Toronto Life celebrates the most influential Torontonians of 2015 at an exclusive cocktail reception

Toronto Life hosted a red carpet event at the Four Seasons Hotel Toronto on November 12, 2015, to celebrate its annual list of the 50 Most Influential Torontonians, as revealed in the December issue. Publisher Ken Hunt and editor Sarah Fulford welcomed an exclusive crowd of 500 notables to the posh soirée.

“Our Most Influential issue is a toast to those who have made significant contributions to the city of Toronto,” says Fulford. “Our 2015 list was carefully crafted to recognize and reflect Toronto’s most dynamic leaders and thinkers in politics, business, media, arts and culture—basically, everyone who matters now.”

The impressive and diverse crowd included Margaret Atwood, John Tory, Gerald Butts (political advisor to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau), Eric Hoskins (the provincial health minister), Gary Slaight (of the Slaight Family Foundation), Katie Telford (Justin Trudeau’s campaign chief), Norm Kelly (the city councillor), Jagmeet Singh (the deputy Ontario NDP leader), Patrick Brown (the Ontario PC leader), Jennifer Keesmaat (Toronto’s chief planner), Cameron Bailey and Piers Handling (of TIFF), Charles Khabouth (of Ink Entertainment), Ian Black (of Uber Toronto), Jeffrey Remedios (of Universal Music Canada), Jeff Stober (of the Drake Hotel), John Ruffolo (of OMERS Ventures), Kirstine Stewart (of Twitter North America), Anthony Rose (of Rose and Sons), Kristin Cochrane (of Penguin Random House Canada), Marie Henein (of Henein Hutchinson LLP), Mathieu Chantelois (of Pride Toronto), Matt Galloway (the CBC host), Nick Kouvalis (the political strategist), Ratna Omidvar (of Ryerson’s Global Diversity Exchange), Robert Deluce (of Porter Airlines), Sam Mizrahi (of Mizrahi Developments), Tim Hockey (of TD Canada Trust), and Zunera Ishaq (the political activist), among others.

Highlights of the evening included a performance by Universal Music artist Lucas DiPasquale and DJs Rainer + Grimm; catering by Café Boulud, including a tree loaded with chocolate truffles for guests to pluck; an assortment of wine from Enigma Wine California; and a cider Bellini from Pommies. Masciangelo Design showed off some of its bespoke products; Steinway & Sons’ grand player piano, the Spirio, was on display for guests to enjoy; and charity partner UNICEF Canada, the humanitarian organization committed to saving children’s lives around the globe, highlighted the plight of refugee children with a virtual reality presentation. Here, some pictures from the event.

Katie Taylor

Chrissy Slaight and Gary Slaight

Nina and David Rocco

Desmond Cole and Ken Hunt

Jagmeet Singh

Jeff Stober

Charity partner Unicef

John Ruffolo and Carryn Ruffolo

Zunera Ishaq

Artist Lucas DiPasquale, from Universal Music Canada

Lucia and Jeffrey Remedios

Graeme Gibson and Margaret Atwood

Jeanne Beker and Christopher Sherman

Kirk Pickersgill and Stephen Wong

Toronto Life editor Sarah Fulford

Jennifer Keesmaat and Tom Freeman

Joe Mimran

Bronze Sponsor Pommies Cider Co.

Rob Silver and Katie Telford

Robert Deluce

John Tory, Sarah Fulford and Ken Hunt

Norm Kelly

Patrick Brown and Tamara Macgregor

John Tory and Michael Ford

Sevaun Palvetzian and Jodi Shanoff

Kirstine Stewart and Zaib Shaikh

Libby Znaimer

Bronze Sponsor Steinway & Sons

Mathieu Chantelois and Marcelo Gomez-Wiuckstern

Marie Henein

Gaby Henderson and Chloe Wilde

Matt Galloway

Cameron and Carolynne Bailey

Ian and Julia Black

Lina and Tony Gagliano

Food Partner Café Boulud

Anthony Teplan and Halla Rafati

Kim Tanenbaum

Sandi and Jim Treliving

Tamara Moore

Charity Partner Unicef

Musician Lucas DiPasquale

Tim and Lana Hockey

Bronze Sponsor Enigma Wine California

Truffle tree by Food Partner Café Boulud

Bronze Sponsor Pommies Cider Co.

Bronze Sponsor Steinway & Sons

Victoria Radford

Anthony Rose