Mullinger Meets Canadians

Keely Wallace

Keely Wallace is the director of Nova Scotia’s Community Haul, one of the most inspiring and uplifting business success stories of the past 18 months.

When COVID hit and community halls were not able to host events to promote local businesses, Keely launched Community Haul to create a safe and fun way to support the small business community.

 

Community Haul, partnered with Symplicity Designs to launch a subscription box devoted to celebrating Nova Scotia business owners and help reboot the regional economy. Supporters were asked to pledge their community support with a subscription, and in doing so they kept the lights on for dozens of small businesses during this economically stressful time. What's more, every box sold raised money for the IWK Foundation to provide care for the women and children in the Maritimes.

Keely grew up in Bible Hill, Nova Scotia, studied at UNB Fredericton, worked for the IWK Foundation for five years before launching Community Haul. Under Keely’s leadership, Nova Scotia’s Community Haul has been a huge success – in just 12 months they have delivered over 6000 subscription boxes, raised over $30,000 for the IWK Foundation and supported more than 70 local businesses. 

 

To learn more about Community Haul or to subscribe please visit: 

 

www.communityhaul.ca

Clifton Cremo

Clifton Cremo is a Mi'kmaw stand-up comedian from Eskasoni First Nation. In just two short years he became a fixture in the Nova Scotia comedy scene through his deft brand of storytelling and wry absurdism. Nothing is off limits, particularly when it concerns family and his First Nations heritage. 

Clifton's unique outlook on his Mi'kmaw upbringing and First Nations issues caught the attention of Ha!ifax Comedy Festival, where he is scheduled to perform in October at Best of the Fest and the Winnipeg Comedy Festival, where he has been booked for virtual fundraising events, and of local comedy show-runners that have seen him open for the likes of JUNO Award Nominees Nick Nemeroff and Matt Wright. 

 

Whether he's on stage at a comedy club, a local bar, or even a funeral (yes, seriously), Clifton always manages to bring the laughs. He is an incredible self-starter who has gone out and created lots of shows in the Maritimes as a producer in addition to excelling on stage every night. He recently hosted Tatafest - The Tatamagouche Festival that also featured everyone’s favourite New Brunswick-based rapper Wolf Castle! 

 

Mullinger Meets Canadians is brought to you by the Cape Breton Partnership

Julia Rivard Dexter

Mullinger meets Julia Rivard Dexter, an innovative tech entrepreneur and former Olympian who competed in the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia as a member of the Canadian Canoe Kayak team.

 

Julia has led several successful technology ventures, including as CEO of Google’s first North American premier Apps, and Pursu.it a not-for-profit crowdfunding platform that has raised over 1M for athletes who need support to reach their Olympic goal. For her innovative web and software work Julia and her teams have been recognized by the International Webby Awards.

 

Julia’s latest venture is as Co-Founder and CEO of Eyeread (soon to be Shoelace Learning) the developer of games like Dreamscape which aim to improve literacy rates for children world wide. Eyeread's learning platform is one of the fastest growing EdTech platforms serving millions of students and teachers in hundreds of countries around the world. Eyeread was chosen as a Google for Entrepreneurs company as a part of their first Canadian cohort in 2020.

 

She is currently a member of the Board of Directors of Nova Scotia Power and was recognized as one of Canada’s Inspiring 50 Women in STEM presented by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Canada with the support of the Senate of Canada. Julia lives in Lake Loon, Nova Scotia with her husband Steve and four kids, Oscar, Max, Phoenix and Madeleine.

 

Mullinger Meets Canadians is brought to you by Nova Scotia Business Inc.

Joel Burton

Joel Burton was born in Neil’s Harbour, Nova Scotia, and grew up in St. Margaret Village (Victoria County, Cape Breton Island). A highly respected content specialist who uses empathetic storytelling and conversational interviewing to design content for online and offline audiences, he focuses on marketing efforts dedicated to upholding craft and finding meaning in commerce with everyone from Zita Cobb to Linden MacIntyre.

He was working for Voices, the World’s #1 Voice Over company in Ontario when COVID hit and he and his wife decided to come back to Nova Scotia for family support and a better quality of life for his young daughter and newborn son. 

 

He is now producing content for the Victoria Co-operative Fisheries Ltd., a 66-year old seafood company from northern Cape Breton, with a focus on harvesting and processing wild sustainable seafood from the cold, pristine waters of the North Atlantic for sales in North America and global markets. 

 

Mullinger meets Canadians is brought to you by the Cape Breton Partnership.

Mary Walsh

James Mullinger is in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador to meet the Queen of Canadian Comedy, Mary Walsh. Best known as a co-creator and star of one the most successful and longest-running comedy series in Canadian history, This Hour Has 22 Minutes, she’s had a decades long career as a comedian, director and actress, a best-selling author, and a philanthropist and activist. She has won an incredible 18 Gemini Awards and a Governor General’s Performing Arts Award. 

 

James meets Mary at her home in downtown St. John’s to discuss her love for Atlantic Canada, her personal career highlights, the creation of CODCO, the evolution of Marg Delahunty, Princess Warrior and how she overcame personal difficulties to become one of funniest and most important voices in the country. 

 

Mullinger Meets Canadians is brought to you by Nova Scotia Business Inc.

Kate Beaton

Mullinger meets one of the greatest Canadian comic book artists of all time, Kate Beaton.

 

She is best known as the creator of Hark! A Vagrant, the book of which debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list and was named one of the top ten fiction books of the year by Time magazine, and Rolling Stone magazine placed the same collection on its list of “The 50 Best Non-Superhero Graphic Novels Ever”.

 

More than half a million people each month visited her website harkavagrant.com to devour her hilariously smart absurdities of history and literature and has contributed to Marvel Comics’ Strange Tales anthology.

 

She also wrote one of James’ favourite children’s books ever, The Princess and the Pony. The Guardian newspaper in England reviewed the book thus: “In a new children’s book, Kate Beaton gently subverts the idea that ‘strong female heroes’ have to kick ass – and provides a lesson for adults too. Most importantly for me, it features a farting horse.”

 

Of Scottish descent, Beaton grew up in Mabou on Cape Breton Island. She went to a small school and then graduated from Mount Allison University in 2005. She began drawing comics for the university newspaper, The Argosy and after college worked in Victoria, British Columbia. She has also lived in Toronto and New York but is now happily back in Mabou, a town with a population of just over a thousand people.

 

Mullinger Meets Canadians is brought to you by the Cape Breton Partnership.

 

Steve Lilley

Mullinger meets Steve Lilley, the co-founder and president of a globally renowned company that has been serving the global science and engineering community for more than two decades while proudly based in Sydney, Nova Scotia on beautiful Cape Breton Island.

 

Steve’s company, Protocase Incorporated, is an innovative manufacturer of low-volume custom electronic enclosures and metal components and as CEO, he has led the organization to remarkable growth as the company now employs over 275 individuals serving over 17,000 clients throughout North America and Europe while remaining headquartered in Atlantic Canada.

 

Steve has 35 years’ experience in engineering, operations management, and software development. He has also shown himself to be a true proponent of East Coast community spirit through his involvement as Chair of the Board of New Dawn Enterprises Ltd (the oldest community development organization in Canada) as well as New Dawn Holdings Limited, and past Chair of the Electronic Engineering Technology’s Program Advisory Committee for the Nova Scotia Community College. 

 

Steve earned his Bachelor of Engineering from the Technical University of Nova Scotia in 1986.  He has been a resident of Sydney, Nova Scotia for over 30 years where he and his wife raised five children.

 

Mullinger is excited to hear how it is he started this company with five people, built it to almost 300 employees and attracted the very best people from around the world including many of James’ fellow countrymen from the United Kingdom.

 

Mullinger Meets Canadians is brought to you by the Cape Breton Partnership

Brookes and Fiona Diamond

Brookes Diamond Productions is the most respected and beloved entertainment production company in Atlantic Canada and is run by Nova Scotia-based power couple, Brookes Diamond and Fiona Diamond.

 

Fiona and Brookes have worked with and managed the careers of everyone from Rita MacNeil, the Rankin Family and Bruce Guthro to Reeny Smith, Mark Critch, Bette MacDonald, and guitar hero Roland Grant. They have produced shows everywhere from Cape Breton Island, Halifax and Saint John to the Sydney Opera House and Broadway in New York City.  

 

Fiona founded the company with Brookes, in 1977. In that capacity she has been show producer, concert promoter, project manager, and marketing director. She created and founded the nationally-televised Halifax Comedy Festival, which she sold in 2007, and promotes numerous large scale tours such as Lord of the Dance, Gordon Lightfoot, and Bruce Cockburn. She even brought in Jerry Seinfeld to Halifax for a QEII Foundation fundraiser.

 

Fiona and Brookes together created for Nova Scotia’s globally renowned, spectacular musical extravaganza, DRUM! Since 1971, Brookes Diamond has been Atlantic Canada's leading entertainment producer and promoter of concerts, theatre shows, trade shows and special events. He’s won every award going from Canadian Manager of the Year, to ECMA Industry
Builder Award; Best Event Producer and Best Promoter; and ECMA Industry Person of the Year.

 

Mullinger Meets Canadians is brought to you by the Cape Breton Partnership

Alan Doyle

James is in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador to meet iconic east coast musician Alan Doyle. Alan’s career took off as the front man of the renowned folk-rock band Great Big Sea, whose contemporary spin on traditional Newfoundland folk music, proved popular with audiences across Canada, racking up the awards and making them one of the top selling bands in the country.

 

In recent years he’s also made his mark as a solo musician, actor alongside Russell Crowe, producer, author and philanthropist and as a recipient of the Order of Canada for his contributions to the musical traditions of his province and for his commitment to numerous local charities. They discuss his prolific musical career, his passion for performance, and how he became one of Newfoundland and Labrador’s greatest exports. 

 

Mullinger Meets Canadians is brought to you by Nova Scotia Business Inc.

Dormie Workshop's Todd and Jeff Bishop

Mullinger meets the founders of Dormie Workshop, Todd and Jeff Bishop. These golf fanatics and business partners launched this trailblazing business that creates luxury handmade golf club covers. Proudly based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, their covers can be found on club heads of golfers around the world with an impressive client roster that includes PGA golfers Paul Casey, Corey Connors, David Hearn, Brooke Henderson and megastars and public figures such as George Clooney, Cindy Crawford, Tom Brady, Wayne Gretzky and George W. Bush. 

Dormie workshop has relationships with the NFL and the Toronto Raptors, and offer over 300 unique, often three-dimensional designs to choose from. They are a statement piece, and a work of art. To see one is to want one, and their clients are the company’s dearest and strongest ambassadors of their growing brand. As of late, the duo has partnered with Gucci Ghost designer Trevor “Trouble” Andrew to produce the luxury brand’s first range of edgy golf covers.  It was their Nova Scotia upbringing that gave them this passion and drive and Mullinger learns how they plan to stay at the top of their game.

Mullinger Meets Canadians is brought to you by Halifax Partnership.