Report on Business magazine editor Dawn Calleja.Daniel Ehrenworth/The Globe and Mail
Like most Gen Xers, I grew up watching Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, arguably the most soul-nourishing bit of television ever created. Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about Fred Rogers (bear with me here). In particular, I’ve been thinking about a quote from him that seems to pop up on my social media feeds during times of decided bleakness in the world: “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’”
We’re living in dark and precarious times. Everything in the news is scary. And now more than ever, it feels like we all need to channel a little Mister Rogers to get through it—searching for those small bits of light amid the gloom. For me, one of those rays of sunshine was the raft of submissions we received for our annual list of Changemakers, featuring young entrepreneurs, activists and academics who are reinventing how Canada does business.
Take Harrison Amit, the 29-year-old entrepreneur behind Hovr, a ride-sharing app whose motto is “100% Fare is 100% Fair.” According to a City of Toronto report published late last year, drivers who work for ride-hailing apps like Uber and Lyft earned a median hourly wage of less than $6 in the first four months of 2024. That’s just 35% of Ontario’s mandated minimum wage. The more Amit talked to drivers, the more incensed he became—and the more determined he was to help. The result was Hovr, which pays drivers a fixed base rate for each trip, plus additional pay for more time and distance. Hovr gets just a buck per ride, which is paid by the passenger, not the driver. So far, tens of thousands of drivers are on the waiting list, and 80,000 Canadians have downloaded the app.
And Amit is just one of 20 Changemakers featured in our package. If you want to feel more hopeful about the world and its future, this is your ticket.
There’s another helper in this issue who deserves a shout-out. More than 25 years ago (cough, cough), I landed my first job in business journalism. My immediate boss was Brian Banks, whose calm guidance, humour and absolute mastery of the craft made me a better writer and, I hope, a better editor. It’s been a long time since Brian and I have worked together, so I was absolutely delighted when he pitched the idea of travelling to Vancouver to check out the marine-electrification hub that’s developing out there, centred around Robert Allan, one of the world’s foremost designers of tugboats. You’ll find Brian’s story, “Making waves,” here.
Have feedback? Email us at robmagletters@globeandmail.com.
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