Announcing The Paul Wells Holiday Show 2025

Politics! Music! Paid subscribers can buy advance tickets on Thursday, a day early

I’m happy to announce my third annual Holiday Show, presented by Cameco, will take place at the Azrieli Studio of the National Arts Centre on Saturday, Dec. 6 at 7:30 p.m.

This annual event is becoming a tradition. For the first show in 2023, which came together in only a couple of weeks and was kind of magical, I gave away tickets. They were all taken within hours. The second show last year was twice as long. That time we charged for tickets, and they sold out within hours.

This year we’re taking the hint and moving the show from the NAC’s cabaret-style Fourth Stage to the larger Studio, with 300 steeply-raked seats, so it can handle nearly three times as many people as the old venue and there won’t be a bad seat in the house.

It’s a most wonderful time

I’m thrilled that Bob Rae, fresh from his gig as Canada’s Ambassador to the United Nations, will headline the political portion of the evening’s festivities. I’ll also welcome a fantastic panel of analysts: Vassy Kapelos, David Herle and Brian Lilley. I’ll tell a Christmas-themed story about the year that’s ending and the one ahead. And we’ll hear the music of two Juno-winning jazz singers, Laila Biali and Caity Gyorgy. Here they are together:

There’ll be more. I’m working on a couple of other surprise guests. But I think you’ll agree this is already a spectacular show.

(It’ll be bigger but not longer than last year, which I think felt like a marathon in the room. My goal in ’24 was to get two podcast episodes out of the night. My goal this time is simply to thank subscribers and the Ottawa community for making my mad venture work, as the fourth anniversary of this newsletter approaches. We’ll have a single action-packed set, followed by a reception so everyone can schmooze.)

For this event in a bigger venue, I needed the help of sponsors. I’m grateful for the support of presenting sponsor Cameco, who are coming off a historic year and bound for bigger things still. I’m also thankful for the support of gold sponsor Netflix and silver sponsor the Canadian Bankers Association. The help of all these sponsors is a tremendous vote of confidence in the value of serious independent journalism and the community we’re building here together.

Thanks to my lovely sponsors for making all of this possible.

Here’s how to get your tickets.

Tickets go on sale Friday, Oct. 31, at 5 p.m. to the general public, via the National Arts Centre website at this address: nac-cna.ca/en/event/39952 (and this address, with the same information in French: nac-cna.ca/fr/event/39952).

But paid subscribers to this newsletter can get access to their tickets a day early — on Thursday, Oct. 30 at 10 a.m. Below this paywall, I’ll tell those subscribers how to get their tickets early: