Here’s the scoop from Maclean’s Ideas Summit: The Year Ahead

On February 26, some of Canada’s brightest minds in business, technology and youth empowerment met at the Gardiner Museum’s Terrace Room for Maclean’s Ideas Summit, focusing on the year ahead. 

The event, hosted by Maclean’s, presented by Uber Canada and in partnership with Microsoft Canada, Mastercard, Canada, the King’s Trust Canada and George Brown College, featured leaders in Canadian business, technology, entrepreneurship and youth empowerment. The night kicked off with an introduction from Maclean’s editor-in-chief Sarah Fulford, who described a story she edited earlier in the day about first-time voters getting their information through TikTok. “That’s the world that we’re in, and it’s one of the subjects we’re talking about tonight: how youth are approaching this national moment,” said Fulford.

Maclean’s publisher Jason Maghanoy was next on the microphone. The year has been exhausting so far, he said, and there’s more to come. “Young people are at the forefront of a lot of this redefinition of things like gender, marriage, government, democracy,” said Maghanoy. 

Keynote Fireside Chat with Chris Barry

The first speaker of the night was Microsoft Canada president Chris Barry, in conversation with Maghanoy. Citing a KPMG survey that found 46 per cent of Canadian information workers use artificial intelligence, Barry started the discussion by acknowledging that AI is becoming part of daily life. “Under the hood, there’s a lot of, dare I say, unsexy but super important work that’s helping make organizations of all stripes be more efficient,” he said. Barry described the emergence of generative technology as the fourth major shift in computer technology alongside the personal computer, the Internet and mobile devices. “We have assimilated to technologies and figured out ways to establish norms about their use,” he said. 

Maghanoy and Barry polled the audience, revealing that most people were already using AI in their daily lives. Then they dove into the future of the industry, including the development of agentic AI and the need to build a skilled and AI-literate workforce. “We may see some pretty profound change,” Barry said. 

Keynote Conversation: Fintech and Financial Empowerment

The second fireside chat of the night featured Balinder Ahluwalia, interim head of Mastercard in Canada, and Rachel Wong, co-founder of Monday Girl, two leaders in financial technology and empowerment in Canada, discussing access and prosperity within the Canadian business and technology sector. They argued that leaders need to create opportunities for young entrepreneurs, especially those often left out of rooms. 

Wong said that there are 100,000 fewer entrepreneurs in Canada than there were 20 years ago. It’s not that there isn’t enough talent or ideas; we need better infrastructure for people to chase their dreams, especially those from marginalized groups. “Fund more women, fund more BIPOC people,” she said to a round of applause. 

Closing out the conversation, Ahluwalia commented that investing in entrepreneurs like Wong is going to build long-term wealth and prosperity for Canada. “This is not just about supporting you. This is about you supporting your friends and your networks who are going to support their networks, who are going to continue the positive cycles as we move forward.”

Marquee Thought Leadership Panel: Youth x Power x Truth

For the main event of the night, Maghanoy convened a panel to discuss 2025 as a pivotal moment in Canadian history, especially in the face of poverty, job insecurity, a toxic digital landscape and an incoherent national identity. 

Farah Mohamed, CEO of the King’s Trust Canada, argued that Canada is in a moment of existential crisis. “People feel locked into a situation where the climate is terrible, unemployment is terrible, leadership doesn’t seem that great. So what are we telling young people? We told them, ‘Go to school, get an education, you’ll get out, you’ll get a job, you’ll hit all those milestones.’ Now, those milestones are being moved,” she said. Mohamed said Canada needs ideas to help young people reach their goals as they define them and to avoid pushing the nation’s problems down the road. “Do we want to be a country of choice for young people?” she asked.

Siri Agrell, CEO of BetaKit, said that misinformation and a crisis of identity for young people are the result of older generations’ actions. “What is doing this to them? It’s us. It’s grown-ups. We have created environments where there are no clear job paths. We have commodified housing. We have failed to regulate even the simplest AI. We have created an environment where they are in multiple layers of crisis,” she said.

When Maghanoy asked about the decline of an empathetic world, Sevaun Palvetzian, president and CEO of UNICEF Canada, acknowledged Canada has developed great policies, but an adherence to tradition is making poverty, exclusion and polarization worse. “If we think that a conversation will ever fix a deep divide, we’re starting with the wrong solution to the problem,” she said. 

Palvetzian gave the example of her visit to Zimbabwe, where a water system, powered by solar panels and attached to 26 taps spread throughout a community of 500 people, helped prevent cholera, send children to school and employ skilled women. “It’s a game-changer, and it costs the price of a used car in Canada. What we decide to focus on matters,” she said. “The heartbreaking thing is, for high-income countries, we choose the level of poverty we have.”

Gervon Fearon, president of George Brown College, offered a more optimistic perspective, explaining that George Brown students are enthusiastic about their pursuits, even in a difficult world. Drawing on improvements in technology and health care, he said Canadians need to be mindful of which “measure of prosperity” they are using and be critical of a narrative of lost hope. 

“For us as a generation that’s looking forward, it’s about giving the next generation—youth today—the confidence that, yes, these are challenges, but together as a society, let’s figure out some solutions,” he said.