With Mitzie Hunter, new President and CEO of the Canadian Women’s Foundation. Mitzie is a dynamic, community-grounded leader. Her 30 years of leadership spans the nonprofit sector, private sector, and government. Mitzie has a trailblazing track record and many successes championing infrastructure and community improvements. She was the first Black woman to serve as Ontario’s Minister of Education. She also served as Ontario’s Minister of Advanced Education and Skills Development and Associate Minister of Finance.
Mitzie is a respected advocate for diverse women, girls, and Two Spirit, trans, and nonbinary people across Canada. She is known for her expertise in an array of issues, from women’s leadership to inclusive economies to sustainable neighbourhood and city building.
Mitzie is a founding visionary of the Prosperity Project. She served as Chief Administrative Officer of Toronto Community Housing Corporation, CEO of CivicAction, Vice President of External Relations and Corporate Secretary at Goodwill Industries, and President of SMART Toronto, a technology hub. She is a Senior Fellow with the C.D. Howe Institute and a Canadian Urban Leader at the University of Toronto’s School of Cities. Mitzie has also served in several board leadership positions in nonprofit and public service bodies, including United Way Greater Toronto and TVO. In 2023, Mitzie ran for mayor in the City of Toronto by-election.
Transcript
00:00:01 Andrea
Hello and welcome to Alright, Now What? I’m your host, Andrea Gunraj from the Canadian Women’s Foundation.
Gender equality and justice where we live, work, learn, and play is the goal. And it makes life better for everyone. This podcast is our chance to connect with insightful people and explore what it will take to get there in Canada.
The work of the Canadian Women’s Foundation and our partners takes place on traditional First Nations, Métis, and Inuit territories. We are grateful for the opportunity to meet and work on this land. However, we recognize that land acknowledgments are not enough. We need to pursue truth, reconciliation, decolonization, and allyship in an ongoing effort to make right with all our relations.
00:00:46 Andrea
In this first episode of Season 7, I’m interviewing Mitzie Hunter, new President and CEO of the Canadian Women’s Foundation.
Mitzie’s 30 years of trailblazing leadership spans the nonprofit sector, private sector, and government. She was the first Black woman to serve as Ontario’s Minister of Education. She also served as Ontario’s Minister of Advanced Education and Skills Development, and Associate Minister of Finance. Mitzie is a respected advocate for diverse women, girls, and Two Spirit, trans, and nonbinary people across Canada. She’s known for her expertise in many areas, from women’s leadership to inclusive economies to sustainable neighbourhood and city building.
I start by asking Mitzie to do the “gender equality changemaker quiz” we launched earlier this year as a part of our new Count Me In initiative for a gender equal Canada. Please check it out yourself at yescountmein.ca.
What kind of gender equality changemaker are you? What were your results?
00:01:50 Mitzie
Well, I loved taking the Count Me In quiz as a gender changemaker because it does actually cause you to self-reflect on how you’re being in the world and taking on causes and things that you care about. So, not surprisingly, my Connector score was high. I knew that that was going to be high because I love connecting and it’s something that I’ve always done. I’m also a Collaborator, which fits nicely, and a Creator; I love being a visionary and thinking about the world as it could and should be and then thinking about how to mobilize towards that.
What was a bit surprising is that my Challenger score was at 7.69%. And I would say definitely I advocate for what I believe in. I also know that you can’t just be in one note, that it takes sometimes a nuanced approach to get things done.
00:02:51 Andrea
That is a great learning that using one strategy alone is not just the only way to go. There are many strategies you can use.
What core life lesson do you bring to this role as our new President and CEO of the Canadian Women’s Foundation?
00:03:07 Mitzie
I am so thrilled to join this movement for a gender equal Canada and the Canadian Women’s Foundation being a strong and trusted voice in that space.
I love the fact that we talk about things that need to be called out when it comes to building a gender equal Canada. At the same time, we’re not just talking, we’re doing, we’re grant making, we’re bringing people to the table to donate and be philanthropists.
And we’re essentially being the change that we want to see and that’s what I love most about this organization.
And of course, its people. It’s a wonderful organization and I’m just thrilled to be here as one of the leaders, but also really joining this amazing movement for gender justice and gender equality in Canada.
00:04:01 Andrea
You can’t get your goal if you don’t have great people and if you’re not leading them well.
I’d like to ask you about if you had to pick your greatest leadership strength, what would you say?
00:04:13 Mitzie
So, I say my superpower is listening because I listen actively—and maybe it’s looking and listening. So, I am a leader who is present and I notice things. I listen to what it is that my team is saying, what donors are saying. What’s the board saying? What are stakeholders and those who we work with saying? And I see the patterns and I connect those ideas, and that’s my superpower. It’s having the ability to listen and really taking in what I’m hearing to build on ideas and to play that back.
00:04:59 Andrea
Classic interview question: tell me what you feel your areas of challenge or growth are. What do you want to be challenged on here personally and grow in here?
00:05:07 Mitzie
Andrea—slowing down. I am impatient. I really want to get things done quickly, and I know that about myself and when you’re leading a team, it’s really important that you stay together. Having a bit more patience, slowing down, just so that we can move together as a team—and strategically.
00:05:33 Andrea
I mean, I guess the Canadian Women’s Foundation is pretty impatient for that gender equality goal. Nothing’s wrong with that. But I think there’s a point to be made about being impatient for change, but not impatient with the people you’re working with, the partners you have, the donors you’re trying to engage—all the people that you got to bring along. You’re not doing change by yourself.
00:05:49 Mitzie
This organization has been around for decades. It’s been through many different cycles and I’m really thrilled to be part of an organization that has that track record and that history and to be able to build on that.
And, you know, sometimes I am frustrated with the pace of change when it comes to gender equality, when it comes to gender justice. You know, we can’t think about what’s happening post-pandemic without realizing that the shadow pandemic was about gender- based violence, it was about intimate partner violence. So, I think that there are aspects to our work where we should be impatient and we should want to get it done yesterday.
00:06:30 Andrea
Alright, so we got some “ask me anything” questions. You put it out on your LinkedIn. You made that step and you asked people “ask me anything.”
Here’s a great one.
00:06:41 Mitzie
Oh no.
00:06:43 Andrea
How did you get to where you are today? Share. Education? Upbringing? It’s some kind of special inspiration?
00:06:51 Mitzie
I have just always had that immigrant work ethic. You know, my family and I, we came to Canada when I was a small child from Jamaica and my parents made great sacrifices to bring my brothers and I here. And they always said, “you’re in this country so you can have a better life.” And so, that drive has always been with me and has propelled me forward in whatever task I take on.
I always remember the sacrifice that was made by my parents, my grandparents, and others for me to have this privilege of growing up in Canada, having access to the best education, and also the need to give back to the community that nurtured you.
00:07:37 Andrea
Tell me a little bit about your community.
00:07:40 Mitzie
My community is so diverse—as the survey said, I’m a Connector, so I am part of many communities. I’m part of the academic community at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School, where I graduated with my BA, but now I’m a Canadian Urban Leader as part of the School of Cities. And I love interacting with the students, interacting with faculty, and just academia because you can think deeply about problems and figure out solutions. You can bring people together.
I’m also a Senior Fellow at the C.D. Howe Institute and, you know, a lot of times the debates that are underway may be different than how I naturally think, but it also expands my view. It shows me the other side of an issue and I think that that’s where learning really does happen, when you can sort of walk in someone else’s shoes and understand their points of view—even if you continue to disagree and you hold your own opinion.
And, you know, just my friendship circle and my community. Everybody knows I’m from Scarborough and I have such a wonderful community there. I actually have a food culture there because there’s so much going on in the Caribbean food scene and that sort of thing there that I enjoy and it just really makes for an enjoyable time in the community when you’re experimenting with other foods, other cultures. That’s what I love about urban living—living in Toronto, where I am—is that we can just really have a sample of the world. It’s a great place to have grown up and to continue to be a part of that community.
00:09:33 Andrea
So, you’re a foodie, that’s what I’m taking from this.
00:09:34 Mitzie
I’m a spicy foodie, though. I’m a spicy foodie and, you know, just really enjoying what we have in terms of culture and life and I think it’s something that people should have the freedom to enjoy, for sure.
00:09:53 Andrea
Alright, riddle me this, another “ask me anything” question.
You are a bit of an Energizer Bunny—I’d say that with all the strength of my body. How do you stay motivated on a daily basis?
00:10:07 Mitzie
Andrea, I wake up motivated to be honest with you. I have so many things that I believe the Canadian Women’s Foundation can and will accomplish and I want to work with the team to get that done. The urgency of our work—as I said, I sometimes lack that patience. I want to see it happen now, when it comes to gender fairness.
At the same time, you know, wellness is also important and balance in the work and I really appreciate that about our organization—that we really care about that. I’m trying to live those values and those principles as well in my daily life and in some of the things that I take time to do, like eating well, exercising, meditation, and just positive thinking, and those are things that I try to incorporate into my life and it recharges me and reenergizes me. Also, spending time with family and friends definitely recharges me and, you know, gives me that purpose in terms of what it is I’m working towards in life.
00:11:13 Andrea
I really appreciate the fact that the Canadian Women’s Foundation looks at things like the care economy and how care is gendered. And sometimes you can’t take care of yourself the way that you need to and want to, because you have lots of gendered responsibilities perhaps, you’re not getting the support that you need in your community, at work.
I’m so curious, Mitzie, as a person who was in so many public roles, so many roles where you’re serving and you’re a leader. That care, taking care of yourself—can you tell us a little bit more about what that means for you and maybe where you had to learn the hard lesson?
00:11:52 Mitzie
Well, it’s actually not—the lesson I learned was not just about taking care of myself, but it was in my family. And you know, my stepfather was diagnosed with dementia during the COVID pandemic, and my mom was the main caregiver, and my brothers and I didn’t realize that burden of care and how it was taking its toll on her.
But when we did realize and we started to rally around her as a family, I realized that it was too much. It was too much for any one of us to handle, and we had to reach out to the system. So, when you talk about that caring economy, it touches very close to my heart and to my family.
I am so grateful for those—mainly women—who provide that hands-on care 24 hours a day, seven days a week at a time when my family and I just couldn’t do it ourselves. And so, it’s so important that we treat those frontline care workers fairly and ensure that they have what they need, because they’re providing that care, they’re stepping in when individuals can’t.
00:13:10 Andrea
Yeah, thanks for sharing that, Mitzie, I really appreciate that. So many of us are living through this and I guess it brings us to my last “ask me anything” question.
Listen, if you could only accomplish one thing at this Canadian Women’s Foundation, what would that one thing be?
00:13:26 Mitzie
My passion is for girls and gender diverse people to live freely, without anything holding them back and having that opportunity and to choose the path that they want for themselves. And if I can work within the Canadian Women’s Foundation to make that future a reality, faster and sooner, that’s what I want to do here.
00:13:58 Andrea
Yeah, you’ve done your job if you know you did that.
To the final: one powerful takeaway you can give people. Because you know we all have our strengths, we all have our areas of growth. What’s one powerful takeaway you give people so that they can be a part of this movement for gender equality in their own lives, no matter who they are?
00:14:19 Mitzie
I really believe in that one powerful takeaway because if you can just commit to changing that one thing, then you’ve made a difference.
Maybe I can encourage people to go and count themselves in, and sign up, take the pledge. I know I did. And that is really being part of a movement for gender equality and gender justice. And then you’ll be part of the Canadian Women’s Foundation’s family and community and will stay connected.
00:14:51 Andrea
Wonderful, because we’re not doing it alone, but together we can achieve gender equality.
00:14:58 Mitize
Yes.
00:14:58 Andrea
Alright, Now What?
If you want to make sure no woman, girl, Two Spirit, trans, or nonbinary person feels out of options, out of sight, out of time, or out of mind, visit yescountmein.ca today. When you count yourself in, you’ll join over 71,000 people in the Canadian Women’s Foundation’s generous and active community. You’ll get tools and opportunities to advance gender equality. This movement needs you. Visit yescountmein.ca and count yourself in today.
Please listen, subscribe, rate, and review this podcast. If you appreciate this content, please consider becoming a monthly donor to the Canadian Women’s Foundation. People like you will make the goal of gender justice a reality. Visit canadianwomen.org to give today and thank you for your tireless support.
