Between 2008 and 2009, Statistics Canada reported that Toronto experienced the country's highest small-business growth rate, at 7.5 per cent, compared with a national average of 2.7 per cent.
It also found that the city has a self-employed population in excess of 240,000, the highest number in Canada.
Small and medium-sized businesses are growing not only in size, but in influence, and for that reason The Globe and Mail's Your Business has partnered with Direct Engagement Show to host a live, one-hour webcast in which key mayoral candidates will have a chance to debate what they would do to make Toronto a better place for entrepreneurs.
Globe Toronto columnist Marcus Gee, along with two other journalists, will pose questions to Rob Ford, Joe Pantalone, Rocco Rossi, George Smitherman and Sarah Thomson. Questions will also be posed by members of the live studio audience.
The event took place on Sept. 9, at Toronto's Gladstone Hotel.
Toronto bureau chief Kelly Grant, and columnist Marcus Gee, tweeted from the event, and you can view an archive of their feed here (readers using mobile phones should follow this link):