Conrad Black, Mark Steyn, John Crosbie and Nigel Farage walk into a bar...

"A meeting room at swanky, newly-built towering Shangri-La Hotel in downtown Toronto held about a hundred expensively-tailored middle aged men, a handful of poised,elegant women and a few oddball stragglers (like me) for the inaugural night of the Byron Talks speakers series. The Byron in question not being the late English poet and adventurer but a Canadian capital markets firm.

The unusual assembly of notable speakers who came together last week were Conrad Black, Mark Steyn, John Crosbie and Nigel Farage for what was billed as a discussion about Canada's Place in the World. For many in the audience, it turned out to be a very surprising evening."