The Economist Cannabis Summit special edition featuring retailer Robin Ellins from Toronto's Friendly Stranger, Abbey Epstein Director of "Weed the People" and James Tebrake from Statistics Canada

Welcome The Economist Cannabis Summit special edition of The Voice of Retail podcast, I’m your host Michael LeBlanc and this podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada. This special episode contains content intended for listeners 19+.

Held in Toronto June 5, The Economist Cannabis Summit brought together an international roster of speakers addressing the cannabis industry from several perspectives, and true to The Economist magazine brought insights and sometimes controversy to the main stage.

I was able to chat with three of the many interesting people in the cannabis industry represented at this event starting with veteran Toronto retail Robin Ellins, owner of the Friendly Stranger, this year celebrating 25 years in the cannabis culture and accessory space from his Queen Street store in Toronto. We talked about authenticity and what it will take to compete in the retail cannabis marketplace in the years to come.

Next I spoke with Emmy award winning director Abbey Epstein on her documentary “Weed The People” which looks at medical cannabis in the U.S., and talk about the lessons she learned about the plant’s history of stigmatization and prospects for decriminalization in America.

Last but certainly not least a rare, exclusive interview with Jim Tebrake, Assistant Chief statistician, Economic Statistics, Statistics Canada about the innovative approach Stats. Canada took to sizing the retail (black market) cannabis market and his ongoing insights measuring Canadians use and consumption and the industries production dynamics.

Let’s jump right in now starting with my interview with Robin from The Friendly Stranger

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Thanks again to my special guests Robin, Abby and Jim for joining me on this special edition.

The day concluded with a fireside chat with Vicente Fox, former President of Mexico and current board member at Canada-based cannabis company Khiron Life Sciences, sharing his observations based on ten years of focus of the cannabis space. Amongst many things, he also spoke about integrating cannabis into NAFTA and other forward looking economic, policy and political objectives. Check out this interview in BNN:
https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/video/cannabis-should-be-tied-into-revamped-nafta-deal-former-mexico-president-vicente-fox~1701077

That’s a wrap on this edition of The Voice of Retail, if you liked this podcast you can subscribe on iTunes or your
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I’m Michael LeBlanc, Founder and President of M.E. LeBlanc and Company Inc. and you can learn more about me on www.meleblanc.co or of course on LinkedIn

Until then, have a great week

Michael LeBlanc is the president and founder of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc, a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and now, media entrepreneur.  He has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career. 

Michael has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions and participated worldwide in thought leadership panels, most recently on the main stage in Toronto at Retail Council of Canada’s Retail Marketing conference with leaders from Walmart & Google.  He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience with Levi's, Black & Decker, Hudson's Bay, CanWest Media, Pandora Jewellery, The Shopping Channel and Retail Council of Canada to his advisory, speaking and media practice.

Michael produces and hosts a network of leading retail trade podcasts, including the award-winning No.1 independent retail industry podcast in America, Remarkable Retail with his partner, Dallas-based best-selling author Steve Dennis; Canada's top retail industry podcast The Voice of Retail and Canada's top food industry and one of the top Canadian-produced management independent podcasts in the country, The Food Professor with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois from Dalhousie University in Halifax.

Rethink Retail has recognized Michael as one of the top global retail experts for the fifth year in a row, the National Retail Federation has designated Michael as on their Top Retail Voices for 2025, Thinkers 360 has named him on of the Top 50 global thought leaders in retail, RTIH has named him a top 100 global though leader in retail technology and Coresight Research has named Michael a Retail AI Influencer.  If you are a BBQ fan, you can tune into Michael’s cooking show, Last Request BBQ, on YouTube, Instagram, X and yes, TikTok.

Michael is available for keynote presentations helping retailers, brands and retail industry insiders explaining the current state and future of the retail industry in North America and around the world.