This week, a grand old hotel on Front Street becomes one of the busiest crossroads of the global economy. From October 21 to 23, the Toronto Global Forum brings business leaders, policymakers and experts to the Fairmont Royal York for its 20th edition, under the theme New Rules, New Opportunities.
The Forum was founded in 2007 and is organized every year by the International Economic Forum of the Americas, a not-for-profit organization that also runs the Conference of Montreal. This year's edition is presented by Cogeco in collaboration with BMO. According to IEFA chief executive Nicholas Rémillard, the theme reflects a world in which leaders are learning to navigate a new economic order, with new rules that will decide who stays competitive in the coming decade.
Each day has its own focus:
The Forum opens Wednesday at 9:00 a.m. with its first fireside chat, in which BMO chief executive Darryl White will be interviewed by BMO vice-chair and former Newfoundland premier Brian Tobin. The preliminary speaker list also includes Calin Rovinescu of CAE, Calista Redmond of NVIDIA, Cohere co-founder Nick Frosst, New York Times executive editor Joseph Kahn, Emera CEO Scott Balfour, Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro CEO Jennifer Williams, Sun Life CFO Tim Deacon and Elizabeth Wademan of the Canada Development Investment Corporation.
The timing could hardly be more pointed. Canada is facing 50 percent US duties on part of its exports, trade talks with Washington are on hold, and Ottawa is betting on new projects such as the Pacific Link pipeline to reach markets beyond the United States. Questions about energy, critical minerals and defence, once left to specialists, now shape jobs, prices and household budgets across the country.
For Polish-Canadian entrepreneurs, engineers and professionals, the Forum is a useful window on where Canada's economy is heading. Two of its themes, energy security and defence, are also everyday topics in Poland, one of NATO's biggest defence spenders relative to the size of its economy. What is said in Toronto this week will echo in boardrooms, and eventually at kitchen tables, on both sides of the Atlantic.
Sessions will be streamed live on IEFA.tv, and recordings will be posted afterwards on YouTube. The full program and speaker list are available at www.torontoglobalforum.com.
When: October 21–23, 2026
Where: Fairmont Royal York, 100 Front Street West, Toronto
Based on information from the organizer and the BMO media advisory.
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