Digging Deep with Mark Sutcliffe

Physician, academic administrator, and former Canadian cabinet minister Jane Philpott dreamed of building things when she was a child. Today, she looks at the things that have been built around her, and dreams of ways to fix them so that everyone can have a better life. Jane shares the story of a little girl who wanted to be an engineer, but grew up to be a doctor – using the advantages she’d been given in life to figure out ways t...

For someone who never expected a career in business, Rob Ashe has held a lot of prominent roles. He was CEO of Cognos, general manager of business analytics at IBM, and is currently a board member at Shopify and several other companies. In this episode of Digging Deep, we go back to the beginning, when his family of nine shared a three-bedroom house and he shared a bed with a sibling. Rob shares stories of trying out for the Olympi...

A member of Pabineau First Nation in northern New Brunswick, Scott Patles-Richardson had a close, loving family, but he was a shy child, and struggled with his mixed heritage. With a Mi’gmaq father and a mother of European ancestry, Scott was a target of prejudice from all sides, and he worked hard to be invisible. Now, he works to make sure Indigenous people are visible in the world of business. A CEO, negotiator, business advisor...

Eliza Reid could never have imagined that she would end up living in Iceland, let alone become the first lady of the country. While studying at Oxford, she met her future husband, and they went on to live a pretty normal existence. Then, in the space of just a couple of months, her husband became president of Iceland, and Eliza became first lady. It’s an interesting role for someone who is passionate about gender equality, but Eliz...

Naheed Nenshi refuses to be a bystander. The former Mayor of Calgary, and the first Muslim mayor of a major city in North America, the self-described "nerdy, schlumpy professor" captured the hearts and minds of the voters in what’s widely considered to be the most conservative province in Canada. After eleven years in office, he is continuing to walk his path of optimism and selflessness. In this episode of Digging Deep, he explain...

Imagine moving to a new country at 19 years old and going right into university, without being fully fluent in the language. That’s what Allen Lau did when his family moved to Canada from Hong Kong. He not only thrived in school, he went on to launch a company, Wattpad, that has millions of users all over the world and was sold in 2021 for a reported $750 million. In this episode, Allen tells us about a love of building things that...

Cameron Passmore takes a very different approach from a lot of other people in the investment world. He doesn’t promise to pick winning stocks or outperform the market, and he doesn’t claim to have some special knowledge or intuition. In fact, as far as he's concerned, you shouldn't believe anyone who tells you they can predict the future. That's a big theme in this episode, and it applies to more than just the markets. Cameron’s j...

Twenty-five years ago, Sheldon Kennedy was playing at the highest level of hockey in the world, living the dream of millions of Canadian boys. But he was facing an impossible decision: whether to go public with his story of sexual abuse by his junior hockey coach. Sheldon shared his traumatic experience and it changed his life. Speaking out about abuse and, eventually, addiction hasn't always been easy. It's taken an enormous toll....

Julie Adam didn't set out to be a high-ranking media executive. In fact, her early experience with leaders turned her off to the idea of being a boss. But she eventually learned that becoming a leader didn't mean she had to abandon her goal of being a good person. Now, with thousands of people in her organization, she tries to make every decision with kindness at the front of her mind. And she's written a book about how to do just ...

You might think that becoming an Olympic champion would automatically lead to joy and happiness. But for Clara Hughes, the only person in the world to have won multiple medals in both the winter and summer games, the Olympic dream was much more complicated than you would think. In this episode of Digging Deep, Clara talks about how her medals and amazing performances couldn’t solve her struggle with depression. Clara has become an ...

Many people remember Erica Ehm as a pioneering television host. But she's so much more than that. She's a serial entrepreneur, a passionate storyteller, an award-winning songwriter, and the driving force behind a not-for-profit organization that’s finding new ways to empower youth. Erica has made a career out of reinventing herself as the world around her has changed and new opportunities have arisen. In this episode of Digging Dee...

Dr. Joanne Liu has a fascinating life story. She is currently a pediatric emergency medicine physician, Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Montreal, and Professor of Clinical Medicine at McGill University. She is also the former International President of Medicins Sans Frontieres, or Doctors Without Borders. In this episode of Digging Deep, Dr. Liu shares her deeply informed perspective on the many lessons of the ...