You are warmly invited to join us June 23 at 4 pm London for the latest conversation in our Canada-UK Foundation series, Postcards from Canadians, from breakthrough to icon.
We are delighted to welcome special guests Canadian music icon Jim Cuddy and Giller Prize winning author Madeleine Thien, in conversation with host Nigel Miller.
Both Jim and Madeleine are widely acclaimed for their ability to observe their landscapes, and translate this into important insights about people, culture, and landmark moments in our lives. Their words, whether in song or literature, have helped shape what it means to be Canadian.
We look forward to welcoming you to a fascinating hour of celebrating Canada, and Canadian icons and breakthroughs – in song, in poetry, and in spoken word.
Madeleine Thien was born in Vancouver and has written about topics as diverse as music and human rights, personhood, female beauty, state surveillance, visual art, race, literary politics, neighbourhoods and the Québec rodeo. She won the 2016 Scotiabank Giller Prize, as well as the Governor-General’s Literary Award for Fiction and is Professor of English at Brooklyn College. She speaks to us from Montreal on June 23.
Jim Cuddy has written many of the songs that have become indelible in the soundtrack of Canadian lives. With the release of his fifith solo album, Countrywide Soul, he continues to contribute to that extraordinary songbook and on this record, Jim continues to find new ways to balance personal reflection and plainspoken storytelling, remaining both intimate and accessible.
Both as a solo artist and as one of the creative forces in Blue Rodeo, Jim has received nearly every accolade Canada can bestow upon a musician including 15 JUNO Awards, The Order of Canada and, along with bandmates Blue Rodeo, has been inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, received the Governor General Performing Arts Award and a Star on the Walk of Fame.
“I’ve always found fascination in the smallest details of human behavior,” says Cuddy of his songwriting. “It has been something that I look at and remember, whether it is the details of an exchange that I witnessed or an exchange that I have. Of course, as you get older there are bigger things that happen in your life that you realize you’ll never totally understand. There never seems to be a loss of things to write about.” Jim speaks to us from his home outside Toronto, Ontario.
Nigel Miller is Vice-Chair of the Canada UK Foundation, and of the Canada Memorial Foundation. He is also a former trustee of The Elephant Family and serves on the Advisory Board of the Humber School of Public Relations in Toronto. Resident now in the UK, he previously served on various charity advisory boards in his native Canada, including Special Olympics, Easter Seals, Events Halifax and the Toronto Waterfront Foundation. He is Senior Advisor and former Chief HR Officer for the global communications marketing consultancy, Edelman. Previously HR Director for Coca Cola Enterprises, based in London, and head of Global Talent for Anheuser-Busch InBev, based in Belgium. Nigel’s career has spanned Public Affairs, Marketing and, most recently, Human Resources.