Digging Deep with Mark Sutcliffe

Mayor Mark Sutcliffe sits down with Ontario M.P.P and Cabinet Minister, Caroline Mulroney, to discuss how Ottawa has changed in her lifetime, and her incredible journey from being a Prime Minister's daughter to forging an impactful political career of her own. 

Le maire Mark Sutcliffe s'entretient avec Caroline Mulroney, députée et ministre de l'Ontario, pour discuter de la façon dont Ottawa a changé au cours de sa vie, et de son incroyable parcours, de la fille du Premier ministre à la création d'une carrière politique influente.

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Mayor Mark Sutcliffe sits down with NFL Star and Ottawa native Jesse Luketa to talk about his incredible career, and celebrates the first annual Jesse Luketa Day in the City of Ottawa. 

Le maire Mark Sutcliffe s'entretient avec Jesse Luketa, vedette de la NFL et natif d'Ottawa, au sujet de son incroyable carrière et célèbre la première journée annuelle Jesse Luketa dans la ville d'Ottawa.

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Mayor Mark Sutcliffe sat down with Daniel Alfredsson in February 2023 to talk about his amazing hockey career, his strong advocacy for mental health and his love for Ottawa.

Le maire Mark Sutcliffe s'est entretenu avec Daniel Alfredsson en février 2023 pour parler de son incroyable carrière de hockeyeur, de son engagement en faveur de la santé mentale et de son amour pour Ottawa.

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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 to lift others up. She tells us about the nine years she spent working as a physician in Africa, which helped shape her perspective in many ways, but it was also a period when she suffered her greatest loss. We hear about her thoughts on fixing the healthcare system, rebuilding trust after the pandemic, and her feelings as she looks back on her political career. And we learn how someone who has had many of life’s greatest advantages can still feel like a misfit. 

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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 Olympic basketball team and his road to becoming an accidental CEO. And for the first time he shares details of a major health scare on the day he became Cognos CEO, why he's donating to a new hospital in his home of Ottawa, and his entire philosophy about philanthropy. It's a story of authenticity, perseverance, and a little bit of luck.

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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, and board director, Scott advocates for the growth and advancement of Indigenous communities, and works to normalize doing business with Indigenous companies and people. In this episode, Scott tells the story of how he became an entrepreneur “by accident,” and about the prejudice he encountered early in his career. We also talk about the influence that women have had on his life, the importance of believing in yourself, and the finite nature of time. Scott also teaches us that the most important investment we can make is kindness. It doesn’t cost you anything to be kind – to give someone a compliment, to give a little more than you take. And it doesn’t cost you anything to ask yourself how you will make this world a better place.

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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 Eliza is using it as a platform to inspire diversity and inclusion. In this episode, she shares her message about learning from others and committing to your decisions. She shares stories from her life, including how she rigged a competition to go on a date with her eventual husband, and how he ended up becoming president. We learn the Icelandic word for outstanding women, and how Eliza wrote a book based on that word. Eliza also teaches us that we are all role models, and that even if we’re not famous, we’re setting an example for everyone around us.

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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 explains the idea of “seva” – a Sanskrit word meaning selfless service – and how it shapes his life. We talk about the echoes of the past that are being heard again in the present, and what he thinks we need to do to counter the rise in racism and division. He shares the lessons of being mayor of Calgary during the four times in that city’s history that a State of Emergency has been declared, including how to trust people to do the right thing. He tells us why he wears purple every day, and how a change he made to his answering machine caused untold chaos. This is also the first time in Digging Deep history that a guest reads an entire book. Don't worry -- it's a short book, and it will inspire you.

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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 started as a child with a pile of Lego, and his dream of becoming a rocket scientist. We learn that every overnight success story is actually a long, complicated journey with lots of ups and downs, trial and error, and many different iterations to get it right. Allen also explains how to go against conventional wisdom, why you shouldn't simply follow your passion and why the most important thing in life is finding joy on your terms.

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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 journey has taken him from a job in a butcher shop to becoming the majority owner and executive chairman of PWL Capital. A big step in that journey happened when he met some of the senior people at Shopify very early on, as they were building their business. It's a success story that's not close to being over.

Cameron has a hundred-year plan for his business, and he explains why, to him, that's much more important than the instant gratification of making a big sale or landing a huge client. We also talk about how taking care of people should apply to your employees just as much as it applies to your customers, why so many of us are trying to climb a ladder on a wall that’s on fire, the importance of luck, and why you can’t just sit around waiting for luck to happen.

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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. But Sheldon keeps listening to other survivors, and encouraging the rest of us to listen as well. Sheldon has been a big part of the changes that have allowed others to come forward with their stories. But that work isn’t finished. Like his own recovery, it’s an ongoing process, and he continues to fight every day for himself and others. Sheldon's message is powerful and inspiring, filled with hope, strength, and an important lesson: take care of yourself so you can truly take care of others.

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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 that. Julie talks about how kindness touches every aspect of leadership – including both hiring and letting someone go – and how, even if you have the best players on your team, you won’t retain them if kindness isn't part of your management style. Julie talks candidly about one of the biggest mistakes she ever made, the lessons she learned from that, and how she ultimately reversed it. We talk about the importance of knowing when to move fast and when to slow down, getting rid of rules that exist for no reason, and why we should be nice to people even when they don’t have anything we want. And more than anything, Julie makes you ask yourself: why wouldn’t I be kind? Why does anybody need to be anything but kind?

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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 outspoken advocate for mental health. And by telling her story, she has inspired many others to do the same. In this episode, we explore how she found the strength to step forward at a time when talking about mental illness wasn’t as common as it is now. Clara shares some incredible stories from her childhood, youth, and competitive career. We delve into some hard topics, but it’s also a conversation filled with laughter, hope, and Clara’s boundless energy. More than anything, this episode teaches us that every one of us is a work in progress, and that happiness is easier to find when you stop trying to do everything right.

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