Last weekend an ad appeared in The Globe and Mail announcing a campaign to raise $30 million “to bring the best scientific minds to Canada’s #1 hospital.”
The University Health Network, which runs Toronto General, Toronto Western, and Princess Margaret Hospitals, is not only Canada’s best hospital, Toronto General is ranked #3 in the world (next to the Mayo Clinic and the Cleveland Clinic in the US) and the #1 public hospital in the world.
So UHN is already on the podium and now sees a chance to own it.
The ad was placed “to attract top talent, accelerate biomedical breakthroughs and foster economic growth.”
Also in the Globe was an opinion piece signed by UHN’s CEO Dr. Kevin Smith and its head of research Dr. Bradly Wouters. Their opening line says it all: “Being bold isn’t just about seeing an opportunity; it’s about seizing it.”
The tone of the piece is oddly unCanadian. Is UHN’s campaign meant to help Canada be a world leader and a destination for the brightest minds in medical research? No. It’s going to position Canada as the world leader and the ultimate destination for discovery and innovation. Big difference.
Politics makes strange bedfellows and if America’s anti-science tsunami has thousands of scientists wondering where their next research dollar will come from, Canada’s top hospital now finds itself sleeping with superlatives. So be it.
The University of Toronto, UHN’s academic parent, is already recruiting top American professors, and universities in Europe have created new funds to attract researchers from abroad.
UHN’s goal is to recruit 100 world-leading early career scientists whose work can fuel economic development, Canadian manufacturing and high-quality careers. The focus is on high-promise, early career scientists for the same reason the NHL and NBA drafts draw so much attention: that’s where tomorrow’s champions are.
Toronto has two huge advantages for any US researcher seeking a safe place for their science and families: English is spoken everywhere and half our citizens were born outside Canada. If any city ‘gets’ immigrants and refugees, it’s Toronto.
Last week UHN had raised $15 million from some of its traditional top donors and is looking for $15 million more from us to match that.
The $30 million will become 100 recruitment packages of $300,000 each. The packages include a two-year funding commitment to underwrite salary, lab space, equipment, students and researchers, support staff and start-up costs. Recipients can also tap into UHN’s new Global Mobility Experts to help them have a seamless transition to Canada, plus access to Canadian entrepreneurs and funders.
For hundreds of years wealthy men have funded the cost of raising an army to help their country fight wars. Now, wealthy women and men can help win a cultural and trade war that’s one Presidential speculation away from being a national kidnapping of 40 million neighbours.
So if you’re wondering where to put your extra $30 million, $3 million, or $300,000, let me recommend here.
But in the same spirit that drives you and your workmates to pool your resources and buy a bunch of lottery tickets, you can spend less and still help. After all, among those 100 high-promise scientists, the odds are quite good that one of them, because they can continue their work unimpeded by politics, discovers a cure for the heartache and thousand natural shocks our flesh is heir to.
Meanwhile…
1. How to spot online lies. They’re everywhere, especially this week leading up to the Federal election. Here’s how journalists (and you and I) can verify what we’re reading and viewing online.
2. How to do different things. First, how to give your smartphone a lobotomy. Then,create a stress-free Inbox. And write better for the screen, via Howard Hawks. And how to dance today. And how to build a satellite community. Doing too much? Remember, distraction is obesity of the mind. And how to pull off the greatest art heist in history.
3. New words and phrases. Moron risk premium is “the extra money a country has to pay because its leaders are a few sandwiches short of a tea party.” It was originally coined to describe Liz Truss whose 45-day term as Britain’s Prime Minister didn’t outlast a head of lettuce. Now, moron risk premium is applied elsewhere.
The new word is unobtanium, which I thought was a rare earth mineral lurking at the back end of the Periodic Table. Actually, in engineering and life, it describes an ideal that’s impossible to reach.
4. Is the race to the swift? In Beijing, robots are now running half-marathons. In Holland, a footrace and a Beethoven festival played for each other. In Boston, Sharon Lokedi of Kenya obliterated the previous Boston Marathon record on Monday to win the women’s division in 2 hours, 17 minutes, 22 seconds. How fast is that? Close to running 26 consecutive sub-5-minute miles. And in life, here’s how to get a leg up in any race.
Meanwhile, over in the corner where the battle is to the strong, Harvard is fighting back aggressively against The White House. Its $53.2 billion endowment may help.
5. Greek Gods (British division). How did Ralph Fiennes (full name: Ralph Nathaniel Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes) get ‘ripped’ at age 62 to play Odysseus in The Return?
Christian Gods (Catholic Division). What did Pope Francis’s reign mean?
MAGA Gods (Kennedy Center Division). On April 29, Donald Trump will have been in office 100 days. Here’s how America is celebrating.
6. The biggest threats to a company’s reputation. From the latest Global Reputation Risk Index the biggest threat is AI misuse; the third biggest is backtracking on DEI. And the second? “Association with Elon Musk”, willing or unwilling.
7. Violence comes to a Kelowna Golf Course. Very Canadian, including the commentary at the end and the fact that no one was arrested or shot.
8. Next, sanity comes to American political podcasts. This is because ScottGalloway is interviewing Mark Carney. Also very Canadian.
Speaking of sane Canadians, Toronto illustrator Frank Viva has been drawing New Yorker covers for years. Here’s his latest on Hot Air.
Speaking of imagining things, here’s how to develop a stronger re-imagination.
9. The cycle of nature (Wolves division). All this from releasing 14 wolves in a national park. Plus six ‘snow leopards’ to watch for this year. Plus, strange and beautiful trees. Plus, a highly subversive ad (imagine if the roles were reversed). Finally, all of Sweden watches the great moose migration.
10. Widows and Orphans. Elizabeth Renzetti, my favourite former Globe and Mail columnist, teams up with co-author Kate Hilton for their second “deliciously witty and twisty mystery” about how a wellness summit turns deadly. The launch is Saturday, May 10, Indigo, Yonge & Eglinton (2300 Yonge St), Doors at 6:30pm, Show Starts at 7:00pm. Tickets here.
Speaking of books, here are the 30 best novels of the last 30 years.
Speaking of moms and kids and guilt, we must never forget guilt. Here’s a way around it.
11. What I’m liking. Season 2 of Wolf Hall, the public television-ization of Hilary Mantel’s Booker prize-winning novel about Thomas Cromwell and Henry VIII. It’s even better than Season 1 which aired in 2015. How could it not be with Mark Rylance as Cromwell and Damien Lewis as Henry. On PBS and Apple+.