- Frank McKenna Shindig – Networking Event – 25-Years In The Making – Top-Ranking Canadian Politician Keynote Speaker
Founded in 2000, the annual Frank McKenna ultimate networking event is set for July 14th, 2025, at the Timbit Titan-built Fox Harb’r Resort.
McKenna rarely talks in the media about the event, now celebrating its 25th anniversary edition, and media tickets are never given out.
In fact, the only ever time McKenna, a former NB premier and one-time ambassador to Washington, DC, spoke to me about the invite only networking event was last year.
This time, he polititely declined speaking of the shindig, which brings leading Maritime business families, and attracts global financiers and politicos.
In 2023, former US First Lady Hillary Clinton was the keynote speaker, and in 2024, a media giant from CNN appeared in person for a speech on global politics.
CNN’s Sunday talk show host, Fareed Zakaria, was the featured speaker last summer.
This time, on July 14th, former Liberal Prime Minister Jean Chretien, who is a robust 91, is the keynote speaker.
Fox Harb’r Resort is on the Northumberland Strait shore.
McKenna in 2024 said to me that the then-featured global CNN host’s visit was “very relevant with U.S. politics and the Middle East” for the 175 guests to hear from the CNN commentator.
“For our summer event at Fox Harb’r, we have planes coming in from all over the world with dignitaries. It is just something when you get all these people in the room – the Irvings, McCains & the Sobeys, and everyone else, everyone is equal, everyone talks to him.”
That was the only ever time McKenna has spoken of his celebrated annual summer highlight.
For more information on the McKenna Network event over the years, and the notable guest speakers, here is a story on the event.
In 2023 Hillary Clinton bargained hard in her keynote speaker contract with Frank McKenna, including barring journalists from her July 10, 2023 speaking engagement at the posh Fox Harb’r Resort on the Northumberland Strait, and said she absolutely would not do media interviews, according to well-placed sources with familiarity to the McKenna Network shindig.
Yes, finally, McKenna organizers nabbed an appearance by Hillary Clinton. The political blockbuster powerhouse U.S. politico.
Hillary was only the second woman political leader in the event’s 25 years to speak at the coveted invitation-only event.
So, how did McKenna outdo the much-anticipated Hillary Clinton speaking event?
Well, you invite in 2024 a keynote speaker from the global media world – a big-time media celebrity.
The event on July 8th, 2024, featured a speech by CNN Sunday talk show host, Fareed Zakaria.
The New York-based TV commentator is the host of Fareed Zakaria GPS. He is also a columnist with The Washington Post.
A New York-based TV commentator, Fareed Zakaria, spoke at Fox Harb’r on July 8th, 2024. His show is called Fareed Zakaria GPS. He is also a columnist with The Washington Post. (CNN)
His CNN bio states he is “the author of ‘In Defense of a Liberal Education’ and ‘The Post-American World.” Fareed Zakaria GPS is an international and domestic affairs program on that airs Sundays on CNN/U.S. and around the world on CNN International. The forum is a television destination for global newsmakers, U.S. politicians, CEOs, and thought-leading authors and journalists.”
Speakers in 2022 at the event, founded by McKenna in the year 2000, were former prime ministers Stephen Harper of Canada and Gordon Brown of the UK.
Saint Louis, MO, USA – March 12, 2016: Former Democratic presidential candidate and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton campaigns at Nelson-Mulligan Carpenters Training Center in St. Louis. (iStock image).
There were lots of issues for Zakaria to talk about this summer, including the 2024 presidential election in the U.S., to Donald Trump, and Russia’s dangerous and aggressive, illegal invasion of Ukraine. There is also the war in the Middle East.
Clinton won the popular vote in the 2016 U.S. election, but lost to Trump in the Electoral College vote. She is a former foreign Secretary of State and, of course, the wife of former president Bill Clinton.
Before her 2023 NS speech, Hillary Clinton last visited Nova Scotia in 1995, when the G7 met here that summer and she received an honorary degree from Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax.
That was the same G7 Summit that saw a visit by the former Russian president, the late Boris Yeltsin.
Bill Clinton has spoken three times at the McKenna shindig at Fox Harb’r and also has an honorary degree from Saint Francis Xavier University, where he spoke in recent years when the Frank McKenna Institute opened. He’s had a real love affair with the province, making multiple appearances here and also likes to golf at the world-class 18-hole links at Fox Harb’r.
It was understood Bill Clinton was not in attendance at his wife’s speech at Fox Harb’r
This summer’s ultimate business-political networking event will attract 175 folk, and will be held in person, unlike the pandemic years when it became a ‘virtual conference’.
Fox Harb’r Resort has just gone through major renovations, including a new spacious dining hall, dubbed the Ron Joyce Banquet Hall. Joyce had the $40 million resort built two decades ago near his birthplace of Tatamagouche on the North Shore.
So private is the gathering that I have to rely on sources to cover the event. Not once in its 25 years has McKenna granted a media interview on the shindig that attracts the region’s top business movers and shakers and politicos.
Frank McKenna’s annual Fox Harb’r gathering of Maritime business and politico leaders will go ahead this summer as an in-person event. The invite-only event is marking its 25th year.
It’s the ultimate networking shindig in this region.
Sponsors are a blue ribbon collection, including Toronto Dominion TD Bank Group, where McKenna is vice-chairman; as well as regional law firm McInnes Cooper; Grant Thornton; Emera; Creaghan; McConnell; WCPD; Sigma Wealth Management; Tech Resources; and resort owner Stephen Joyce.
Some years, an event sponsor is gold miner Fred George, a personal friend of the Clintons, who has hosted Bill Clinton at his Bedford Shore Drive mega-mansion.
The keynote speaker in 2021, during a virtual gathering, was John Kasich, governor of Ohio. Kasich is known as one of Trump’s most prominent critics within the Republican Party and endorsed Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden in a speech at the 2020 Democratic National Convention.
In 2020, the McKenna event was headlined by noted New York Times political columnist Tom Friedman, who gave the keynote address from his New York City home. Friedman covers foreign affairs, globalization and technology, and is also an author.
Hosted by McKenna, the exclusive gathering of business titans and leading politicos finds time to take to the resort’s legendary 18-hole golf course.
Sometimes in the past, McKenna has had keynote speakers from the worlds of entertainment and sports.
McKenna organizers have always wanted to have Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama as featured speakers. Hillary Clinton was booked in 2016 to speak at the resort but cancelled when she became a candidate for U.S. president.
In 2019, American politician Nikki Haley, who was known to be close to former president Donald Trump, at the time before running against Trump for the Republican nomination – was the featured speaker at the McKenna event.
Haley served as US ambassador to the United Nations from 2017 to 2018. She was the first woman to be the featured speaker at the shindig. She dropped out of the 2024 Republican presidential nominee race, and now her former friend turned foe, Donald Trump, is again President.
Leading business titans and politicos are part of the annual invite guest list, which rarely changes.
In 2018, the gathering at Fox Harb’r featured a double billing of Bill Clinton and Tony Blair, two former political leaders who also attended previous shindigs. Clinton, the former U.S. president, and Blair, the former prime minister of the UK, flew into Fox Harb’r, landing at the resort’s private 5,000-foot runway.
So what did Clinton and Blair speak about in 2018 at that summer’s McKenna networking event?
Well, exclusive details quickly reached The Macdonald Notebook on remarks by the former leaders that year.
Bill Clinton received an honorary degree from St. Francis Xavier University in 2017. He has attended Frank McKenna’s annual business and politico gathering three times, most recently in 2018. St. FX photo
That year, McKenna conducted a question-and-answer session with Clinton and Blair, both of whom had been guests separately in the past. The 2018 double-billing was their first joint appearance at the resort.
Media are never invited to the soirée, although each year I do ask organizers for a media pass.
As expected, Bill Clinton in 2018 talked about free trade, a topical Canada-U.S. issue, according to a business leader who was among the 170 invited guests.
“He talked about free trade. He touched on all the topics,” said my Halifax-based source, who is always invited to the event as a business leader.
At the time, and again now, Donald Trump has been creating a trade war with Canada, despite ongoing negotiations to renew the North American Free Trade Agreement.
“Clinton is a promoter of free trade,” said the source. “Sometimes it’s not what they say, it is what they don’t say.”
Did Clinton talk about the stunning upset of his wife Hillary’s presidential campaign in 2016?
“Yeah, he talked a little bit about that, the disappointment for him and for her. It was a pretty interesting talk.”
Bill Clinton did not address whether there is still a political future for Hillary. “No, he didn’t bring that up. I doubt very much that she will run again, but he didn’t bring that up.”
Besim Halef of Halifax, right, played golf with former UK prime minister Tony Blair one year at Fox Harb’r Resort.
One thing Bill Clinton did not do during his speech was mention the former bombastic former U.S. president by name.
“He didn’t name him by name. I think there is a code among those guys,” says the source. “Clinton pretty clearly disagreed with a lot of things that are happening in the States now, but he didn’t name Trump by name.”
What did former UK Prime Minister Blair speak about at the event in 2018?
“Tony Blair spoke of Brexit, yep, he sure did,” says my source. “He actually talked quite a bit about it.”
As well, Blair “talked quite a bit about the tragedies that continue to unfold in the Middle East and the instability in that region. He’s a well-read guy and actually does quite a bit of work trying to promote peace in the Middle East. He is there quite a bit,” says my source.
I gave this Halifax businessman anonymity in The Macdonald Notebook because talking to me about the very private event could spoil his chances of being invited back to the private event. The guest list rarely changes from year to year.
The 2018 event was Clinton’s third appearance at the posh resort built 20 years ago by former Timbit titan Ron Joyce, who died in 2018 at age 88.
Bill Clinton’s speaking fees reportedly are set at $100,000. Over the past 20 years, Clinton has taken a real shine to Nova Scotia. Some two decades ago, he participated in the 1995 meeting in Halifax of the G7 countries, and his wife Hillary, was awarded an honorary degree that year at Mount Saint Vincent University.
The 1995 world leaders event attracted then-Russian leader Boris Yeltsin and United Kingdom Prime Minister John Major.
Bill Clinton has played Fox Harb’r’s 18-hole award-winning golf course numerous times. Tiger Woods set a course record there in 2009.
During that visit, Clinton went for a jog on Halifax’s leafy Connaught Avenue, which Halifax re-paved that summer prior to the presidential jog.
Also at that 1995 event, Clinton went golfing with then-prime minister Jean Chretien at Sherwood Golf & Country Club, a golf course once privately owned by auto dealer John Gwynne Timothy.
That golf course is now owned by biz titan Richard Homburg, who once controlled a global $4 billion property empire from his Halifax base. The empire unravelled around him over the past 10 years.
The Clintons have a close friendship with McKenna, a former Canadian ambassador in Washington and a former New Brunswick premier. The friendship developed when the two were volunteers after a deadly hurricane hit Haiti.
When the Frank McKenna Government Institute school and building opened in recent years in Antigonish at St. Francis Xavier University, Clinton gave the keynote address at the building’s ribbon-cutting. That time, Clinton did not charge a speaker’s fee.
McKenna graduated from St. FX in the 1970s and, until recent years, served as chair of the university’s board of governors.
Another deep connection with St. FX is that in 2017 at a well-attended Xaverian event in Toronto, then-university president Kent MacDonald bestowed an honorary degree on Clinton.
Days before the 2016 U.S. election, I spoke to McKenna, who was convinced Hillary Clinton would win. McKenna told me that he had asked Hillary Clinton in a private chat what role Bill Clinton would occupy in the White House, and where Hillary would have been president.
Hillary replied, “Bill will be the First Dude.”
The McKenna shindig so far has not been able to get former two-term president Barack Obama as a headline speaker, but organizers are keen to have the political giant at Fox Harb’r in the future.
When Obama hit the speaking circuit, like so many other former American presidents, McKenna organizers looked to have him in Nova Scotia in 2017.
“Obama is our first choice,” a source affiliated with the event told me in 2017.
In recent years, Colin Powell, the military leader and statesman who served under three U.S. presidents, addressed the annual get-together at Fox Harb’r.
Powell, who died in October 2021, served under presidents George H. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, and served as Secretary of State and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Both Bush presidents also previously spoke at Fox Harb’r, and one year saw Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield give a down-to-earth speech.
The summertime McKenna networking event is a premier event in Canada, attracting global bankers and introducing them to the region’s top business people. Families such as the Irvings and the Sobeys, as well as billionaires such as Oxford’s John Bragg, are always on the invite list.
Cape Breton trucker Joe Shannon, said to be worth $1 billion, frequently attends. Politicians have included Jean Chretien and Paul Martin, while former Annapolis Valley MP Scott Brison had previously attended.
Brison, however, has not been invited for the last few years because he is a banker with BMO, and McKenna’s TD Bank co-sponsors the event. But, Brison remains a close pal of McKenna, who attended the Brison-Max St. Pierre nuptials on the Noel Shore in a United Church back in 2007.
A highlight of the annual event has been the resort’s golf course, a links layout that Besim Halef, a golfing aficionado, rates as one of the best in Atlantic Canada.
Hillary Clinton’s 2023 Fox Harb’r Talk
McKenna, the former tour de force Liberal premier of New Brunswick from 1987 to 1997, and now vice chair of Toronto Dominion Bank Group, is a close friend of Bill and Hillary Clinton.
Hillary has long been desired as a guest speaker at the Fox Harb’r event on the shores of Northumberland Strait. She spoke on July 10, 2023, and stayed overnight at the choice Resort.
The resort was built two decades ago at a cost of $40M by the late Ron Joyce, co-founder of the Tim Hortons coffee chain. With its own 5,000-foot runway, the resort can accommodate corporate private jets, like Lear and Challenger.
In 2023, I spoke to a few guests to capture the essence of Hillary Clinton’s address, which took on a Q&A approach with host McKenna chatting with Hillary for one hour.
Because my sources are not authorized to speak for the event, and because they could be disinvited for future events, I am not naming my sources who detailed Hillary’s talk, so I can report on the topics she addressed and raised — and so these well-placed sources can get invited to the event going forward.
“She is a fantastic speaker, first of all. She was pretty engaging and she covered a whole range of topics,” said one Macdonald Notebook source, who attended the ultimate network event as a guest.
The big takeaway on the Hillary chat at Fox Harb’r near Tatamagouche is that McKenna asked the former 2016 Democratic presidential nominee who she thinks will become the Republican Party’s presidential nominee.
In 2023, she said, “She thinks (Donald) Trump will win the Republican leadership race,” my source said. That was correct.
She mentioned Trump by name, I asked. “Of course she did.”
What did she add about Trump?
“Well, you can imagine. She actually was pretty polite (about Trump). That is how I would put it,” one source adds.
“She talked more about the state of U.S. politics, and how polarized it has become and the obvious concerns around that.
“She is a professional in terms of what she said in public, even at a closed event like that one (Fox Harb’r). Very professional and talked about the concerns of the U.S. political system broadly, just how polarized it is.”
One attendee tells The Macdonald Notebook that Hillary “did not have a solution” to the polarized state of politics, but she is hopeful that in the future the pendulum swings back to a more civilized political system.”
She also “spoke about the great relationship (formerly under Trump) Canada has with the U.S. and her admiration for Canada as a country,” adds one source.
“She talked a little about her book and how that came to be.”
Hillary stayed overnight but does not golf, although the resort has what is recognized as one of the region’s finest golf courses.
“She talked about the tragedy that is happening in Ukraine. She talked about that situation, talked about the challenges with China.
“She talked about quite a few topics. She is a pro. She came across as a lot more charismatic than I have seen her previously on TV and in media clips.”
Hillary did not talk about her unsuccessful 2016 bid to be president, losing the Electoral College vote to Trump despite taking the most votes. “She did not get into that. I think she has moved on.”
“She talked about wanting to be a good grandmother. She has no interest in future (elected) politics. She did not say that, but that is the sense for sure.”
While she correctly thought Trump would win the GOP leadership, “she did not get into Biden running again or who is going to win the presidency if they go head to head,” one event goer tells me, in her 2023 talk.
“Frank McKenna…always energizes the room. Frank does this event, and not one guest pays a penny to attend. However, if you are a CEO and trying to raise money for your company in Nova Scotia, a banker trying to find business people in Nova Scotia, you go golfing for four hours and (folk connect), whether from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick or Atlantic Canada,” previously said gold miner Fred George, who has co-sponsored 16 of the 25 summer time events.
In other words, business deals get done at the annual summertime event. “Everybody ends up doing their own business with others.”
