tradesmen or a businessman or whatever that is there's there's this grief that i think again we as men tend not to acknowledge and we want to put on this brave face and and then it sort of operates in the background doing what it will and and we have less than an intentional life what what's your what's your thoughts on that

Well, the first I just want to say how sorry I am that you went through that, Mike.

And, you know, what you did, I think, is what we do, which is, you know, you shared something so powerful and so painful that you went through.

And I do this every day, which is I get uncomfortable, right? Cause you have that moment of emotion and it's okay.

How do I convert this? Oh, but this is this thing and this can be converted to a greater purpose.

And it's like, you put it off yourself and you put it into this, you know, I'm going to help these people by doing this.

And, you know, and I think that that it's that identity piece and it's how we were raised as men.

What are some of the practices? Like, how did you get there, Mark? Are there some practical things that you did to practice that?

Uh, take me back to that moment where you decide to go public with the story.

Yeah, so thanks, Ben.

I, you know, I think what you said up top, I so agree with, right? Which is that we have these intense battles, these disagreements, that really should be framed around what's best for the country, and there's a lot we don't know.

And those debates are correct and right, um, but it's not a place where, uh, you know, you show any weakness.

And we were having debate around, uh, the utilization of, uh, the virtual provisions of Parliament and the life of not just parliamentarians, but staff and everybody on all sides of the aisle.

And, uh, and I had to talk about, you know, these provisions that we were bringing forward.

I th- I had to speak about my story, and I was really worried about doing that, obviously, uh, because, you know, I did go through a, a real crisis, a point where, you know, I had hit a bottom and, uh, you know, made an attempt on, uh, on my life.

... "to, to, to making the ch- the conscious decision to rebuild."

And tell us how things have gone so far this year.

Well, so well.

We kicked it off with our space exhibit and Jeremy Hansen coming in to open it up.

And it's the most interactive space experience that exists in the country.

And of course, we have this really big lineup with Rolling Stone and Billboard.

It continues this weekend with Raph Saparia.

And then we also have Tom Cochran and Ahsoka Knight, which is always a huge hit.

what has this like been for you to go from politics to this sort of fun stuff

What about, I heard a discussion about whether the deep fried chicken feet are actually chicken feet.

They are.

I can attest to it.

I have eaten the chicken feet.

I mean, look, this is part of the fun, right? I mean, there's the fun element of this thing that you never thought to try, that you can or can't, or it's just kind of fun to have it be there.

Then there's sort of the classics.

But I think what's so fun about this sort of food laboratory that we work on with vendors is you see all of these different flavors coming together.

But this is the original, right? Yeah.

Mm

... those who have got a spinal cord injury that we support, it's the family members as well.

Um, because they're kind of like the forgotten heroes.

I know from experience that I sat in a spinal unit or in hospital for 10 months in total, and, you know, I, there was, a lot of it was about me, and about my journey, and about my recovery.

But, you know, we kind of forget about the, the wife at home trying to keep the house going, you know, loss of income, raising three children on her own and, and everything that goes with that.

But Back Up supported her through mentoring, they supported her through family days.

You know, and such an invaluable tool is being able to lean on people who have that lived experience.

I, I wonder, do, um, Back Up work with children with injuries or is it just for adults?

So how do you continue to sell the C&E experience to the broad plethora of people that are in the Toronto region?

Yeah, I mean, Tim, you're absolutely spot on.

We're such a diverse region and huge.

And so we take the responsibility of creating something for everybody very seriously.

If you're into music, this year we've got Rolling Stone and Billboard as partners with us, along with North by Northeast, where we have just this weekend, Lights, Shaggy, Lupe Fiasco.

And then our North by Stage, we have all of these emerging artists.

So if you love music, there's nowhere better.

and do you try and keep a link with the history mark would anybody find for example uh any current agricultural information or history or technology you talked a little bit about technology but would you see you know would you see animals down there would you see something that connects people to the farm

But I don't think you think of the CNE, I don't, as a big employer, but it is 5,000 jobs in total, but maybe we can hear from Mark Holland about the job fair that's on today, because there's jobs up for grabs for people who might show up there.

Yeah, well, we have about 5,000 jobs overall.

Today at the job fair, we'll fill more than 700.

We're one of the biggest employers of youth in the country.

So we take that responsibility really seriously.

uh this job fair you know this year john we've decided to expand it beyond ourselves so we've partnered with uh the rom the ymca uh with metro links uh with the toronto port authority and others uh so that there's more opportunities there and we're also doing things like headshots and helping kids with their resume and uh you know give it connecting them to resources because that first job is so important right and you know you can look at getting a job for the 18 days of the fair and say, well, it's only 18 days, but I can't tell you how many stories, and I'm sure you hear them too, where somebody said my first job was at the X, you know, and that gave me the chance to prove that I had skills and that I could do a job.

And then the next year, I was able to get a better summer job, and that led to what they're doing now.

And those are really important lessons that you learn early on or

700 jobs is a lot, uh, make a big difference to a lot of people.

people.Yeah, well we have about 5,000 jobs overall.

Uh, today at the job fair, we'll fill, uh, more than, uh, 700.

Uh, we're one of the biggest u- employers of youth in the country, uh, so we take that responsibility really seriously.

Uh, this job fair, you know, this year, John, we've decided to expand it beyond ourselves.

So we've partnered with, uh, the ROM, the YMCA, uh, with Metrolinx, uh, with the Toronto Port Authority and others, uh, so that there's, uh, more opportunities there.

And we're also doing things like head shots and helping kids with their resume and, uh, you know, give- connecting them to resources, uh, because that first job is so important, right? And, you know, uh, you can look at getting a job for the 18 days of the fair and say, "Well, it's only 18 jo- uh, 18 days," but I can't tell you how many stories, and I'm sure you hear them too, uh, where somebody said, "My first job was at the Ex," you know, "and that gave me, uh, the, the chance to prove that I had skills and that I could do a job.

Yeah.