daniel debow

CEO, Debow Musical Instruments ❤️🇨🇦 4x co-founder. Company producer. @Build_Canada

[daniel debow @ddebow]

Your odds of being great at anything are directly proportional to your willingness to suck at it for a long time.

[daniel debow @ddebow]

think about how many people’s lives this impacted. how many more entrepreneurs there are.

congrats @tobi

[tobi lutke @tobi]

Shopify launched to the public 20 years ago today

[Michael Geist @mgeist]

Mark Carney's antisemitism speech finally named the crisis without equivocation. Now no one can say they don’t know. But my post argues that the speech did not meet the moment: wrong venue, no account of the source of hate, no urgency, and no new policy.
https://t.co/YFU9KRQ94I

[Eric Lombardi (EricForOLP.ca) 🇨🇦🚀 @EricDLombardi]

Did you know Ontario’s health system sends over 150M faxes every year?

We've been trying to replace them with a universal digital health record for more than 20 years.

We've already spent over $10B on it, or $3,000 for every family, and we still don't have one.

[Eric Lombardi (EricForOLP.ca) 🇨🇦🚀 @EricDLombardi]

I’m often asked if I am a “tough on crime” Liberal. It’s the wrong question.

What I do believe is that we’ve lost an important principle in Canadian justice:

🇨🇦 The law should apply equally to all, without discrimination 🇨🇦

I don’t think many disagree. But what do I mean?

When it comes to justice, I believe verdicts/sentencing should be be based on three simple factors:

1) The crime committed
2) The harm done to the victim
3) The future risk to society

That’s it.

Factors specific to the criminal such as:

- Social determinants (income, education)
- Mental health or addictions
- Cultural, religious, or ethnic identities
- Immigration status

Shouldn’t be considerations in sentencing, as they result in discriminatory application of the law.

This is obvious to most people!

Now, they could matter for where a sentence is carried out (eg, asylum/rehab for those whose mental health or addition issues led to criminality). But they should not result in reduced sentencing.

Also, frankly, our tolerance level for non-citizen criminality should be zero.

In fact, I find recent cases of reduced sentences due to deportation risk on the criminal to be highly prejudiced; as if there are not millions of good people who live in the countries they would return to.

Ontario/Canada is not a charity, our standards for creating new citizens should be high!

Furthermore, I do think we should take cases of recurring public nuisance and repeat offending much more seriously.

Why? Because public safety, and perceptions of it (such as on transit or in the ER) are hugely important for social trust to invest in great public systems.

For example, in April, the Globe and Mail reported the arrest of a troubled man in Toronto with over 125 convictions in 30 years! 10 days after release from a 20 month sentence.

That is obviously a terrible outcome for justice and public safety. Repeat offenses, even for petty crime, should result in far stricter sentencing given the risk to the public. Common sense!

Many of these individuals also deserve dignity, treatment, shelter, and care.

There are some people who can’t function on their own in society and we should help them. It would benefit everyone and cost less than the status quo.

In 1965 we had nearly 230 mental health/asylum beds per 100K people.

Today it’s closer to 30 (1/7th).

It’s okay to admit we were wrong in unwinding this system so much and invest more in mental health and rehab beds as part of our health system.

Look, I use transit nearly every day, so I share the frustrations people have for how frequent and visible disorder has become. It’s a real problem that only seems to get worse each year!

And look, I still align with many progressives who think we should prioritize prevention and mitigation against crime through understanding social factors behind it, and invest in mitigation. But it’s not one or the other, it’s yes, and!

I don’t think any of this is “tough” or “weak” on crime, just common sense.

That’s what we need to see return to criminal justice. And this will guide my approach, if I am ever elected.

[Matt Gurney @mattgurney]

Remember how excited everyone was a year ago to get rid of all these idiotic internal barriers? We flaked out. It was too hard or locally controversial.

We are our own worst enemies. Hands down. Trump is simply daring to jab at the wounds we’ve inflicted on ourselves.

[daniel debow @ddebow]

@KevinVuongxMP @ruffoloj @TOtechweek @KevinVuongxMP - thanks for the convo - and esp for sharing the story of Irving Himel and Kew Dock Yip.

[Build Canada @build_canada]

COO of Uber @andrewgordonmac shouts out our Outcomes Tracker yesterday at #TorontoTechWeek Homecoming when discussing Federal Government efficiency. 🇨🇦

"I think the accountability tracker that Build Canada has built is amazing, and if you haven't checked this out you you should look at it... I and I check it regularly".

Excellence in government is necessary now more than ever, and it's possible if we demand it.

[daniel debow @ddebow]

@murphytodd an entirely new one…

because you can just do things.

[Fahd Ananta @fahdananta]

Look, I’m not a die hard Toronto fan. I do think the city is unique and special.

I see all the negativity about Toronto Tech Week though. It makes no sense. It’s okay to enjoy life, life is beautiful. It’s okay to have positive vibes, you don’t have to just be repressed. I personally hate events but this is special to me because we see all the excellence around you. If you miss it, it genuinely is a skill issue.

Nothing is ever perfect. By that same logic some of ya’ll should delete Twitter before you get your bread up.

Lastly, on @skanwar. Man, you guys don’t know how much he does for the love of the game. The guy is a certified G but he’s up at 6am personally running around just to pay it forward. There is excellence everywhere for those with eyes to see.

Here’s a good heuristic. Next time before you complain, ask yourself are you part of the solution. If not then whatever you have to say is kind of irrelevant.

Thank you for all that you do @skanwar. Let me speak at TTW next year 🤐

[daniel debow @ddebow]

@harleyf 🙏

[daniel debow @ddebow]

Go Build Audaciously. ❤️🇨🇦

[Harley Finkelstein @harleyf]

@mcgillu Here's my convocation speech (hint: it's about my immigrant family & entrepreneurship)

[daniel debow @ddebow]

@harleyf @markmulroney @mcgillu mazel tov!!

[daniel debow @ddebow]

@scottastevenson @rabois @jmwind big get! congrats to both of you.

[Toronto Tech Week @TOtechweek]

Watch Homecoming LIVE starting at 9:00AM ET today. 🇨🇦 https://t.co/F6qvk7rsRU

[Satish Kanwar @skanwar]

@sciohn_fhanne One doesn't work without the other.

Vibes set momentum, momentum creates companies, companies build economies.

Being cynical is a choice. Doing something about it is a choice. I'd rather we go hard for the city, succeed or fail, than point fingers.

[Toronto Tech Week @TOtechweek]

Toronto Tech Week is here.

For the next five days, founders, investors, operators, creators, students, and builders are taking over the city for hundreds of community-led events.

One week. Hundreds of events. Endless possibilities.

Built by Toronto, for the world.

[Satish Kanwar @skanwar]

Welcome (back) to Toronto for @TOtechweek! We're now at 600+ events happening for you across the greatest city in the world.

Do not underestimate us. Do not underestimate yourself.

Let's go.

[Farhan Thawar @fnthawar]

Excellent clip from @somseif on overcoming the fear of failure in 🇨🇦

More of this please

[daniel debow @ddebow]

@Alex_Danco @hunkybill @lauriewired lol. always room for improvement…

[daniel debow @ddebow]

@fnthawar there was something vaguely familiar with this description.