Cassie Campbell-Pascal is a long-time Canadian pride who has had her fair share of contributions to the sports scene. 

For starters, it’s impressive how she made waves as a hockey player when she was still active, winning two Olympic championships and six world championships.

After retiring, she made history once again by being the first woman colour commentator on Hockey Night in Canada. From there, she made the transition to being a keynote speaker, specialising in topics of leadership, coming out of comfort zones, resilience, and more.

From what we’ve seen, one of her main goals is to promote positivity, which she does during these talks. It’s admirable how she incorporates her real-life stories into her talks and turns them into life-changing lessons for youth and adults alike.

One of the most perfect examples of this is one of her signature talks called “Learning From Challenges”. This tackles the story of how she along with the rest of her team won their first gold Olympic gold medal after losing at the previous Olympics.

From our surveys, we found that many people came out of her talks feeling more positive and motivated. This is a plus in our books since it proves her effectiveness as a speaker, proving her ability to get through to her audience.

On the downside, we found that Cassie doesn’t have certifications and accolades with regard to being a keynote speaker. If the only things you look at for credibility are these two aspects, this may be a dealbreaker for you.

However, we strongly feel like this “lack” is made up for by the years of experience she has on her topics. Also, she does have notable accolades, but it’s from her time as an active player, which is an impressive feat in itself.

Anthony Lue is one of the most inspiring motivational speakers in Toronto. What struck us about him is he’s a survivor of a horrific accident that completely altered the path of his life as the next best baseball player, as he became a paraplegic.

Admirably, this didn’t stop him, as he used this experience to bring inspiration to people who may have gone through the same unfortunate events as him. This is why some of the topics for his talks include resiliency, conquering adversity, inclusivity and diversity.

You can also expect him to do these “real talks” where he encourages others to not give up amidst adversities. Instead, he encourages listeners to use these experiences to reinvent themselves.

We also like how his personality stands out. There’s just something about his positivity amidst his experience that makes his listeners captivated by his meaningful talks, whether it be about mental health, leadership and more.

It’s also worth noting that what he’s spreading isn’t false positivity, as he’s continuing his pursuit of being an athlete. This makes his listeners more inspired after his talks, as they can see an actual example in front of them.

If we were to nitpick something we didn’t about his services, however, it would be his slightly above-average booking prices. It is worth noting, however, that his prices will vary depending on the audience size, event format and event location.

If you can look past that, however, you’ll get one of the most electric speakers that kids and adults will instantly gravitate towards at your event.

If you want to boost your company’s morale, Mike Duffy is your guy! Topics around the workspace are this motivational speaker’s bread and butter, which is why you’ll want to book him if you think that your employees need some motivation.

Just to give you an idea of what you can expect from his sessions, here are the titles of some of his most famous talks: 

• The Most Important Leadership Skills for Workplace Success.
• Life 101: Purpose, Happiness and Money.
• Happiness, Success & Resilience!

One of his signature talks that we wanted to highlight is a pretty self-explanatory one called “How To Be Happier At Work”. It’s a great way to boost any company’s morale as it changes your perspective on the workspace and how to balance your personal and professional lives.

This being said, we like how he’s able to talk about these topics to different companies, which says a lot about his flexibility. He can switch up his talks and charisma to build a better rapport between him and his audience.

Speaking of charisma, he’s also known for his loose yet authoritative nature on the podium. His ability to capture the attention of his listeners while maintaining a casual tone is an impressive feat that not many speakers possess.

The only downside we see with him as a motivational speaker is the somewhat limited topics that he goes over. Although we understand that he has his niche, we can see this being a dealbreaker for some people who are looking to find an all-around speaker.

Dena Jackson is one of the most engaging motivational speakers in Toronto because of her background as a comic. We love how she’s able to incorporate her humour into her talks, as it makes the overall session that much more entertaining and engaging.

We also heard that whichever event she’s booked in, she manages to make the audience roar with laughter and applause.

As for her track record, all you need to do is look at where she’s been featured in her career already to know that she’s legit. We took it upon ourselves to research this and some of the names we saw were Sirius XM, TED and CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation).

Most of her topics revolve around mental health, mindfulness and self-care. However, her style and ability to control the crowd make these somewhat sensitive topics a bit more fun to talk about.

One of her signature talks called “90% of Yoga is Off the Mat” is an insightful take on mental health and self-awareness. It tackles the importance of exercises such as meditating and yoga and how it helps people prepare for life’s many avalanches.

These topics are why we think she’s such a hit with the youth as they’re some of the trendiest things to talk about in this day and age. Of course, it also helps that she has an electrifying charisma, but that’s a whole other story. 

She’s also quite relatable, which is an important thing to look for in a speaker. By being a person that people can see themselves in, she makes whatever she’s talking about feel more authentic.

One thing we noticed about her, however, is that her topics are quite limited as opposed to other motivational speakers.

All in all, we think that she’s a solid choice if you want your students or employees to be engaged throughout the talk. This is especially true for colleges and universities, as she’s also gone on record to say that they’re her favourite places to hold talks.