May 15, 2026

For the Love of Toronto

When I received the opportunity to be part of the For the Love of Toronto/Toronto Confessions event from the Museum of Toronto, I said yes without thinking. And then I did think, and panicked, and sent a note to Emma, my publicist at House of Anansi Press: “OMG, just checking, this is real, right? It occurs to me that if the AI scammers wanted to get to me, this would be the way to go!!” Because it does seem like it could be too good to be true: the chance to perform on an iconic stage for an up-and-coming cultural institution, to tell my story of this city where I’ve lived for half my life, to do so alongside eminent Torontonians, including event host, the nation’s BFF, Elamin Abdelmahmoud.

But Emma confirmed that the event was indeed legit, that she’d pitched me for it, and I couldn’t have imagined a more beautiful way to cap off this season of busy book promotion (for which Emma cannot receive enough credit for all she’s done).

I was also excited by the opportunity to try something that was new to me, totally outside my wheelhouse. To tell a story of this city in a seven minute presentation, create 15 slides, to recite the whole thing off my heart—but was my nearly half-century-old brain even capable of such feats? Could I tell a story remarkable enough to be worth people’s time, even though my experience of the city is a fairly pedestrian one (and not even in a cool flaneur way)? There were moments where I was preparing and feared I was out of my depth, that I would make a fool of myself, that this might be a story of triumph and adversity in which the latter came out on top.

But readers, I did it. Last night triumph was had. And yes, yesterday was perhaps the most iconic day of my entire life as I began it with a 7am swim in the art-deco pool at the Chateau Laurier in Ottawa and finished it on stage at The Second City in Toronto delivering my talk, “Holding It All: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly,” about learning to hold the city in all its fullness, seeing the holy in the humble, on how we have to persist in loving with this imperfect city because our frustration (underlined by anxiety about a city that’s changing all the time) can be too easily hijacked by people who want to profit from our fear and disunity.

The other speakers were wonderful, hilarious, inspiring, and it was an honour be among these others (iykyk). The audience was so warm and responsive. The Museum of Toronto is so fantastic.

And I am so so lucky.