Announcing The Paul Wells Road Show: Vancouver!

On March 20, a celebration of conversation, community, opera and trees

For three Christmas seasons in a row, I’ve hosted Paul Wells Holiday Shows at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa. That’s going to continue and — because demand for tickets has been amazing — it’ll continue to grow.

But it’s a big country out there, so it’s time to take the next step.

On Friday, March 20, I’ll host the first Paul Wells Road Show, at the Norman and Annette Rothstein Theatre in Vancouver. Two things happened to make this possible: my friends at Vancouver Opera extended an invitation to come out West, and my other friends at Netflix came in as my top-tier Presenting Sponsor to help pay the bills. That means I could book a wonderful venue, the 300-ish seat Rothstein Theatre, and fill it with the beautiful sounds of soprano Chloé Hurst and baritone Aaron Durand, two of the best opera singers in Vancouver. I’m also grateful to my other Sponsor, the Canadian Bankers Association, for their continued help.

Of course it wouldn’t be a Paul Wells Show without politics. I’ll be joined by British Columbia Premier David Eby for a feature interview. You bet there’ll be a lot to discuss. The show will also feature my panel discussion with former federal cabinet minister James Moore; longtime Global News reporter Richard Zussman, now VP Western Canada for Burson; and Rachael Segal from Enterprise Canada, who’s also a podcaster and frequent commentator. We’ll talk about whatever Eby just said, plus the crowded candidate field in the opposition BC Conservative leadership race, plus pipelines, MOUs, housing, opioids… I mean, as I said, there’s a lot to discuss.

And I’m delighted to be joined by Suzanne Simard, a professor of forest ecology at the University of British Columbia, whose new book When the Forest Breathes: Renewal and Resilience in the Natural World will be released just a few days after our show. Simard’s study into the ways trees communicate using funghi earned her a spot on Time magazine’s 2024 list of the 100 most influential people and influenced James Cameron’s movie Avatar. I’m happy she’ll join us just before the next step in her extraordinary career.

Today’s post is only a heads-up. Tickets for the Paul Wells Road Show: Vancouver will go on sale on Tuesday to the general public — but on Monday at 9 a.m. PST I’ll send pre-sale information to this Substack’s paying subscribers.

That’ll give my biggest supporters an extra day to obtain tickets before the show opens to everyone else.

In Ottawa, my shows have been selling out very quickly. December’s sale sold out in pre-sale on the morning of the first day, before we even had a chance to open sales up to the general public. I’m curious to see how we do on the road.

I do these shows because I owe everything to my subscribers. They’ve begun drawing the support of sponsors and creative partner organizations because people are starting to realize what I’ve known from the start: that I’ve got a big, highly engaged audience that values conversation and community. I would absolutely like to do more shows like this in other cities, and work on two other Road Shows is already underway. The Vancouver show will be an important chance to show that these shows work on the road.

Thanks, as always, for your interest and support.