- “Towards Prosperity”: Forthcoming David Campbell and Don Mills Book Reflects Growing Optimism from its Authors
By Avery Mullen
In the three years retired pollster Don Mills and economist David Campbell have been hosting their influential Insights podcast, only two people have ever turned them down for interviews
Speaking after a conference hosted in Halifax by the Association for Corporate Growth, a private capital industry group, Mills told The Macdonald Notebook he began dipping his toe into the world of journalism after he sold his company in 2018 because he wanted to continue using his voice within the business community to push for better policy. Now, they are in the process of co-authoring a book inspired by their conversations on the podcast. Called Towards Prosperity: The Economic Transformation of Atlantic Canada, the title is slated for release next spring.
“I wanted to keep my advocacy voice going, because in my business career in the later years, I was vocal about some of the things that needed to happen, including population growth and immigration,” said Mills. “I wanted to find an outlet for my voice, so I started writing columns.”
This year marked Mills’s second time as a keynote speaker for the ACG conference. The chief executive for the global organization’s Toronto chapter, CEO Mike Fenton originally approached Campbell and Mills only to deliver another keynote. But since then, they have also come on board as sponsors of the event via Insights.

Don Mills is co-host of a popular podcast, Insights. He is planning a book on prosperity in the Atlantic. (The Notebook).
Back before Mills was a prominent media figure, though, he sold his polling company, Narrative Research, in a management buyout. He used some of his newfound free time to pen a column for Saltwire, owner of The Chronicle Herald newspaper in Halifax, as well as for Brunswick News, which controlled the major newspapers in New Brunswick. The Brunswick News column ended when the Irving family sold the business to National Post publisher Postmedia in 2022, with the Herald column now also ending in the wake of Postmedia’s Saltwire buyout.
The podcast Mills hosts with Jupia Consultants president Campbell, though, is likely the platform for which he has become best known.
“Three-and-a-half years ago, I teamed up with David,” Mills said. “I knew nothing about podcasts. I thought it sounded like fun. I didn’t have any idea about it. I certainly didn’t know how much work it was — and it was quite a bit of work — but I love to learn. You stop learning, you may as well give up.”
They published their 52-minute first episode in April of 2021. Less than two weeks later, they released their first interview, and it was a barnstormer: J.D. Irving co-CEO Jim Irving, one of the billionaire Irving family who has built a natural resources empire in New Brunswick that includes businesses ranging from oil refineries to pulp and paper production.
The podcast’s guest roster has lived up to the promise of that early episode, with premiers, cybersecurity entrepreneurs and even the CEO of an under-construction spaceport near Canso, Nova Scotia. Those conversations have not just built a media brand that has become a staple in the information diets of many influential Maritimers but also reshaped Mills’s own views on the region.
“When I sold my business (six years ago), I started to write a book,” recalled Mills. “I got four chapters done, and I got discouraged by what was happening at that time. I thought we were never going to seize the opportunity in this region, but in the interim … I changed my opinion about what was happening.
“I finally thought we were going to realize our potential.”