Former United States transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg is scheduled to speak in Ottawa on Sept. 22. He will share his insights into “How can democracies strengthen civic trust in an era of rapid change?”

The former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and a former U.S. Navy Reserve officer, Buttigieg, 43, served as then-U.S. president Joe Biden’s minister of transport from 2021 to 2025. The New York Times reported back in March that Buttigieg was considering running for U.S. president in 2028.

The dinner event, happening at the Westin Hotel, will take place on the eve of the Future Forward Summit, hosted by Canada 2020. The list of speakers for the full-day summit on Sept. 23, also taking place the Westin Hotel, includes Industry Minister Mélanie Joly, Liberal MP Marc Miller, New Brunswick Premier Susan Holt, deputy minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Services Mark Schaan, former Alberta premier Jason Kenney, and U.S. Democratic Senator Tim Kaine.

Heather Scoffield joins Canadian Tax Observatory

Former journalist Heather Scoffield started a new job last week.

“I’m happy to share that I’m starting a new position as CEO at The Canadian Tax Observatory!” she posted on LinkedIn on Sept. 11.

“I can’t think of any Canadian better placed than Heather to help Canadians make sense of the evidence and understand the implications of tax policy discussions on their own lives and on the ability of the country to meet the moment we face,” said board chair Matthew Mendelsohn in a CTO press release that same day.

Scoffield is The Toronto Star’s former economics columnist and Ottawa bureau chief, and also previously led the The Canadian Press’ Ottawa bureau. For the past two-and-a-half years, she was senior vice president of strategy at the Business Council of Canada.

In the same CTO release, Scoffield announced her plans to deeply research the current tax system, which she called “overly complicated.”

“We need to ensure policymakers putting together this fall’s budget hear about the need for an equitable and efficient tax system in response to global uncertainty, tariff fallout and slow growth.”

Writers’ Trust announces finalists; J.W. Dafoe prize releases longlist

The Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction released its list of five finalists on Sept. 10.

The finalists are Miriam Toews’ A Truce That Is Not Peace; Omar El Akkad’s One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This; Tessa McWatt’s The Snag: A Mother, A Forest, and Wild Grief; Vinh Nguyen’s The Migrant Rain Falls in Reverse: A Memoir; and Leanne Betasamosake Simpson’s Theory of Water: Nishnaabe Maps to the Times Ahead.

The $75,000 prize will be awarded on Nov. 13.

The jury for the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize includes writer and anti-racism advocate Matthew R. Morris, former Halifax Métis poet laureate Lorri Neilsen Glenn, and Anishinaabe academic Niigaan Sinclair, who himself was recently longlisted for this year’s J.W. Dafoe Book Prize for his book Wînipêk: Visions of Canada from an Indigenous Centre.

Retired Senator Patricia Bovey is among the three-person J.W. Dafoe prize jury, along with author Dale Barbour and economics professor Gregory Mason, all based in Manitoba.

The other nine titles on that longlist are former Liberal cabinet minister Jody Wilson-Raybould and Roshan Danesh’s Reconciling History: A Story of Canada; Mark Bourrie’s Crosses in the Sky: Jean de Brébeuf and the Destruction of Huronia; Asa McKercher and Michael D. Stevenson’s Building a Special Relationship: Canada-US Relations in the Eisenhower Era, 1953–61; Crystal Gail Fraser’s By Strength, We Are Still Here; Raymond B. Blake’s Canada’s Prime Ministers and the Shaping of a National Identity; M.G. Vassanji’s Nowhere, Exactly; Gerald Friesen’s The Honourable John Norquay; Ken McGoogan’s Shadows of Tyranny: Defending Democracy in an Age of Dictatorship; and Tim Martin’s Unwinnable Peace: Untold Stories of Canada’s Mission in Afghanistan.

The J.W. Dafoe Book Prize recognizes the best book on Canada, Canadians, and/or Canada’s place in the world published in the previous calendar year. The five-book shortlist to be announced in the coming weeks, and the winner to be crowned Oct. 14 including a $12,000 purse.

Abdelmamoud, Off, and Moscrop to talk Elbows Up! in Ottawa

Speaking of books, a panel discussion featuring the editor and two contributors of the forthcoming book Elbows Up! Canadian Voices of Resilience and Resistance is happening in Ottawa on Sept. 22.

Elamin Abdelmahmoud, who edited the compilation of essays set to be published on Oct. 14 by McClelland & Stewart, will be joined by former longtime CBC radio host Carol Off and columnist David Moscrop, two of the 28 contributing writers. The trio will discuss “responses to the United States’ shocking annexation threats and the swell of Canadian national unity that followed,” according to the event listing.

The panel discussion is hosted by the Ottawa International Writers’ Festival, and will take place at Christ Church Cathedral on Sparks Street.

Althia Raj, Rob Russo on The Bridge every other Tuesday

The Toronto Star senior columnist Althia Raj and The Economist’s Canadian correspondent Rob Russo will be making regular appearances on veteran broadcaster Peter Mansbridge’s daily podcast starting Sept. 16.

“Although I am still on vacation (at the moment, eating my way across Nova Scotia) but starting tomorrow, I will be joining Peter Mansbridge and Rob Russo on ‘The Bridge’, every second Tuesday. Check your podcast feed!” wrote Raj on LinkedIn on Sept. 9.

“How important will party unity be when Parliament comes back in session?” Mansbridge teased on X last week about the upcoming Raj and Russo segment, noting that they’ll alternate Tuesdays on his podcast with the Moore-Butts Conversations featuring former PMO principal secretary Gerald Butts and former Conservative cabinet minister James Moore.

Global News crew says goodbye to Marc-André Cossette

Ex-Tory MP Findlay, former Grit staffer Sherban join Sandstone Group

Ottawa-based public affairs agency Sandstone Group announced last week that former Conservative cabinet minister Kerry-Lynne Findlay and ex-senior ministerial staffer Lesley Sherban have joined their team.

Managing partner Naresh Raghubeer welcomed Findlay and Sherban’s “senior leadership and deep policy experience,” in a Sept. 8 press release.

Findlay served two non-consecutive terms in the House, first from 2011 to 2015 as MP for the riding then-known as Delta-Richmond East, B.C. during which time she was Stephen Harper’s national revenue minister from 2013 to 2015, losing her seat in that year’s election to now-former Liberal minister Carla Qualtrough. Findley returned to Ottawa as MP for South Surrey-White Rock, B.C., in 2019, and amongst various critic duties was the official opposition whip from 2022 until 2025 when she was defeated by now-Liberal MP Ernie Klassen.

Sherban spent the last nine years as a Liberal ministerial staffer, working for the ministers of public services, small business and tourism, and most recently international trade, where her last most recent title was chief of staff to then-minister Mary Ng. She also worked as a staffer at Queen’s Park in Toronto.

Monday’s photo

Crawley fills Panetta’s shoes in Washington, D.C.

In other new-job news, CBC senior reporter Mike Crawley has traded Toronto for Washington, D.C.

“I’m beyond thrilled!! And truly grateful for the opportunity to cover the U.S. for Canada’s public broadcaster at such an important time,” he wrote on X in late August.

“I’ll be attempting to fill Alex Panetta’s shoes. His insights from D.C. and across the U.S. have been must-reads for a decade.” As reported back in May, Panetta left his CBC role in D.C. to accompany his diplomatic spouse on posting in Turkey.

Since 2009, Crawley had been CBC’s bureau chief at Queen’s Park, covering the Ontario legislature.

cleadlay@hilltimes.com

The Hill Times