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Former CFL commissioner Mark Cohon is joining the new Northern Super League as chair of its board of directors.

Cohon succeeded Tom Wright as CFL commissioner in 2007, signing a three-year contract extension in 2012. He stepped down in January 2015 ahead of his contract expiration in April 2015.

“Mark brings a lot to this role,” said NSL president Christina Litz. “Obviously an all-Canadian league is quite rare. So having that experience with the CFL and being able to bring that perspective, particularly in terms of governance and organization and helping set culture across the board, is really unique.

“And he knows that. So it’s great to have him as we begin our journey here.”

The six-team women’s pro soccer league is set to kick off in April with teams in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Halifax.

Cohon and Litz have history.

Cohon hired Litz at the CFL in 2014 as head of broadcast and digital. Their paths crossed again on the board of the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences/Juno Awards which Cohon chaired from September 2015 to September 2022.

“I always known him to be a big thinker,” said Litz, who worked for the CFL until 2019 with her last position as chief marketing, digital and strategy officer. “He had big ambitions for the CFL that were achieved while he was there … And he was like that at the Junos board as well, really pushing us constantly — as a board and with management there — to think as big we could. So I know he’s going to do this here and I love that.

“The women who have been playing this game really deserve us to be thinking and acting as big as possible.”

Cohon’s achievements at the Canadian Football League included negotiating a lucrative, new broadcast deal, bringing football back to Ottawa with the Redblacks and celebrating the 100th Grey Cup in 2012.

The NSL says Cohon “will support the league’s board of directors on several key initiatives, including economic growth, expansion initiatives, international competition, player welfare and promoting inclusivity.”

“I really love the vision of the league,” Cohon said.

“The entrepreneurial nature of building a league, doing something that’s important for Canada was, No. 1, really exciting for me,” he added. “And two, this is a moment in time if you think about what’s happening in the world of women’s sports, this is a critical moment — being part of that movement, that was very exciting for me.

“And I guess the third thing is I feel like I can really make a difference.”

He said his wife Suzanne and daughter Parker also urged him to take the job.

“I’m all-in to making this thing a success for our Canadian women and the country,” Cohon said.

The new women’s league will not have the position of commissioner. Instead, Litz will take the lead as president.

Before the CFL, Cohon worked for the NBA as vice president of business development and managing director of NBA Europe and for Major League Baseball as director of International game and business development.

Cohon, a dual citizen whose late father George Cohon was McDonald’s of Canada senior chairman, was born in Chicago but moved to Toronto when he was two.

He has spent the last eight years as chair and partner at the Georgian Bay Spirit Company and served as chair of Toronto Global, which assists international companies exploring business opportunities in the Toronto area since November 2016.

He has also advised CVC Capital Partners, a private equity and credit company, and a director of Great Canadian Entertainment, an Ontario-based company that operates gaming, entertainment and hospitality facilities in Ontario, British Columbia, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia.

In 2013, Cohon was appointed to the Order of Ontario and in 2015, received the Meritorious Service Medal from the Governor General of Canada.

The NSL board will include Cohon and representatives of the six ownership groups with Litz and Diana Matheson, whose title is the league’s chief growth officer, as observers.

Matheson and Tom Gilbert, co-founders of the league via Project 8, now have an ownership stake in Ottawa Rapid FC with Gilbert the team’s representative on the board.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024

Financial soulmates are rare, advisers say — it’s more common for couples to have different spending and saving habits. But money is a critical detail in a partnership.

“I got married 30 years ago and did the Catholic marriage course, and the person up front said, ‘What’s the No. 1 cause of marital breakdown?’” said Brian Himmelman, president of Himmelman & Associates Financial Advisors in Halifax.

“And everyone yells — because everyone’s in their 20s — ‘Infidelity!’ And then he goes, ‘Nope. Finances.’”

It’s not a bad thing when one person is more of a spender, and another is a saver, Himmelman said. The combination can provide a healthy balance, rather than too much of one style.

Himmelman also sees differences in financial literacy in general, such as a person who doesn’t deal with financial information much, partnered with someone who works for an accounting firm or bank, where money is their day job.

His role is to bridge the gap between personalities and experience — and he doesn’t always just side with the saver.

“They’re the joint decision-makers, and whether it’s literacy or power dynamic, I try to even it out. My job is really just to bring them information and let them both, equally, come up with what’s best for them,” Himmelman said.

A couple’s financial relationship should be guided by their goals, and shared goals are a part of compatibility, said Kalee Boisvert, a Calgary-based financial adviser with Raymond James.

“It’s really like looking at the long-term vision for their money,” she said. The daily Starbucks habit, for example, isn’t worth a lot of marital haggling, but decisions such as buying property need collaboration and communication.

“Let the little things slide, but it’s the bigger goals, and the vision and where you see yourself that you have to come together on, and you have to compromise on.”

Boisvert sees less emphasis on joint finances lately — more and more couples she works with are keeping their accounts separate, and may start a joint account for large shared expenses only, such as a mortgage. Some couples contribute to that joint account equally or proportionate to income.

Combining finances or some level of separation will be unique to a couple’s situation.

“I think both can work,” Boisvert said. “I lean towards separate finances because in my business, I work with a lot of women who have gone through divorce, and they’ve been in a position where maybe their spouse had taken the lead, and they weren’t really having their own accounts. It’s a big learning curve, and it’s a bit overwhelming.”

Maintaining some level of financial independence also has long-term benefits, she added.

“There’s all sorts of situations that can happen in life, of course, like you can separate, people can pass away, so there is likely going to be a time in life that you are independently managing things,” Boisvert said. “Having that comfort level, it’s really important.”

Boisvert said a cohabitation agreement is also critical for couples living together, but not married — this type of agreement can offer similar protections as a prenup in case the relationship breaks down. Himmelman called it a “recommended tool” but added it can be an alienating conversation for two people from different economic backgrounds.

There are other tricky topics when dating and selecting a partner — debt in particular can be a source of shame or stress.

“You can’t screen who you fall in love with,” Himmelman said, “but at the same time, I would say you can look for red flags.”

There’s good debt and bad debt, he explained — someone investing in their education, especially for a high-paying career, would be making a wise investment in themselves despite the student debt incurred. Similarly, starting or buying a business requires borrowing.

But someone racking up debt for vacations, socializing and high-end purchases might foreshadow future issues in the relationship.

And there are unfortunate events too, Himmelman added, such as job loss, or racking up credit card debt when you’re young and haven’t learned to manage money yet.

“Somebody’s ability to articulate how they feel about debt, and the other person’s ability to understand their philosophy or their attitude towards it — I think it’s important,” Himmelman said.

“If their values are so different from yours, it might not manifest itself immediately, but it will come at some point in time. People will fight more about money than probably anything.”

Debt can be awkward to bring up, Boisvert noted, but you can talk about finances in terms of priorities, values and goals instead. Open communication about money early in a relationship sets a good precedent.

“You’re not asking them, you know, ‘What’s your credit card balance?’ or ‘How much debt do you have?’” Boisvert said. “But ask things like, ‘What are your financial goals in life? Where do you hope to be in five years, 10 years? Do you have a retirement goal?’”

As with so many other aspects of a partnership, communication is foundational.

“Money is one of the biggest sources of stress for couples and I think it’s because they don’t have the conversations earlier on,” she added. “Then it comes up later and there’s elements of feeling almost blindsided, or someone was maybe dishonest or not upfront about things.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.

TORONTO – During the pandemic, Michael Ross Albert grappled with a familiar kind of stress for many Torontonians: the uphill battle of trying to buy a home in the city.

“I remember walking out of the bank with the money order and thinking that I was holding in my hands probably more money than I might make in my lifetime,” recalls the Canadian playwright after buying his first condo.

“I was playing it cool and just pretending like this was totally a normal transaction. I got about four steps before I just puked all over Bay Street.”

With the average home price in the Greater Toronto Area expected to climb to $1.19 million by year’s end — a six per cent increase from 2023, per a new report by Royal LePage — Albert knows his experience resonates, given that home ownership feels out of reach for many.

So he’s channeled some of this real-estate tension into “The Bidding War,” a biting new comedy premiering Tuesday at Toronto’s Crow’s Theatre.

The play takes aim at Toronto’s housing crisis with a story set during a frantic, one-day bidding war over the city’s last affordable home. As the clock runs out, the fight for ownership devolves into chaos, laying bare the lengths to which people will go in their frantic quest for a foothold in the market.

Directed by Toronto’s Paolo Santalucia, the world premiere features an ensemble cast, including “Baroness Von Sketch Show” star Aurora Browne as savvy real-estate agent Blayne and “Letterkenny” star Gregory Walters as Charlie, one of the many buyers caught up in the madness.

Albert says he hopes “The Bidding War” exposes the “unfairness” of Toronto’s real estate system.

“I would love it to show that there is a different way we can imagine life, especially in this city, and that we don’t need to be in such brutal competition with one another over what is a basic human right,” says the rising playwright who garnered critical acclaim for his 2022 workplace comedy “The Huns.”

“We need to find a way to fix the housing crisis somehow, and hopefully laughing at it is a very good first step.”

Browne says she was excited to join the 11-person cast, which is “unusually large” for a Canadian production, given the costs of staging plays with big teams.

“Talk about a scarcity mindset — budgets for theatres have been getting squeezed and squeezed. I think we’re still feeling the pandemic just over our shoulders and being in a room with a lot of people doing something together feels so necessary. We’re all so alone in our problems these days.”

Browne says “The Bidding War” ultimately shows how self-serving those working in Toronto’s real estate market can be.

“Toronto is definitely a playground for people who are interested in their own profit,” she says.

Peter Fernandes, who portrays the home’s listing agent, says the production captures how the scarcity-driven nature of Toronto’s housing market exposes people’s “ugly sides.”

“It’s getting exponentially harder to live in the city and to make a life in it. If it keeps going in that direction, it’s just going to bring out some of the worst in people, and that could lead to more exploitation,” says the actor, who played the lead in “One Man, Two Guvnors” at this year’s Shaw Festival.

“I think the play is asking us to look at another avenue to grow as a city. There has to be another way so that it’s not so cutthroat.”

Like Albert, Santalucia became a homeowner during the pandemic. He says he felt rushed to buy a house during a time when prices were down.

“I just remember the bloodlust that rose in that period of talking to my partner and saying, ‘Whatever we need to do, we’ve got to do it because we’ve got two weeks to make the biggest financial decision of our lives.’”

That “manic” energy informed the direction of the play, which he says has moments of “bloody” violence and “physical, tawdry body humour.”

Santalucia believes the play underscores how humanity’s intrinsic desire to own things fuels the housing crisis, and he sees comedy as the most effective means of confronting that reality.

“Our inherent desire to conquer, our inherent desire to put a flag somewhere in the ground and call something ours — that’s the crisis. This play does a really amazing job at drawing attention to that fundamental aspect of our humanity,” he says.

“We hope that laughing at it might allow us to recognize it. And that’s going to be a little piece of the puzzle in how we fix it.”

“The Bidding War” plays at Toronto’s Crow’s Theatre until Dec. 15.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.