Patricia Goff is a professor in the Department of Political Science at Wilfrid Laurier University and at the Balsillie School of International Affairs. She has held visiting positions at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva and the University of Southern California’s School of International Relations. She has published widely on the politics of trade, with a special focus on the intersection of trade and culture. Recent publications include Trade and Culture: The Ongoing Debate (Routledge Press) and The Multilevel Politics of Trade (with Jörg Broschek, University of Toronto Press).  

Ruhee is an executive leader in public affairs, economic policy, and corporate strategy, specializing in fostering a competitive business environment, advancing policy that strengthens Canada’s economic competitiveness, and building trusted relationships between industry, government and community. She currently serves as Vice President, Policy and External Affairs at the Calgary Chamber of Commerce, where she leads the Chamber’s public affairs portfolio. Prior to this role, Ruhee spent several years in the upstream energy industry at MEG Energy, where she advanced corporate priorities across multiple levels of government.  

Stephen is the CEO and Chief Economist at the Centre for the Study of Living Standards. He previously served as Chief Economist and SVP of Research, Data and Analytics at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, where he launched and managed the Business Data Lab. Stephen is the President of the Canadian Association for Business Economics and a member of the Canadian Statistics Advisory Council. He has 25 years of diverse experience at many of Canada’s top economic organizations, including Export Development Canada, the Bank of Canada, Parliamentary Budget Office, and Finance Canada, as well as academia and other think tanks, such as the Institute for Research on Public Policy and the C.D. Howe Institute.

Chris Ragan was an economics and policy professor at McGill University for 37 years and, from 2017 to 2024, the founding Director of McGill’s Max Bell School of Public Policy. He was the co-founder and Chair of Canada’s Ecofiscal Commission, which from 2014-19 identified and advocated policies to improve Canada’s environmental and economic performance. In 2024, Chris was awarded the King Charles III Coronation Medal for his contributions to Canadian policy. He currently serves as the Max Bell Foundation Senior Fellow at the Institute for Research on Public Policy (IRPP), co-leading its Trade Diversification research project.