Media & Speaking
Public voice grounded in substantive work.
Broadcast conversations, keynotes and written argument on business, cities, the legal profession and the common good.
Featured Conversations
Long-form interviews on the questions facing the city and the profession.
Speaking
Keynotes and panels for business, legal and civic audiences.
Lou speaks on city building, the future of the legal profession, the relationship between institutions and the communities they sit in, and what it takes to move a complex mandate forward.
Recent · Keynote
Winning the Future: Universities, Civic Trust, and the Common Good
Opportunity Marketplace ’26 · 25 August 2026 · The Loft in The Hub, McMaster University
Lou opened the W Booth School’s fourth annual Opportunity Marketplace with a keynote on the power of university-community collaboration, with a particular focus on Hamilton and the surrounding region. On whether universities will remain institutions that produce knowledge, or become trusted civic partners capable of helping communities act on it. A city that is not viable cannot be generous.
Also upcoming
Moderator, Hamilton Mayoral Debate
Hamilton Chamber of Commerce · 1 October 2026, 6:00pm · The Hamilton Club
Lou puts Hamilton’s three leading mayoral candidates — Andrea Horwath, Keanin Loomis and Rob Cooper — to the city’s business, civic and community questions ahead of the 2026 municipal election.
Reading list for builders in complex civic systems
A companion to the keynote. These readings extend its central questions: how cities and institutions evolve, how ambition is shaped by place, how change emerges from complex systems, and how leaders can build and convene without pretending complexity can be engineered away.
- 01The Death and Life of Great American Cities Jane Jacobs
- 02Cities and Ambition Paul Graham
- 03An Essay on the History of Civil Society Adam Ferguson
- 04Song of Myself Walt Whitman
- 05Chaos: Making a New Science James Gleick
- 06The Structure of Scientific Revolutions Thomas S. Kuhn
- 07The Fifth Discipline Peter M. Senge
- 08Leadership Without Easy Answers Ronald A. Heifetz
- 09Governing the Commons Elinor Ostrom
- 10Building and Dwelling Richard Sennett
- 11Mission Economy Mariana Mazzucato
- 12Triumph of the City Edward Glaeser
- 13Thinking, Fast and Slow Daniel Kahneman
- 14Not for Profit Martha C. Nussbaum
- 15The Public and Its Problems John Dewey
Mavericks · Television Series
The signature television series.
Lou hosts Mavericks on Cable 14 Hamilton, a long-form conversation with the people shaping the city: civic leaders, business builders, institutional heads and the occasional police chief.
The most recent episode is a conversation with Hamilton Police Chief Frank Bergen that begins with a 1970s Ford Gran Torino and continues into a ride-along downtown, covering policing, public safety and leadership in extraordinarily challenging times.
Accelerating Business · Podcast
Host of the Gowling WLG podcast.
Accelerating Business is a Gowling WLG podcast exploring the forces reshaping how organizations work, through the voices of the business, educational and government leaders driving and responding to them. Lou hosted all ten episodes. In episode five the format reverses and Jordan Furlong interviews him.
Guests included two city managers, a sitting mayor, the CEO of Hamilton Health Sciences, the CEO of McMaster Innovation Park, a college dean, and executives from WestJet and KPMG.
- EP01Understanding and adapting to technological disruption Alfredo Tan, Chief Digital & Innovation Officer, WestJet · 20 December 2019
- EP07Building relationships and facing challenges Chris Murray, City Manager of Toronto · 1 June 2020
- EP06The persistence in leadership Rob MacIsaac, President & CEO, Hamilton Health Sciences · 14 May 2020
Lou in the News
Coverage, interviews and profiles by others.
Selected journalism, broadcast segments and profiles in which Lou features or is quoted, as distinct from the writing he publishes himself.
Moderator
The Hamilton mayoral debate
Lou moderated the 2022 Hamilton mayoral debate, putting the candidates to the city’s business, civic and community questions. He returns as moderator for the 2026 municipal election debate on 1 October 2026 at The Hamilton Club, with Hamilton’s three leading mayoral candidates: Andrea Horwath, Keanin Loomis and Rob Cooper.
Print Media & Writing
Argument in public.
Lou writes regularly for The Hamilton Spectator and on LinkedIn on urban policy, access to justice, public space and the legal profession. Recent pieces include the case for deliberation over prohibition on AI data centres, and an argument that revitalization and compassion are not opposing commitments.
Read InsightsA consequential mandate deserves more than a narrow response.
For speaking enquiries, interview requests or a conversation about a mandate.