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Executive of the Week: Mark Holland Has Big Plans for Toronto's Canadian National Exhibition (CNE)
The nearly 150-year-old fair and its historic grounds have been under public pressure, but the former federal politician turned CEO has ambitious plans to transform it into a year-round destination and major entertainment hub — and, with the help of NXNE and Billboard Canada, bring it back to its major music roots.
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The Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) is one of Canada’s most nostalgic institutions, but it’s not all about the past — Mark Holland is trying to protect its future.
The CNE (or The Ex as it’s affectionately known) is the end-of-summer ritual where Torontonians play games, go on rides, eat stunt food, check out exhibitions and catch concerts.
Though music might not be everyone’s first thought when it comes to the CNE, it’s an important part of its DNA. Legendary bands have played there over the years, from Frank Sinatra to Louis Armstrong, The Who to Blondie.
Now, it’s a pivotal part of its present. A celebrated new partnership with NXNE, along with Billboard Canada and Rolling Stone Canada (all three are under the ownership umbrella of AMG), will help modernize the musical selections with up-and-coming and major charting acts at the fair and throughout the year, while new stages at and outside the Food Building and revitalized programming at the Bandshell will turn it into a destination for music as much as food and entertainment.
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“Music is such a massive part of who we are,” says Holland. “Connecting everybody to that is a democratic mission that we are really invested in.”
Holland became the CEO of the CNE last summer, literally hours before the 2025 edition’s media day. When the fair returns from August 21 to September 7, he will have had a full year in the role — and it comes with very ambitious plans.
The executive spent most of his career in politics, most recently as an important member of the Canadian federal government under Justin Trudeau. Now, he’s using that big picture thinking to protect the importance of the CNE as an institution, and make it live up to its potential as the nucleus of an entertainment hub on the waterfront that will be active year-round. He talks passionately about his big plans for the Food Building as an entertainment hub connected by splashy new public transit, new casino and food zones, bars and stages throughout the grounds.
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That’s vital to ensure its survival, he says. Otherwise, it’s at risk of becoming just another part of the city with condos and coffee shops. “It can be so much more,” he says.
In this week’s Executive of the Week, Holland tells about his vision for the grounds and why it’s grow or die for the CNE. The next three years will be vital, he says, and it will show the world what the CNE is capable of.
“In 2029, we’re going to turn 150 years old,” he says. “The goal is for that to be the highest and best expression of the CNE. And then that will be the new gold standard for every year.”
You stepped into this role just before the CNE last year, which I think some might have been surprised by. Your background is in politics and you were previously the Minister of Health. How did that lead you to this role as a career evolution?
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I spent a lot of time in municipal politics and federal politics, did everything from being a whip to House Leader to Minister of Health.
I made a decision that I wasn't running in the last election, and I had no idea what I was going to do. I intended to take the summer off, take a bit of a break, and a good friend passed me this role and said, “I think you’d be great for this.”
The CNE has been a big part of my life as it has been for so many people in the GTA. I love live music, fairs, events, festivals and live experiences. From [the CNE’s] perspective, there’s a lot of pressures on this site. There were a lot of political concerns about their survival, so I think that's one of the reasons they brought me in. But for me it was a lot of those personal passions that really drove it.
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Before he died, my grandfather's house was always this steady presence in my life. I think The Ex is the same thing for the city, that thing that you could always count on happening every year. It’s this thing that we all do at the end of the summer, that bittersweet moment to try to soak up what’s left and really celebrate it. The idea of working on a Canadian institution that’s so important to the country at a moment that's really critical for its future is really compelling.
You’ve mentioned the uncertainty surrounding the site. What were some of the specific threats to the CNE when you came in?
There was a lot of pressure in terms of redevelopment of the site here at Exhibition Place and the uncertainty that shrouded the site — making sure that there's a footprint that protects not only the long term interests of the CNE but the site for exhibition. It’s so easy for this to turn into a collection of town homes, condos and coffee shops. Nothing against those, but there’s enough of them.
We don't have anywhere like this, in the centre of a city, anywhere in the country. 192 acres. And then there’s the Ontario Place lands as the broader complex. Having that as an entertainment complex, a place for exhibition, for entertainment, for the city to come together and celebrate and really connect to itself culturally is so critical. Decision by decision, inch by inch, cut by cut, it's disappearing.
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Working with Exhibition Place and Don Boyle, who have been phenomenal partners on this, it's really saying, “OK, how do we reverse that?”
How do you make the site meet its potential beyond the days of the CNE?
Outside of those 18 days, we haven't been actualizing it. Inside the buildings, there's huge activity, but you walk the lands and there's nothing happening.
Right now it’s a highly transactional site. You come in and you go to a concert or you go to a sporting event or a conference, and you get in, you get out. I think the thing that makes something special is the pre and the post. What are you doing before? What are you doing after? That is where we want to make these lands come alive with 365 activity.
We're talking with our partners on the site to create experiences when we've got a Toronto FC or Toronto Tempo game happening right next door at BMO Field and Coca-Cola Coliseum. You go to Wrigley Field or Fenway Park, and the before and after is just as much fun as the game. You go to a Bills game and it’s the tailgating beforehand. We want to end that feeling of transactionality where you’re dreading leaving because of the traffic or the crowds. We want you to come early and stay late because we’ve created a zone of entertainment that’s bigger than any one individual event.
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Right now, the Food Building is only open 18 days a year. That’s going to literally sit at the door of Ontario Line. When 10 million people or so are starting to flow through Ontario Line, what are they going to be opening up to, a brick wall with a garage door, a 72-year-old derelict building, or the gateway to a whole entertainment complex?
Obviously, we're advocating for the latter.
The Ex has historically been very important to the Toronto and Canadian music scene. The CNE Bandshell has hosted legendary shows from artists like Louis Armstrong, Johnny Cash, Joni Mitchell, Blondie and more. How does live music play into your plans?
A lot of people don’t think about it. The Bandshell is turning 90 years old. I’ve looked. I don’t think there’s an older music festival in North America. We have at times really focused on live music and then drifted away from it. This partnership with Billboard Canada, Rolling Stone Canada and NXNE is our declaration that we really feel that we should be a major international music festival paired with a fair.
This is a time where music has really gotten out of reach for a lot of people. For $30 you're able to come on site here [at the CNE] and have access to all these different stages of music and interactive things that people can participate in. The idea to me is that music really is the beating core of it.
What are some of the music moments that have stuck most with you?
It's hard to beat last year, being the CEO and coming in so excited. We had Marianas Trench and every inch was filled. People were packed outside, people were climbing up trees. That was just electric. Everybody knew the words, everybody was singing along. July Talk has always been one of my favourite bands. That was exciting too.
Over the years you get a lot of different experiences like that to varying degrees, and it is kind of surprising to me because when I would talk to people, people would be like, “Oh, the CNE has music?”
At one point there was Exhibition Stadium and there used to be very large acts [like The Who, Bruce Springsteen, Rush], but people have forgotten that we have that kind of musical calibre.
We want to return to that. That’s the journey here. We want to return to a place where not just major music happens, but really on the landscape internationally as a music festival.
What will this partnership with NXNE, Billboard Canada and Rolling Stone look like?
You know that moment where you encounter a new band that you were not expecting that just blows you away? That's one of the coolest moments in life to discover something new that you’re falling in love with. Being able to bring that experience every day to the CNE is super exciting.
Fans are going to be able to vote for who their favorite artists are during NXNE and those artists who are selected are then going to be performing on the emerging artist stage before and after the Bandshell.
Because we're having them in quicker succession 45 minutes at a time, you're going to be able to test out a whole bunch of different bands at once. It's a bit of a charcuterie board of new music to try out a bunch of new things.
We’ll also have a Rolling Stone and a Billboard night at the Bandshell that will have a bigger artist than you might have expected at the CNE. Then before and after that, we can introduce you to the bands you’ll be discovering.
A lot of thought has gone into curating the music that's going to be here. We want you to treat it like an adventure, the same way you would treat trying some of the wild food that we have here.
What have been some of the biggest challenges in helping the CNE grow and to protect it?
We're in a real growth phase. It's our philosophy that the best way to protect these lands is to be on offense, not defense — to be creating, to be building, to be doing.
What’s the risk if you don’t?
We'll get smaller every year until we finally disappear, as so many fairs and festivals have.
This is too important an institution to let that happen, but in order to make sure it doesn't happen, we have to have an aggressive, bold vision to displace that slow death by 1000 cuts. Every inch that encroaches on the site means it's less likely that we can protect this fair.
If we get this [site] right, this will put us on the list of the greatest waterfronts in the world. There’s the [relocated] Ontario Science Centre, the new RBC Amphitheatre, Coca-Cola Coliseum, BMO Field, the new eSports arena, the new festival plaza, the original Bandshell, the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, the new food building as the nuclear core. You tell me another place on Earth, dead centre in a major city, fully connected by GO Train and subways, streetcars — it doesn't exist.
We have to realize this. This is an opportunity to put Toronto on the map internationally and really take us to the next level. This is not just city building, it's nation building. We have to achieve it.
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