anand will welcome foreign dignitaries on home turf for the FIFA World Cup in June.
Gints Ivuskans/AFP/Getty Images
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11
Mae Martin
Comedian, actor, showrunner and podcaster
Because they bring new meaning to “multi-hyphenate”
Martin has spent the past few years building a following in comedy with stand-up specials, the TV series Feel Good and the queer podcast Handsome. But, as with all good mysteries, there was a twist ahead: the recently released series Wayward. In the thriller—which Martin wrote, directed and stars in—a cop moves to a small town and discovers something deeply weird at the local boarding school for troubled teens. The series is funny (assuming your sense of humour includes toad torture) and groundbreaking (in its understated trans representation). And it has more than paid off for Netflix Canada: the show debuted at number one here, then hit number one globally, with more than one billion minutes viewed by the end of its first week.
Side gigs:
In addition to releasing an indie rock album in February, Martin sells hand-painted animal books, postcards and tote bags on Etsy, with proceeds going to Doctors Without Borders.
Mat Hayward/Hollywood Reporter/Getty Images
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Cameron Bailey
CEO of TIFF
For getting the film fest to 50
In recent years, Bailey’s tenure as TIFF’s top dog has resembled a classic disaster movie: a pandemic, a strike, a rolling funding crisis, this summer’s uproar over Barry Avrich’s film about the October 7 attack in Israel. Yet he always survives past the third act. The festival’s 50th-anniversary edition was a fizzy showcase for Canadian film: an unfettered celebration of glitz, glamour and Ryan Reynolds,whose doc about John Candy was a perfectly nostalgic selection to toast TIFF’s half-century. After securing a three-year sponsorship extension from Rogers, Bailey is looking ahead to the next 50.
Up next:
Backed by $23 million in federal funding, TIFF: the Market—a commerce and content hub created to boost the fest’s economic heft—launches next year.
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13
Margaret Atwood
Writer
Because she controls the narrative
When Edmonton’s Public School Board announced that it was removing 200 books—including The Handmaid’s Tale—from its libraries because of “explicit sexual content,” Atwood took to social media with a satirical story about a couple who “had five perfect children without ever having sex” that she promised Alberta’s government would deem suitable. A week after her widely publicized post, the school board revised its order, allowing the classics to remain on shelves. At age 85, she has just released her first memoir, Book of Lives, and is embarking on a North American and European tour.
Up next:
The Testaments, Hulu’s adaptation of the Handmaid’s Tale sequel, is expected to land next year, with Atwood as consulting producer.
Maria Moratti/Getty Images
14
Carley Fortune
Romance writer
Because her steamy beach reads are unabashedly Canadian
Forget Queen Victoria—the month of May belongs to Fortune. Since 2022, the romance writer has released a new novel in the fifth month of every year, with each of them topping national and international bestseller lists. (Her work is now published in 30 languages.) Fortune’s most recent offering, One Golden Summer, gave millions of fans what they’d been clamouring for with a return to Barry’s Bay to revisit the charismatic troublemaking brother from her blockbuster first book, Every Summer After. An Amazon Prime Video series, based on that debut and retitled Every Year After, wrapped filming in BC earlier this fall.
Up next:
Fortune’s fifth book, the upcoming Our Perfect Storm, is a friends-to-lovers story set in the rainforests and beaches of Tofino.
Jennifer Roberts
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15
Mike Myers
Actor
For raising his elbows—and ours—skyward
This past march, Myers returned to SNL for the first time in a decade to play a chainsaw-wielding Elon Musk in a gloriously unhinged performance that took aim at the Trump presidency. Then, during the show’s closing credits, he opened his vest to reveal a T-shirt emblazoned with “Canada Is Not For Sale,” mouthed the words “elbows up” and gave birth to a rallying cry. The phrase—inspired by hockey legend Gordie Howe—soon made its way onto protest signs, baseball caps and, by the end of that month, a campaign ad for Mark Carney.
Up next:
Shrek 5, in which Myers will once again voice the iconic ogre (famous for facing down a different despot) and win over an entirely new generation.
Amanda Edwards/Getty Images
16
Evan Solomon
Federal minister of artificial intelligence and digital innovation
Because he’s charting Canada’s AI path
When Carney released the Liberals’ platform a week out from election day, it called for the sweeping use of artificial intelligence to build the economy of the future and included a new cabinet position—the country’s first ever minister of AI. Solomon, who has been an internet guy since his days editing Shift magazine, was working in the private sector in New York when Carney reached out. Now he’s the MP for Toronto Centre and the person charged with pushing back against American digital dominance by getting Canadian industry and government to adopt AI. In September, Solomon announced a 26-person task force to execute an updated national AI strategy and deliver it two years ahead of schedule.
Friends in high places:
In 2022, his pal Gerald Butts hired him as publisher of GZero Media, a subsidiary of Eurasia Group, the political risk-analysis firm founded by Ian Bremmer (where Diana Fox Carney also works).
Spencer Colby/Canadian Press
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17
Sean Cohan and Justin Stockman
President, and vice-president of content development and programming, at Bell Media
For giving couch potatoes more of the TV they want to see
Once a minor player, the Bell Media–backed streaming service Crave has spent the past year competing with US giants Netflix, Disney Plus and Prime Video, upping its subscriber base by 40 per cent to 4.3 million and expanding its offerings—10,000 more hours of content by the end of the year—to ensure even more eyeballs in the future.
Mafia: Most Wanted
True-crime fans devoured this three-part documentary series on the ’Ndrangheta—the notorious crime syndicate behind 70 per cent of the world’s cocaine trafficking—and its GTA infiltration. After airing on Crave in March, the series was picked up by Netflix in the US and hit the top 10 there in its first week.
Heated Rivalry
Produced by Crave and set for release in late November, the streamer’s foray into romance follows two pro hockey players who must choose between “the sport they live for and the love they can’t ignore.” Based on the hit romance by Nova Scotia author Rachel Reid, the series is sincere and steamy—and breathlessly awaited by fans of the book on both sides of the border.
Slo Pitch
The streamer kicked off 2025 by teaming up with PageBoy, Elliot Page’s production company, for this comedy about a queer women’s softball team (tag line: “Beer, lesbians and baseball”). Bell Media also has development deals with Tom Green and Seth Rogen.
Super Team Canada
Crave’s first cartoon for adults was perfectly timed to tap into Canada’s new patriotism—with a theme song by none other than Bryan Adams. It premiered on the Friday of Victoria Day weekend, stars Canadian comedy all-stars Will Arnett and Cobie Smulders, and chronicles six D-list superheroes from the Great White North called in to fight the bad guys.
Bell Media
18
Tobias Lütke
CEO of Shopify
Because he heads up the country’s most valuable company
This year, the e-commerce giant didn’t just rule over Canada’s tech and digital-retail scenes—it dominated the country’s entire business sector. Shopify barely blinked at the ongoing trade and tariff troubles; if anything, its revenue growth sped up in North America, Europe and Asia. In August, Shopify edged out RBC as Canada’s most valuable company by market cap, flying high on second-quarter revenue that had climbed year-over-year to $3.7 billion. Making good on its strategy to land larger merchants, the company also snagged Starbucks and Canada Goose, partnerships that are predicted to drive growth for all parties.
Up next:
Lütke recently announced a soon-to-launch partnership with OpenAI that will allow the company’s merchants to sell directly in ChatGPT, so customers can buy skin care products, energy drinks, a winter coat or living room furniture without ever leaving the conversation.
Dustin Chambers/Bloomberg/Getty Images
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19
Kristin Cochrane
CEO of Penguin Random House Canada
For fostering national pride through the printed word
Few have championed CanLit as a beacon of shared values and a bulwark against authoritarianism as successfully as Cochrane. This year, PRHC launched the Indigenous children’s imprint Swift Water Books as well as McClelland and Stewart’s paperback series Kanata Classics; reissued Prime Minister Carney’s 2021 tome, Value(s), which became one of the year’s bestsellers; and released Book of Lives, the long-awaited memoir by Margaret Atwood. Buoyed by a wave of patriotic zeal, the publisher also commissioned Elbows Up!, a collection of essays exploring Canada’s relationship with the US that promptly landed on Canadian bestseller lists.
Charity circuit:
Cochrane and her team donated more than 300,000 books to support literacy and provide readers across the country with access to diverse voices.
Farah Nosh
20
Nick Frosst, Aidan Gomez and Ivan Zhang
Co-founders of Cohere
Because their quest for market domination has hit hyperdrive
Enterprise AI company Cohere has had a mind-boggling 12 months. So far in 2025, it opened new offices in Montreal and Paris (with one in the works in Seoul), closed a $500-million funding round, then raked in another $100 million, putting its valuation at $7 billion. Its annualized revenue is also way up, nearly tripling from $35 million in March of 2024 to more than $100 million this past May. Cohere plans to use its cash bump to go head-to-head with American companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic—with an assist from the federal government, which tapped Cohere to figure out how AI can improve public services. Industry minister Mélanie Joly put the feds’ stake in the company more bluntly at a tech conference in September: “We will build Cohere,” she said, “and we will make it a Canadian champion.”
Up next:
Though he hasn’t announced an official date for an IPO, CEO Aidan Gomez recently said that the company could soon hit the public markets.
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21
Mark Shapiro and Ross Atkins
Blue Jays president and general manager
For being the architects of postseason magic
Earlier this year, nobody had much good to say about the Jays bosses. Then came the postseason, and it got a lot harder to kvetch about Vladdy’s half-billion-dollar contract extension (the largest in franchise history), the locking in of catcher Alejandro Kirk and the propelling of rookie pitcher Trey Yesavage through the minors. Atkins maintains that there was always a method to their madness and that this World Series run was inevitable. Well, no, but their vision made it a reality.
Up next:
Negotiating with star shortstop Bo Bichette, who is now a free agent.
Mark Blinch/Getty Images
22
Ana Bailão
CEO of Build Canada Homes
Because she’s Carney’s new point person on affordable housing
In September, Toronto’s former deputy mayor was hired to lead Build Canada Homes, a new federal agency designed to combat the affordability crisis and help the prime minister fulfill one of his major campaign promises. In her role, Bailão will oversee $13 billion in funding earmarked for various projects, including the construction of 4,000 modular homes across the country to help reverse low new-build rates. Bailão, who did integral work on the city’s housing files during her time on council and moved over to private sector housing in 2023, has the experience and the will to make it happen.
Up next:
Pushing ahead on Arbo Downsview, 540 prefab, modular and mass timber homes—almost half of them affordable—at Keele and Sheppard.
Richard Lautens/Toronto Star/Getty Images
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23
Summer McIntosh
Swimmer
Because swagger looks good on her
One of Canada’s greatest living athletes showed up at this summer’s World Aquatics Championships in Singapore wearing her ambition on her fingernails: five of them painted gold, in case anyone wasn’t sure of her plans. The show of bravado—only Michael Phelps has won that many golds at a single Worlds—made it clear that she was coming for the queen, US champ Katie Ledecky. After snagging four golds, McIntosh lamented her third-place finish in the 800 metres, telling assembled media that she hates to lose more than she likes to win. With the LA Olympics less than three years away and McIntosh not yet out of her teens, Ledecky should watch her back. McIntosh recently cut her long-time coach loose to start training under Bob Bowman—the man who got Phelps to 23 Olympic gold medals.
Charity circuit:
McIntosh, who was born at St. Joseph’s Health Centre, is one of the public faces of the hospital’s fundraising campaign to build a patient tower featuring expanded emergency care, a surgical centre, 340 beds in single-patient rooms and mental health facilities.
Ian MacNicol/Getty Images
24
Chris Abraham and Michael Healey
Artistic director and playwright
For championing Toronto’s cultural sovereignty
Two years ago, this Crow’s Theatre duo proved that Torontonians will flock to local stories brought to life onstage. Under Abraham’s guidance, Healey transformed a book about Google’s Sidewalk Labs boondoggle into The Master Plan, a wry satire of corporate blunders, backroom dealings and false prophets. Implausibly, it became such a smash hit that the company remounted the show a year after its initial mega-extended run. The two are following that up with December’s Rogers v. Rogers, a Succession-esque opus based on Canada’s reigning telecom dynasty. The play’s run was sold out, save one show, more than a month before opening night, so the unlucky will have to wait for a remount.
Up next:
A three-year pilot partnership with Soulpepper and an expansion that will add more than 5,000 square feet to Crow’s theatrical space.
J. Gordon Shillingford Publishing
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25
Teresa Resch
President of the Toronto Tempo
For making the city even more basketball obsessed
Resch has spent 2025 building her off-court roster for the Tempo, the WNBA’s first franchise outside the US. Just who will represent Toronto in the paint remains to be seen—player selection is set to begin with an expansion draft over the winter, pending the league’s new collective bargaining agreement. But one thing is certain: they’ll have a bunch of MVPs backing them up.
Monica Wright RogersGeneral manager
In her playing days, Wright Rogers was a two-time WNBA champ with the Minnesota Lynx. More recently, she spent two years as the assistant coach of the Phoenix Mercury. The head of basketball operations has checked off a major box on her to-do list—finding a head coach—and will now turn to putting together a winning team from scratch.
Sandy BrondelloHead coach
After spending four seasons with the New York Liberty—during which her team won the 2024 finals and she racked up the best win–loss ratio (107 to 53) in franchise history—Brondello was unceremoniously dumped in September. Their loss, Toronto’s massive gain: Brondello is beloved by her players, and her hardware includes three Olympic medals for her native Australia and the WNBA’s Coach of the Year award.
Serena WilliamsCo-owner
“New court, new game,” the tennis GOAT wrote in an Instagram post announcing her investment in the Tempo. Williams brings star power, swagger and unparalleled athletic acumen to an ownership group that includes Larry Tanenbaum—whose Kilmer Sports Ventures has a majority stake in the team—Montreal Canadiens execs Geoff Molson and France Margaret Bélanger, and tech entrepreneur Sukhinder Singh Cassidy.
Lilly SinghHype woman
The YouTube sensation has three big loves: basketball, Toronto and lifting up women—which means her new gig as the Tempo’s chief hype officer is a slam dunk. Singh, who is also part of the ownership group, has been a diehard Raptors fan for years and plans to ratchet the enthusiasm for the women’s game up to 11.
Nick Wong
26
Danny Soberano and Charles Khabouth
Restaurateurs
Because their brand of hospitality never sleeps
Soberano and Khabouth, who joined forces to create Ink Entertainment in 1982 and now own more than 20 restaurants, bars and clubs across North America, show no signs of slowing down. In fact, they’re in overdrive: building on the late-2024 launch of Animl—home of the $1,000 surf-and-turf platter and $7,000 cocktail—they unveiled Portland Square on King West in July, a four-level, multi-concept venue featuring old-school Italian, contemporary Chinese, private lounges and—of all things—a country music sports bar. And because even professional party planners need a reset, this fall was all about 30 Hazelton, their three-storey, 4,000-square-foot spa doling out lasers, injectables and IV drips.
Up next:
A second country sports bar, this time in Niagara Falls (these boots are made for working), and further expansion into the US with new spots in Miami, Vegas and Boca Raton.
Robin Marchant/BAFTA/Getty Images
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27
Erik Hoffman
President of music at Live Nation Canada
For turning Toronto into Music City
In early 2024, the city’s live music scene was at a crossroads: stadium-filling bands wanted to bring their shows to Toronto, but there was no venue large enough to accommodate them on their available dates. Hoffman was the guy who said, If we build it, they will come—and in less than a year and a half, the 50,000-capacity Rogers Stadium was in business. Live Nation Canada hosted a record 25 stadium shows in Toronto this past summer, more than triple the previous record—putting to rest the question of whether the city can sustain multiple large-scale venues.
Up next:
Live Nation will transform Budweiser Stage (rechristened the RBC Amphitheatre) into a year-round space set to launch in 2030.
Samuel Engelking/Billboard
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Matt Johnson
Director
Because bigger budgets haven’t dampened his weird genius
For Hollywood, the success of Johnson’s 2023 hit BlackBerry, a surprisingly juicy drama about the eponymous tech company, indicated that attention must be paid to Toronto’s filmmaking rebel. The offers came rolling in, including the opportunity to direct a live-action Hot Wheels movie, but instead Johnson opted to return to an old love. Nirvanna the Band the Show started as a web series in 2007—the story of two lovable doofuses, Johnson and his creative partner Jay McCarrol—whose sole ambition is to play a show at the Rivoli. Its follow-up, Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie, has a bigger budget but the same inside jokes, awkward laughs, and stunts that skirt the edge of safety and good taste. (When a security guard was shot at Drake’s Bridle Path mansion, Johnson and McCarrol rushed there to shoot scenes amid the crush of media.) After premiering first at SXSW and then at TIFF, the movie won back-to-back audience choice awards, proving that Johnson is still the one to beat with the Criterion crowd.
Up next:
The release of Tony, the buzzy biopic about chef and fellow disruptor Anthony Bourdain, which Johnson shot in Cape Cod over the summer.
Kate Dockeray
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Daniel Drucker
Godfather of Ozempic
For reminding the world that GLP-1 is about more than weight loss
Drucker was one of five scientists to accept the prestigious Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences this past April for their roles in discovering GLP-1, the metabolic hormone that is the active ingredient in Ozempic, Mounjaro, Wegovy and others. Before awarding the $3-million prize, presenter Lauren Sánchez Bezos joked that many of the famous people in the room owed these winners a big thank-you. But GLP-1 drugs aren’t just reducing dress sizes—they’re extending lifespans. A study about Wegovy showed a 20 per cent reduction in heart attacks, strokes and death among people with obesity and heart disease.
Up next:
Drucker’s lab at Mount Sinai will study the potential of GLP-1 to combat dementia, Alzheimer’s disease and cancer.
the University of Toronto
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Melanie Woodin
President of the University of Toronto
For recruiting top talent and taking big swings
At her installation address this fall, U of T’s 17th president joked that she was the first to accept her post in pumps—an advantage, perhaps, given her promise to “rise to meet this moment.” Woodin, a neuroscientist and former dean of arts and science, recently approved a multimillion-dollar emergency fund so researchers affected by Trump’s cuts in the US can continue their work. Other moves aimed at having a global impact include a partnership with tech firm Xanadu focused on quantum computing, the launch of the Lawson Climate Institute and work in AI at the Schwartz-Reisman Innovation Campus.
Up next:
Cutting the university’s greenhouse gas emissions by 2027 and becoming carbon positive by 2050.
Johnny Guatto
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The Big New Gigs
This year’s newly appointed leaders
Charlotte Geeves
Executive director of the National Ballet of Canada
The National Ballet’s artistic director, Hope Muir, has a new partner in Geeves, formerly of the Bristol Old Vic Theatre. Co-CEOs, the two will collaborate on operational, financial and artistic fronts.
Teresa M. Chan
Founding dean of TMU’s medical school
Chan heads up Ontario’s newest training ground for future doctors, an ambitious undertaking meant to address the shortage of primary care physicians. The inaugural class of 176 students started school in September at TMU’s Brampton campus.
Paolo Santalucia
Artistic director of Soulpepper Theatre
With Soulpepper’s appointment of Santalucia as AD, the company is building on its legacy of fostering talent and promoting from within. Most recently an associate artistic director at Crow’s Theatre, he came up through Soulpepper’s 26-week academy.
Julie Adam
President and CEO of Universal Music Canada
After two years at UMC—Canada’s largest record company—Adam was promoted to the top job
and is currently the only female head of a major label in the country.
Mandeep Lali
CEO of the Toronto Transit Commission
The former New York and London transit exec has pledged to rectify reduced ridership, a chronically tardy system (buses and streetcars were late nearly 40 per cent of the time in September) and a $37-billion capital investment shortfall.
Charlotte Geeves
Executive director of the National Ballet of Canada
The National Ballet’s artistic director, Hope Muir, has a new partner in Geeves, formerly of the Bristol Old Vic Theatre. Co-CEOs, the two will collaborate on operational, financial and artistic fronts.
Teresa M. Chan
Founding dean of TMU’s medical school
Chan heads up Ontario’s newest training ground for future doctors, an ambitious undertaking meant to address the shortage of primary care physicians. The inaugural class of 176 students started school in September at TMU’s Brampton campus.
Paolo Santalucia
Artistic director of Soulpepper Theatre
With Soulpepper’s appointment of Santalucia as AD, the company is building on its legacy of fostering talent and promoting from within. Most recently an associate artistic director at Crow’s Theatre, he came up through Soulpepper’s 26-week academy.
Julie Adam
President and CEO of Universal Music Canada
After two years at UMC—Canada’s largest record company—Adam was promoted to the top job
and is currently the only female head of a major label in the country.
Mandeep Lali
CEO of the Toronto Transit Commission
The former New York and London transit exec has pledged to rectify reduced ridership, a chronically tardy system (buses and streetcars were late nearly 40 per cent of the time in September) and a $37-billion capital investment shortfall.
Charlotte Geeves
Executive director of the National Ballet of Canada
The National Ballet’s artistic director, Hope Muir, has a new partner in Geeves, formerly of the Bristol Old Vic Theatre. Co-CEOs, the two will collaborate on operational, financial and artistic fronts.
Teresa M. Chan
Founding dean of TMU’s medical school
Chan heads up Ontario’s newest training ground for future doctors, an ambitious undertaking meant to address the shortage of primary care physicians. The inaugural class of 176 students started school in September at TMU’s Brampton campus.
Paolo Santalucia
Artistic director of Soulpepper Theatre
With Soulpepper’s appointment of Santalucia as AD, the company is building on its legacy of fostering talent and promoting from within. Most recently an associate artistic director at Crow’s Theatre, he came up through Soulpepper’s 26-week academy.
Julie Adam
President and CEO of Universal Music Canada
After two years at UMC—Canada’s largest record company—Adam was promoted to the top job
and is currently the only female head of a major label in the country.
Mandeep Lali
CEO of the Toronto Transit Commission
The former New York and London transit exec has pledged to rectify reduced ridership, a chronically tardy system (buses and streetcars were late nearly 40 per cent of the time in September) and a $37-billion capital investment shortfall.
Charlotte Geeves
Executive director of the National Ballet of Canada
The National Ballet’s artistic director, Hope Muir, has a new partner in Geeves, formerly of the Bristol Old Vic Theatre. Co-CEOs, the two will collaborate on operational, financial and artistic fronts.
Teresa M. Chan
Founding dean of TMU’s medical school
Chan heads up Ontario’s newest training ground for future doctors, an ambitious undertaking meant to address the shortage of primary care physicians. The inaugural class of 176 students started school in September at TMU’s Brampton campus.
Paolo Santalucia
Artistic director of Soulpepper Theatre
With Soulpepper’s appointment of Santalucia as AD, the company is building on its legacy of fostering talent and promoting from within. Most recently an associate artistic director at Crow’s Theatre, he came up through Soulpepper’s 26-week academy.
Julie Adam
President and CEO of Universal Music Canada
After two years at UMC—Canada’s largest record company—Adam was promoted to the top job
and is currently the only female head of a major label in the country.
Mandeep Lali
CEO of the Toronto Transit Commission
The former New York and London transit exec has pledged to rectify reduced ridership, a chronically tardy system (buses and streetcars were late nearly 40 per cent of the time in September) and a $37-billion capital investment shortfall.
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Eva Chin
Chef
Because her micro-restaurant is the hottest ticket in town
For the past year, Chin has been redefining Asian dining at her 26-seat hidden gem, Yan Dining Room, housed within Chinatown mainstay Hong Shing. Open three nights a week and accessed by pre-paid reservation, the neo-Chinese spot delivers a multi-course tasting menu that puts farm-to-table philosophy ahead of genre—and soul above all else.
The Dishes
The menu, which changes monthly, is built around Chin’s relationships with producers, whether that’s West Coast fishmongers, a duck farmer in Elora or a Chinese family in Newmarket raising free-range chickens. There is one constant: every tasting begins with a serving of Chin’s trademark seasonal broth.
The Guest List
Although Chin insists that Hong Shing was a popular late-night haunt for entertainers and NBA players even before she set up shop, her corner of the restaurant has brought in actor Simu Liu and a roster of top athletes (she’s keeping their names as tucked away as her dining room) for private events.
The Collabs
Chin has teamed up with local chefs, including MasterChef Canada winner Christopher Siu of Daan Go, Thai queen Nuit Regular, Instagram star Wallace Wong, the crew at Good Behaviour, and Nick Lin and Stephen Baidacoff of Burlington’s buzzy No. 8 Restaurant.
The Next Step
Small is mighty—for the time being. Chin’s long-term goal is to open a larger, stand-alone restaurant equipped for whole-animal butchery.
Joshua Best
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Andrew Boozary
Physician and social medicine pioneer
For proving that housing and health care are inextricably linked
For years, Boozary has been arguing that housing is health care: a win-win approach that combats homelessness and reduces ballooning costs caused by return visits to the city’s emergency departments. Now, with the resounding success of Dunn House, a 51-unit modular apartment building in Parkdale that provides not just shelter but access to health care and other supports, the director of UHN’s Gattuso Centre for Social Medicine has the numbers to prove it. A year into the initiative—the first of its kind in Canada—there has been a 52 per cent reduction in the residents’ hospital stays and a 79 per cent drop in their length of stays. All told, local hospitals saved $1.66 million—a powerful retort to the argument that we can’t afford ambitious housing agendas. In fact, we can’t afford not to have them.
Up next:
A recent survey by public opinion research firm Relay Services found that Boozary would be the only candidate who could beat Doug Ford in an election, with Boozary earning 52 per cent of Ontarians’ votes to Ford’s 48 per cent. That election remains hypothetical—for now.
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33
Moez Kassam
Hedge fund manager and philanthropist
Because his giving takes many (many) forms
Forget spending money to make money—the Anson Funds co-founder makes money to give money. This year, the Moez and Marissa Kassam Equity Fund supported food programs through the Toronto Foundation for Student Success, established a follow-up clinic at SickKids powered by the couple’s recent $15-million gift to the hospital and donated $5 million to TMU’s new medical school. It is unsurprising, perhaps, that Kassam was recently named the 2025 Global Citizen Laureate by the United Nations Association in Canada.
Up next:
Kassam is growing his Great to Gold program—which invests in underfunded athletes to get them on the Olympic podium—to include winter athletes.
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Timothy Snyder, Marci Shore and Jason Stanley
Professors at the Munk School
Because they’re fighting global fascism from Toronto
There is one upside to Trump’s fanning of geopolitical tensions, disdain for civil discourse and attacks on higher education: they have led to some choice hires for U of T—including Snyder, Shore and Stanley, three former Yale colleagues and experts on fascism who joined the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy earlier this year.
Up next:
Snyder launches his first big course, “Hitler and Stalin Today,” in January; Shore is completing her Guggenheim Fellowship–funded book on truth and post-truth in Central Europe; and Stanley is setting up an institute at U of T devoted to the defence of democracy.
Ole Berg-Rusten/NTB/AFP/Getty Images (Snyder), Chloë Ellingson/Guardian (Shore), Yurko Stefaniak/Ukraïner (Stanley)
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35
Veronika Slowikowska
Comedian and actor
Because she parlayed viral comedy sketches into a gig with SNL
In May, millions watched a TikTok video in which Slowikowska walked a mile in her roommate’s literal shoes to understand the plight of the white male. Four months later, millions more watched her inaugural appearance on OG comedy incubator SNL, where she is one of four new cast members and the lone Canadian. Her first-ever SNL sketch was a Jeopardy! riff—fitting, perhaps, as many viewers over the age of 30 were asking themselves, Who is Veronika Slowikowska? Her style, which hinges on near-intolerable awkwardness, has earned her comparisons to all-time SNL great Kristen Wiig, but to the Gen Z viewers the show is thirsting after, Slowikowska is already an icon.
Friends in high places:
Justin Bieber and Jack Black are devoted fans of Slowikowska’s online offerings.
Landon Nordeman/Peacock/Getty Images
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Kevin Smith
President and CEO of University Health Network
Because he’s making sure the world’s top scientists move here
This past April, as scientists in the US were packing up their beakers, Smith launched the Canada Leads 100 Challenge to lure them north. The UHN head plans to recruit 100 of the best early-career health experts from around the globe and has secured roughly $40 million in wooing funds. It’s this type of thinking that has landed Toronto General Hospital in the number-three spot on Newsweek’s list of the best publicly funded hospitals in the world for the second year running. (Smith got a solo nod as one of the world’s top hospital CEOs.) It’s also what led UHN to partner with CAMH on a joint physical-mental health initiative.
Friends in high places:
The late Pope Francis appointed Smith to the Order of St. Gregory the Great, one of the papal orders of knighthood, for his contributions to health care.
IHPME/University of Toronto
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37
Bobby Webster
General manager of the Raptors
For being a steadying force in a season of uncertainty
Webster’s title hasn’t changed, but his responsibilities have. The dramatic ousting of president Masai Ujiri in June sent the front office out in search of his replacement, but they soon circled back to Toronto—and Webster. After eight years as the Raptors’ second-in-command, the GM is now head of basketball operations and the one making the big calls when it comes to roster construction, team culture and overall strategy.
Up next:
The current team is young but expensive—the Raptors are over the luxury-tax threshold—and has yet to prove itself worth the investment. No one is expecting a 2019-style championship run in 2026, but a spot in the playoffs would be nice.
Lian Benoit
Medical Miracle Workers
This year’s most innovative doctors
Seyed Alireza Rabi
The after-death expert
In September, Alireza Rabi—a surgeon at the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre—and his team completed Canada’s first DCC (donation after circulatory death) heart transplant. The procedure has the potential to save many more lives: DCC is forecasted to expand the heart donor pool by 30 per cent.
Andres Lozano
The brain-computer expert
This summer, at Toronto Western Hospital, Lozano led the country’s first Neuralink implant surgeries. His team implanted Elon Musk’s wireless brain-computer interface device in patients with cervical spinal cord injuries to allow them to control external devices using their thoughts.
Gianluigi Bisleri and Daniel Burns
The robotics experts
Bisleri, Burns and their team of cardiac surgeons at St. Michael’s Hospital performed Toronto’s first successful robotic mitral valve repair in April. Compared with traditional open-heart surgery, the procedure results in smaller incisions, shorter hospital stays and faster healing.
Nir Lipsman
The blood-brain barrier expert
In a world first, Lipsman and his team in Sunnybrook’s Hurvitz Brain Sciences Program non-invasively breached the blood-brain barrier using a focused ultrasound procedure guided by MRI. It allowed them to deliver a dose of immunotherapy directly to the brain of an ALS patient.
Seyed Alireza Rabi
The after-death expert
In September, Alireza Rabi—a surgeon at the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre—and his team completed Canada’s first DCC (donation after circulatory death) heart transplant. The procedure has the potential to save many more lives: DCC is forecasted to expand the heart donor pool by 30 per cent.
Andres Lozano
The brain-computer expert
This summer, at Toronto Western Hospital, Lozano led the country’s first Neuralink implant surgeries. His team implanted Elon Musk’s wireless brain-computer interface device in patients with cervical spinal cord injuries to allow them to control external devices using their thoughts.
Gianluigi Bisleri and Daniel Burns
The robotics experts
Bisleri, Burns and their team of cardiac surgeons at St. Michael’s Hospital performed Toronto’s first successful robotic mitral valve repair in April. Compared with traditional open-heart surgery, the procedure results in smaller incisions, shorter hospital stays and faster healing.
Nir Lipsman
The blood-brain barrier expert
In a world first, Lipsman and his team in Sunnybrook’s Hurvitz Brain Sciences Program non-invasively breached the blood-brain barrier using a focused ultrasound procedure guided by MRI. It allowed them to deliver a dose of immunotherapy directly to the brain of an ALS patient.
Seyed Alireza Rabi
The after-death expert
In September, Alireza Rabi—a surgeon at the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre—and his team completed Canada’s first DCC (donation after circulatory death) heart transplant. The procedure has the potential to save many more lives: DCC is forecasted to expand the heart donor pool by 30 per cent.
Andres Lozano
The brain-computer expert
This summer, at Toronto Western Hospital, Lozano led the country’s first Neuralink implant surgeries. His team implanted Elon Musk’s wireless brain-computer interface device in patients with cervical spinal cord injuries to allow them to control external devices using their thoughts.
Gianluigi Bisleri and Daniel Burns
The robotics experts
Bisleri, Burns and their team of cardiac surgeons at St. Michael’s Hospital performed Toronto’s first successful robotic mitral valve repair in April. Compared with traditional open-heart surgery, the procedure results in smaller incisions, shorter hospital stays and faster healing.
Nir Lipsman
The blood-brain barrier expert
In a world first, Lipsman and his team in Sunnybrook’s Hurvitz Brain Sciences Program non-invasively breached the blood-brain barrier using a focused ultrasound procedure guided by MRI. It allowed them to deliver a dose of immunotherapy directly to the brain of an ALS patient.
Seyed Alireza Rabi
The after-death expert
In September, Alireza Rabi—a surgeon at the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre—and his team completed Canada’s first DCC (donation after circulatory death) heart transplant. The procedure has the potential to save many more lives: DCC is forecasted to expand the heart donor pool by 30 per cent.
Andres Lozano
The brain-computer expert
This summer, at Toronto Western Hospital, Lozano led the country’s first Neuralink implant surgeries. His team implanted Elon Musk’s wireless brain-computer interface device in patients with cervical spinal cord injuries to allow them to control external devices using their thoughts.
Gianluigi Bisleri and Daniel Burns
The robotics experts
Bisleri, Burns and their team of cardiac surgeons at St. Michael’s Hospital performed Toronto’s first successful robotic mitral valve repair in April. Compared with traditional open-heart surgery, the procedure results in smaller incisions, shorter hospital stays and faster healing.
Nir Lipsman
The blood-brain barrier expert
In a world first, Lipsman and his team in Sunnybrook’s Hurvitz Brain Sciences Program non-invasively breached the blood-brain barrier using a focused ultrasound procedure guided by MRI. It allowed them to deliver a dose of immunotherapy directly to the brain of an ALS patient.
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Daniel Debow
Entrepreneur
Because he wants to make Canada the most prosperous country in the world
Debow, a serial entrepreneur and an angel investor for Wealthsimple, Clio and SkipTheDishes, kicked off the year with a patriotic clarion call. After quitting his VP job at Shopify, he launched Build Canada, a policy platform for tech entrepreneurs who want to make Canada better. Led by Debow as board chair and CEO Lucy Hargreaves and supported by a who’s who of Canadian tech (including Shopify’s Tobias Lütke, Wealthsimple’s Michael Katchen and Cohere’s Ivan Zhang), the organization has published dozens of policy papers and created trackers for government spending, trade barriers and more. In September, Debow jumped at another opportunity to set the agenda when federal AI minister Evan Solomon named him to his 26-person task force.
Friends in high places:
Galen Weston Jr.—Debow sits on the board of Loblaw Companies—and Peter Thiel, who became an early investor in Debow’s performance management platform, Rypple, after meeting him during a talk at Stanford.
Wade Hudson
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Chandler Levack
Filmmaker
For creating irresistible time capsules
Levack is a testament to the power of writing what you know. The Canadian Film Centre alumna’s first feature, 2022’s I Like Movies, was informed by her time spent behind the counter of a Burlington Blockbuster as a teen; after debuting at TIFF, it scored a raft of awards on the festival circuit. For this year’s Mile End Kicks, Levack drew on her experiences as a plucky music critic navigating the boys’ club of indie rock in the early 2010s. The charm of her films is twofold: Levack has a knack for hyper-specific details (the self-aggrandizing snobbery of video store clerks, a meticulously curated indie rock soundtrack), and she writes characters who are both funny weird and funny ha-ha, with neuroses and questionable behaviour that feel both fresh and queasily familiar.
Up next:
Roommates, a Levack-directed Netflix comedy produced by Adam Sandler and starring Natasha Lyonne, Nick Kroll, SNL’s Sarah Sherman and Sandler’s daughter Sadie.
Gareth Cattermole/IMDB/Getty Images
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Andrew Joyner
Managing director of Tricon Residential
For transforming the rental landscape
As the head of Tricon Canada’s multi-family rental business, Joyner is in charge of getting new purpose-built apartments made across the GTA. Since entering the rental field in 2016, Tricon is the busiest builder in its sector. The company has wrapped up five major projects, with another six under construction and three in pre-development—all of which prioritize convenient downtown locations and a commitment to a mix of market-rate and affordable options without sacrificing the fun stuff (on-site cafés, gyms, co-working spaces and more). One recent star property is Maple House at Canary Landing, three towers with 770 units that were developed as a private-public partnership with Dream, Kilmer Group and Infrastructure Ontario. In a city where renting for life is likely to become the norm, a bit of sophistication goes a long way.
Up next:
Kicking off next year, the development of the former Coach Terminal site on Bay Street will feature 850 purpose-built rental units, with 30 per cent of them earmarked as affordable housing for hospital workers.
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Jasmeet Raina
Actor and showrunner
Because he’s redefining South Asian representation
The first season of Jasmeet Raina’s semi-autobiographical dramedy Late Bloomer radically and hilariously altered audiences’ ideas of whose stories belong on TV. The show became one of Crave’s top 10 Canadian comedy series and earned Raina eight Canadian Screen Award nominations. Season two, which kicked off in April, counters stereotypical storylines with fresh and nuanced takes on identity, immigration and sex. To nail the realities facing international students—his character shares a basement apartment with a growing number of them—Raina spent time with students and temporary foreign workers. For an episode about anti-Sikh racism after 9/11, his directorial debut for the show, he drew on his own childhood experiences.
Up next:
The third season of Late Bloomer, which has been renewed by Crave for the streamer’s 2025/26 season.
Vanessa Heins
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Jennifer Bernard
President and CEO of SickKids Foundation
For giving the hospital its best fundraising year ever
In 2025, a year in which charitable giving was down, the SickKids Foundation brought in $208 million, the most in the organization’s history. It will be counting on Bernard’s powers of persuasion when it launches a massive campaign next fall to raise billions over multiple years. For Bernard, the mission is personal: 17 years ago, SickKids saved her son’s life. “I wanted somebody to give me hope,” she said at the hospital’s 150th-anniversary celebration this past spring, “and they did.” Now she’s doing the same for others.
Charity circuit:
Bernard sits on the boards of the Black North Initiative (which supports Black entrepreneurs) and the Telus Friendly Foundation (which empowers youth through technology) and is an advisory council member for Shift Canada (which fosters the next generation of entrepreneurs).
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43
Joanna Griffiths
Founder and president of Knix
Because busting taboos is good business
Already the global leader in her industry, Griffiths isn’t content to sit idly by. Expansion projects for Knix have taken the period underwear company into bras, activewear, swimwear and, this past summer, Lower Manhattan. Griffiths, who sold her majority share for $320 million in 2022, continues to oversee operations and is leading her empire into its biggest year yet.
The American Outpost
Knix kicked off its move into the US in August with a brick-and-mortar store in SoHo. The shop, complete with a bra bar, is the first of three planned locations in the Big Apple before the company expands into other American cities.
The Celebrity Spokeswomen
Actor Kristen Bell, a long-time Knix customer, starred in the company’s new “You’re Good” campaign; Broadway star Nicole Scherzinger vamped in period-proof leggings to promote the brand’s activewear; and Canadian Olympian Penny Oleksiak appeared in swimwear ads geared toward young girls to bust period stigma.
The Retail Takeover
While the company’s roots are in the direct-to-consumer category, recent retail partnerships signal plans to meet Canadian customers where they’re at—whether they’re Costco devotees (Knix has been available there since 2024) or Holt Renfrew faithful (a recent partnership kicked off with a pop-up at the Bloor Street location).
The Creative Flex
Griffiths served as executive producer on The Pink Pill, a new documentary about the fight to bring a female Viagra to market (it’s the first offering from Knix’s Docs for Change initiative). She also funds the TIFF Share Her Journey Groundbreaker Award, which she presented to Jodie Foster at this year’s fest.
Robin Marchant/WireImage
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Cardinal Francis Leo
Cardinal and Archbishop of Toronto
Because he’s the future of Catholicism in Canada—and the world
Over two days in May, the world’s more than one billion Catholics—plus fans of Ralph Fiennes’s star turn in Conclave—were glued to a chimney in Rome, waiting for a telltale puff of white smoke. Among the 133 sequestered cardinal electors asked to choose a new leader following the death of Pope Francis was Leo, who had been in the job only six months. Elevated to the College of Cardinals by Francis last December, the head of the Archdiocese of Toronto has since been assigned to three departments within the Roman Curia—the dicasteries for legislative texts, inter-religious dialogue and clergy—in addition to his Canadian duties. And this is just the beginning: at 54 years old, Leo is more than two decades younger than the average cardinal.
Up next:
As part of his new mandates, Leo has been tasked with meeting representatives of other faiths to promote peace on a global scale (no problem).
Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP/Getty Images
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The Philanthropists
This year’s major donors
Hal Jackman
The legal leader
With his $80-million gift to U of T’s faculty of law in September, Jackman brought his total to a cool $100 million, much of which is dedicated to scholarships and student programming.
Orlando Corporation
The med-student benefactor
Carlo Fidani’s family business extended its wide-ranging support of GTA health institutions with a $25-million pledge to match community donations to TMU’s new medical school in Brampton.
Krawczyk Family Foundation
The Indigenous ally
Alex Krawczyk donated $11 million to St. Michael’s Hospital and Providence Healthcare to improve the experiences of First Nations, Inuit and Métis patients within the health care system.
Lawson Foundation
The climate warriors
Brian and Joannah Lawson’s $60-million donation to U of T, announced on Earth Day, helped launch the university’s new Lawson Climate Institute, a hub for climate change solutions.
Peter Gilgan
The health builder
The Mattamy CEO and his six siblings were born at St. Joseph’s Health Centre, and his most recent investment of $60 million will help build a new patient tower for future generations.
Hal Jackman
The legal leader
With his $80-million gift to U of T’s faculty of law in September, Jackman brought his total to a cool $100 million, much of which is dedicated to scholarships and student programming.
Orlando Corporation
The med-student benefactor
Carlo Fidani’s family business extended its wide-ranging support of GTA health institutions with a $25-million pledge to match community donations to TMU’s new medical school in Brampton.
Krawczyk Family Foundation
The Indigenous ally
Alex Krawczyk donated $11 million to St. Michael’s Hospital and Providence Healthcare to improve the experiences of First Nations, Inuit and Métis patients within the health care system.
Lawson Foundation
The climate warriors
Brian and Joannah Lawson’s $60-million donation to U of T, announced on Earth Day, helped launch the university’s new Lawson Climate Institute, a hub for climate change solutions.
Peter Gilgan
The health builder
The Mattamy CEO and his six siblings were born at St. Joseph’s Health Centre, and his most recent investment of $60 million will help build a new patient tower for future generations.
Hal Jackman
The legal leader
With his $80-million gift to U of T’s faculty of law in September, Jackman brought his total to a cool $100 million, much of which is dedicated to scholarships and student programming.
Orlando Corporation
The med-student benefactor
Carlo Fidani’s family business extended its wide-ranging support of GTA health institutions with a $25-million pledge to match community donations to TMU’s new medical school in Brampton.
Krawczyk Family Foundation
The Indigenous ally
Alex Krawczyk donated $11 million to St. Michael’s Hospital and Providence Healthcare to improve the experiences of First Nations, Inuit and Métis patients within the health care system.
Lawson Foundation
The climate warriors
Brian and Joannah Lawson’s $60-million donation to U of T, announced on Earth Day, helped launch the university’s new Lawson Climate Institute, a hub for climate change solutions.
Peter Gilgan
The health builder
The Mattamy CEO and his six siblings were born at St. Joseph’s Health Centre, and his most recent investment of $60 million will help build a new patient tower for future generations.
Hal Jackman
The legal leader
With his $80-million gift to U of T’s faculty of law in September, Jackman brought his total to a cool $100 million, much of which is dedicated to scholarships and student programming.
Orlando Corporation
The med-student benefactor
Carlo Fidani’s family business extended its wide-ranging support of GTA health institutions with a $25-million pledge to match community donations to TMU’s new medical school in Brampton.
Krawczyk Family Foundation
The Indigenous ally
Alex Krawczyk donated $11 million to St. Michael’s Hospital and Providence Healthcare to improve the experiences of First Nations, Inuit and Métis patients within the health care system.
Lawson Foundation
The climate warriors
Brian and Joannah Lawson’s $60-million donation to U of T, announced on Earth Day, helped launch the university’s new Lawson Climate Institute, a hub for climate change solutions.
Peter Gilgan
The health builder
The Mattamy CEO and his six siblings were born at St. Joseph’s Health Centre, and his most recent investment of $60 million will help build a new patient tower for future generations.
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Perry Dellelce
Lawyer and philanthropist
For repping athletes and owners big and small
As managing partner of Wildeboer Dellelce, one of Canada’s leading corporate finance law firms, Dellelce acted for MLSE in Rogers’s $4.7-billion acquisition of BCE’s interest in the sports juggernaut. His altruistic athletic pursuits are impressive too. He’s the chair of the Canadian Olympic Foundation, which announced its financial support of five Indigenous athletes and awarded the 50 Team Canada Olympic medallists from Paris a total of $1.75 million. His firm also provides pro bono legal counsel to Canada Basketball and BIPOC-owned businesses within the basketball community.
Friends in high places:
The head of the Commonwealth. In June, Dellelce was awarded the King Charles III Coronation Medal for his philanthropic efforts.
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Leora Shemesh
Criminal lawyer
Because she’s racking up court wins
In September, Shemesh secured a high-profile acquittal for city councillor Michael Thompson, who had been accused of sexually assaulting two women during a weekend in Muskoka. Now, having taken over from Brian Greenspan, she is representing Frank Stronach, the 93-year-old Magna billionaire who has pleaded not guilty to 18 counts of sexual assault. Shemesh has successfully lobbied the courts to bifurcate what started as a single trial into two proceedings, in Newmarket and Toronto, and Stronach will face his accusers in a judge-only courtroom starting in February.
Friends in high places:
She’s besties with Emmanuelle Chriqui, the Montreal actor known for playing E’s long-suffering girlfriend on Entourage.
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Sarah Polley
Director and screenwriter
For being in on the joke
The role that got Polley back in front of the camera for the first time in 17 years? Herself. Or, rather, a heightened, slapstick-y version of herself, one who clashes with Seth Rogen’s buffoonish film studio head on his Emmy-sweeping satire, The Studio. The guest spot was a marked departure from the more serious fare Polley is famous for and a reminder that she is actually very funny. But that’s as Hollywood as Polley will get: in September, while accepting the key to Toronto for her artistic contributions, she waxed eloquent about the city that has shaped every part of her life, one she never plans to leave. She even mooned over the gridlock, hailing it as a good opportunity to meditate.
Up next:
Rogen convinced Polley—who directed him in her 2011 love letter to Toronto, Take This Waltz—to temporarily join the Studio writers’ room for season two.
Michael Buckner/Variety/Getty Images
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Suresh Doss
Food writer and TV host
For championing mom-and-pop kitchens across the country
By the time he was in his teens, Tamil-born, Scarborough-bred Doss was busy exploring the GTA’s vast and diverse food landscape, searching for hidden gems. For more than two decades now, he has shared his discoveries across television, radio, print and digital media. This fall, Doss brought his epic appetite to CBC Gem with Locals Welcome—a new series produced by members of Anthony Bourdain’s former team—which moves beyond Toronto’s borders to highlight the people and rich histories behind some of Canada’s most interesting and unsung plates.
Up next:
Doss is teaming up with the Waterfront BIA to launch a festival next spring showcasing GTA food culture.
Duane Cole
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Ali Badreddine, Iris Jazexhi and Kevin Jazexhi
Restaurateurs
For turning a waterfront warehouse into a sprawling over-the-top destination
This summer, siblings Kevin and Iris Jazexhi and their friend Ali Badreddine accomplished what many have tried and failed to do: they built a restaurant that treats the waterfront as a dining destination, not just a backdrop. Queens Harbour is a 23,000-square-foot, 800-seat, split-level spot with an encyclopedic menu that includes Asian, French, Mediterranean and North American offerings. Featuring private rooms bearing their mothers’ names (aww) and a retractable roof that rivals the Rogers Centre’s, it transports diners to another dimension.
Up next:
The trio is working on plans to expand the Queens concept internationally.
Queens Harbour via Instagram
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Michael Longfield
Cycling activist
For being the David to Ford’s Goliath
The executive director of Cycle Toronto wasn’t in court the day his organization launched a Charter challenge against Bill 212, legislation that empowered the province to rip up bike lanes along Bloor, University and Yonge. He was in hospital after getting doored in a painted bike lane—a real-life case study of the unprecedented legal argument that removing existing bike lanes violates cyclists’ Charter-enshrined rights to life, liberty and security of the person. The premier did his best Big Bad Wolf impression, huffing and puffing about his plan to blow the bike lanes down, but the courts sided with the cyclists. “For anyone who rides a bike in the city, the victory is yours,” Longfield said outside the courthouse following the big win. For the city’s two-wheeling citizens, so often dismissed by Ford, the Constitution is a powerful ally to bring onside.
Up next:
The province is appealing the decision, so Longfield and Cycle Toronto’s legal team will be back in court on January 28 to defend their victory.
