Canada at a Crossroads: Economic Predictions for 2025 and Beyond

Roundtable Luncheon with Cynthia Leach, Jean-Francois Perrault and Douglas Porter.

C.D. Howe Institute events and webinars are open to members and their guests. Please follow this link or contact events@cdhowe.org to register.  

Cynthia Leach, Assistant Chief Economist, Thought Leadership, RBC

Cynthia is Assistant Chief Economist at RBC covering the team’s structural economic and policy analysis. She joined in 2020.

Previously, Cynthia was an executive at Finance Canada, most recently heading a team responsible for housing finance policy.

Cynthia holds an M.A. Economics degree from the University of Toronto.

Jean-François Perrault, Senior Vice-President and Chief Economist, Scotiabank  

Jean-François Perrault joined Scotiabank in 2015 as Senior Vice-President and Chief Economist. He leads a team of Economists to support Scotiabank’s domestic and international business lines and clients from retail to capital markets, providing Scotiabank's senior executives, business lines and customers with perspectives, insights and forecasts on economic, financial market and policy developments.    

Prior to joining Scotiabank, Jean-François held prominent roles with the federal government, the Bank of Canada, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.     

Douglas Porter, CFA, Chief Economist and Managing Director, BMO Financial Group 

Douglas Porter has over 30 years of experience analyzing global economies and financial markets. As Chief Economist at BMO Financial Group and author of the popular Talking Points, he oversees the macroeconomic and financial market forecasts and co-writes the firm’s weekly flagship publication, Focus. Mr. Porter manages the team that has won numerous forecasting awards. Most recently, Douglas led the team to a #1 ranking for Top U.S. Forecaster among 60 global firms in the 2023 Focus Economics Survey, and #1 for Top Canadian Inflation Forecaster among 28 firms. Also, his team took the #1 spot in the StarMine Awards for Most Accurate Forecasters for Canada in 2022.  

As a respected commentator on economic and financial trends, he is regularly quoted in the national press and often interviewed on radio and television. Douglas’ career began at the Bank of Canada; then, before joining BMO, he held the positions of Economist and Country Risk Analyst with other Canadian financial institutions.

He has been a member of C.D. Howe’s Monetary Policy Council since 2008 and serves on the Investment Management Committees of the Bank of Montreal’s Canada Pension Plan and Western’s Endowment Fund.   

Douglas Porter, CFA, earned a Master’s degree in Economics from the University of Western Ontario.