Muskoka residents were baffled. As thick wildfire smoke descended from Northern Ontario in mid-July, producing a mysterious daytime fog, RCMP boats with powerful triple-400 engines emerged in the heart of cottage country.
The locals were curious: Was it a training operation? A bust of some sort? Security for someone special?
By late Thursday, they had their answer. Prime Minister Mark Carney was coming to town, visiting the JW Marriott resort on Lake Rosseau, and his public schedule later revealed he attended an annual conference that brings together chief executives, wealthy entrepreneurs, top politicians, world-renowned scientists and venture capitalists. They call it The Dock.
Mark Carney, left, greets Didier Dolivet, managing director of the JW Marriott on Lake Rosseau.Instagram @didiermuskokajw/Supplied
Since 2015, the high-powered but private conference has become a gathering place for prominent Canadians to solve the world’s problems – or at least this country’s issues. Its agenda often has a technology focus, and the annual confab has produced some real results.
In its early days, conference guests helped craft the first iteration of Canada’s artificial intelligence strategy. Last year, attendees pitched an Invest Canada Forum that could bring together the world’s largest money managers and show off what Canada has to offer. A similar style of event is being held in September.
Yet The Dock’s inner workings have been a mystery. Roughly 60 people now attend annually, by invitation only, and they are sworn to secrecy. The conference has a guiding principle: High-powered people can’t speak freely if privacy isn’t sacrosanct.
The gathering, then, is like Davos on a dock, mixed with the exclusivity and confidentiality of the annual Sun Valley conference hosted by Allen & Co. in Idaho, which has been called a summer camp for billionaires.
This year, The Dock took on extra meaning. The pace of change in technologies such as AI and quantum computing has hit warp speed; the political relationship between Canada and the United States has ruptured; and U.S. President Donald Trump is revamping his global tariff strategy. Three days after the conference ended, the U.S. hit Canada with 50 per cent tariffs on a slew of goods, upending the North American free trade agreement that is currently being renegotiated.
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To understand what really goes down at The Dock, The Globe and Mail spoke to 18 people who have attended or are intimately familiar with the event, with some simply confirming their attendance and refusing to say more, and also reviewed documents such as agendas and conference summaries.
The Globe is not naming its sources because they are not authorized to speak publicly about the event.
Ed Boutilier/The Globe and Mail
Mattamy Homes founder Peter Gilgan hosted The Dock at his expansive Ferndale estate this year, which brought together leaders in business, technology and government for discussions about Canada’s future.Sammy Kogan/The Globe and Mail
The 2026 conference took place from July 15 to 17 at Ferndale on Lake Rosseau, an expansive private estate owned by billionaire real estate magnate Peter Gilgan. He founded Mattamy Homes, a major developer in the Greater Toronto Area, and his companies are registered as having lobbied the Carney government on housing policy, federal lobbying records show. However, he endorsed Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre in the last election.
Mr. Gilgan’s estate is a former resort and conference centre, and it contains multiple boathouses, guest houses, sports courts and a helicopter pad, plus a classic diner called Ernie’s.
The goal of The Dock is to foster debate and to brainstorm, and there is an emphasis on flexibility. Throughout the event there are often a number of “(un)Conferences,” which are short pop-up conversations in small groups. Guests dress casually, often wearing T-shirts and shell tank tops, shorts and runners or boat shoes. Some even have slightly messy cottage hair. There is also a social aspect that has previously included a campfire performance by Chris Hadfield and the Dock Band, dock cruises and early morning yoga.
During the more formal part of this year’s event, the major themes included space and satellites, AI, defence and health sciences. Sovereignty was always top of mind. Mr. Carney attended on the final morning for two hours, from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m., and he participated in a fireside chat. Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne was also there.
This year’s attendees from the business world included: Royal Bank of Canada chief executive officer Dave McKay and former Magna International CEO Don Walker, both of whom helped create the conference; Mr. Gilgan, the host; Mike Serbinis, the founder of Kobo and health care startup League; pension fund CEOs John Graham (CPPIB) and Deb Orida (PSP); Nick Frosst, co-founder of Cohere, Canada’s top AI company; and Raquel Urtasun, the founder and CEO of autonomous driving startup Waabi, a University of Toronto spin-out.
Additional guests included Gerry Butts, chair of geopolitical consultancy Eurasia Group and ex-principal secretary to former prime minister Justin Trudeau; Ryan Reynolds, the Canadian actor and businessman; and Scott Bonham, a venture capitalist who bet on China’s rise and is now a corporate director. Mr. Bonham has been a driving force behind the conference since its inception.
As space was a key theme this year and last, the CEOs of MDA Space and Telesat were there, as was Mina Mitry, the founder of satellite company Kepler Communications. Also in attendance were prominent biotech entrepreneurs including serial founder Clarissa Desjardins, CEO of Congruence, and Tamer Mohamed, co-founder and CEO of Vancouver’s Aspect Biosystems.
The point of it all, sources said, is to bring business and government leaders together because they tend to think in very different ways.
Mr. Trudeau attended the conference multiple times, and former deputy prime minister Chrystia Freeland has also attended. As for Mr. Carney, he attended the final morning this year for the opportunity “to meet and engage in robust conversations with entrepreneurs and industry leaders on ways to continue scaling and growing the economy,” Sofia Ouslis, his press secretary, wrote in a statement to The Globe.
RBC President and CEO Dave McKay is now the leading organizer of The Dock, which he co-founded with former Magna International CEO Don Walker.ETHAN CAIRNS/The Canadian Press
Since becoming Liberal Party Leader in early 2025, Mr. Carney has regularly sought out meetings with business leaders both in Canada and abroad. During a trip to New York City this spring, he met with representatives from BlackRock, General Atlantic, JPMorgan Chase and Blackstone, among others.
When it was created, The Dock was sponsored by RBC and Magna and organized in collaboration with the C100, a networking and support group founded by Canadians living and working in Silicon Valley. In its first year, there were about 30 attendees, and the event was more of an informal gathering hosted at the Muskoka cottage of Magna’s Mr. Walker.
Since Mr. Walker’s retirement, Mr. McKay has become the leading organizer. RBC and Mr. Walker declined to comment for this story.
In its early years, the conference was credited with influencing the launch of Ottawa’s first pan-Canadian AI strategy in 2017, which included funding AI institutes in Montreal (MILA) and Edmonton (AMII) and also seeding the Vector Institute, a non-profit AI research hub in Toronto created to help slow the exodus of Canadian-trained AI specialists leaving for Silicon Valley.
Like many annual events, attendees say there are years when The Dock feels a little less urgent and more exploratory. The gathering in 2025, which was attended by Evan Solomon, Canada’s first federal AI minister, was an unusual edition because the mood was so grim. Donald Trump had just launched his trade war and everything felt dark, two people who were there said.
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The 2025 conference also had a combative exchange. At one point, Ian Bremmer, the founder of Eurasia Group, was on stage with Eric Schmidt, the former Google CEO. Shopify founder Tobi Lütke – arguably Canada’s most successful tech entrepreneur and one of the country’s wealthiest people, who had attended the conference multiple times – felt the need to tell Mr. Bremmer that he was talking too much and that he wanted to hear more from Mr. Schmidt as a company builder.
Some people felt it was disrespectful, particularly as Mr. Bremmer was an invited VIP. Mr. Lütke was not invited back this year.
Asked about the exchange, Mr. Lütke said in a text, “I can confirm that I said this and meant it.” He added: “The dock is a conference where 90iq leaders go to use terms they heard 100iq people say to impress 80iq people. I went a few times to read them the riot act on where Canada is headed if they keep up the NPC act because sometimes taking very low percentage change swings is worth it if the stakes are high.”
Shopify founder Tobi Lütke, one of Canada’s most successful tech entrepreneurs, was reported to be involved in a combative exchange at this year's conference.Sammy Kogan/The Canadian Press
NPC refers to non-playing characters in video games, or in Mr. Lutke’s explanation, an automaton “who feels entirely controlled by prepared script and dialogue tree and no ability to think.”
The timing of his exchange with Mr. Bremmer was telling. It came a year after proposed capital gains tax increases by the Trudeau government added to the discontent many tech entrepreneurs across Canada felt about the country’s leadership and direction, perceiving that political leaders weren’t listening to company creators and builders. That year marked the launch of Build Canada, a group supported by Mr. Lütke that has brashly pressed for changes to improve Canada’s competitiveness.
(Shopify tried to hire Mr. Carney in 2020, when the company offered him a job as president. That was before he went to Brookfield Asset Management.)
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One of Mr. Carney’s first moves as Prime Minister was to scrap the capital gains tax increases, but the frustration of many Canadian tech leaders hasn’t fully disappeared. Successive governments and large Canadian companies haven’t been able to solve issues such as Canada’s chronic productivity crisis, an overdependence on the U.S. market or the housing crisis that has fuelled resentment in younger people.
The crowd at The Dock may skew old school – more Toronto Club than Soho House. But it is nonetheless designed to address many of the sector’s complaints.
Geoffrey Hinton, known as the godfather of AI, was one of the leading AI experts who attended The Dock in 2025 to discuss the role Canada can play in the future of the industry.Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail
In 2025, for instance, it brought together some of the world’s leading AI experts to understand the role Canada can play, including Geoffrey Hinton, the godfather of AI, Jordan Jacobs, managing partner of Radical Ventures, and Ylli Bajraktari, the former executive director of the U.S. National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence.
Any real-world impact that comes from this year’s conference may take time to emerge, but attendees spoke of much more optimism and energy this time around. Some also voiced respect for the attention Ottawa is giving to crucial issues, as well as an appreciation of just how much the federal government and Mr. Carney are dealing with.
After the Prime Minister’s session, one attendee explained, “People walked out thinking, ‘Wow, he’s playing five-dimensional chess and getting shit done.’”