Rubbing shoulders.
How the G7 Summit is kind of like your company All-Hands.
Good morning everyone. I turned thirty over the weekend all of the sudden feel the urge to perfect my banana loaf recipe, speak on a panel about culture trends (this is actually happening next month), and embrace orthopaedic sandals.
It was the first time I had hosted a birthday ‘party’ since elementary school and my only regret was that we didn’t make a bigger reservation. A couple of hours into the night, the cava was flowing and everyone had settled in nicely. I took a mental photo of a room filled with friends from every stage of life, many of whom hadn’t met before but at this point were mingling, laughing, and generally getting on. It’s a great feeling. I’m noticing how difficult it can be to get people together as the demands of life pile up, so I think it’s important to take advantage of every opportunity to do it. My advice is to become more of a “birthday person” for that reason alone. You might just like it.
Today’s newsletter includes: How to measure the productivity of a G7 meeting, a release date for the Rob Ford documentary, and another celebrity-backed phone plan. As always, if you have tips, news (or gossip) for me, you can email sarah@milkbag.ca.
The Toronto Star is trialling CBC-like consumer protection coverage.
Rob Ford documentary is coming out on Netflix tomorrow. The former mayor of Toronto (RIP) will be the focus of an episode of Trainwreck, a new series that looks at “gripping, bizarre, horrifying” moments that dominated the headlines.
Really hope nobody regrets getting those free ‘Let’s Go Oilers’ tattoos.
Mark Carney is hosting world leaders at the Pomeroy Kananaskis Mountain Lodge in Alberta for the G7 Summit. Not unlike your company all hands, these meetings are generally important but they can be unproductive, depending on what’s going on in the world and the host’s ability to put forward a useful agenda that leads to a tangible outcome, Graeme Thompson, a senior analyst at Eurasia Group and an expert on Canada and the world, tells me. That may be difficult to accomplish as the Iran issue shoots to the top of the priority list, bumping talks around strengthening security, building energy security, the digital transition, and investments into infrastructure to downtime by the fire pit (if they happen at all).
Ads are coming to WhatsApp for the first time. Apple shares are up 1% today.
Tiny U.S. towns that rely on Canadian visitors are hurting. The Wall Street Journal ran an article about Old Orchard Beach, Maine and the New York Times featured Point Roberts, Washington, where some residents display both flags.
Reading a lot about the ethical concerns around Trump Mobile. Also worried about those other celebrities who launched a mobile service in the U.S. this week.
Jagmeet Singh apologized for going to the Kendrick Lamar concert. Is he ok?
You can take an in-person course on the history of Toronto this summer. A background essay by Hidden Rivers, which hosts popular weekend walking tours, about the course’s motivations reads: “The ultimate goal is to make you feel that you are not simply an observer of this city; you are part of its essential fabric.”
When I write about the Rhode drop in eight days it’s because I read it in Fashion Fwd first. Highly recommend this newsletter for anyone looking to stay on top of style and beauty trends. This week I’ve been very invested in coverage around $250 IV drips at Trove and the argument against slick back buns.
Frequent and satisfying use of bullets in the annual Toronto Police report. Also, car thefts continue to fall thanks to license plate reader technology that scans an average of 1.1 million plates daily (resulting in more than 10,000 hits).
Happy belated birthday!
You’ll be bird watching in no time.