Advance - Toronto

Message from Advance Toronto Chair and Australian Canadian Association (YACA) President, Tom Vandepeer

Welcome to Advance Toronto (Trading as YACA, The Australian Canadian Association). Toronto is Canada’s financial centre and largest city with a profoundly multicultural feel. The city is 1.5 hours by air to cities such as New York, Philadelphia, Hartford, Boston, and Chicago, and used as a ‘soft landing’ for many companies breaking into North American trade along the Eastern seaboard – while still providing excellent windows of communication to European centres. With over 100 ethnic groups and a thriving Australian Canadian business and social community, Toronto is an excellent place to live and work. Advance Toronto/YACA has a thriving membership of around 300, working across multiple industries, including Financial Services, Consulting, Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals, Information Technology, Arts and many more.

Our executive is focused on building upon the organization’s status as a hub of Australian Canadian activity in Canada, and we enjoy solid support from the Australian Trade Commission and local chambers of commerce. Please feel free to email us with any questions or for information about Advance/YACA in Toronto and our regular schedule of events. We welcome new members and visitors!

Advance Toronto Committee

Tom Vandepeer, Chair
Tom Vandepeer is New Business Manager for Bay Area Health Trust, a healthcare holding company in Ontario. He has been in Canada since 2003, after a successful management consulting career back in Australia.

Tom has been President of the Australian Canadian Association since late 2003, supported and driven by an intelligent, active team. YACA became the Toronto office of the Advance network in early 2006.

Committee Members
Tom Vandepeer
Jon Eckfeld, City Editor

Michael Shipley

Elizabeth Burrough

Matthew Snare

Johanna Bell

Olivia Susai

Justin Robinson

Adam Gordon

The Advance Australian community is continually expanding. If you are interested in joining the Advance Toronto committee, please email us with your expression of interest an any questions you may have.

Any Advance members in Toronto want to go to the movies? We have double passes to give away for the imagineNATIVE screening of Australian Film Samson and Delilah on Friday the 21st of October at 9pm. Email jess@advance.org for your chance to win!

The imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival is an international festival in Toronto that celebrates the latest works by Indigenous peoples on the forefront of innovation in film, video, radio, and new media. Each fall, the festival presents a selection of the most compelling and distinctive Indigenous works from around the globe. The festival's screenings, parties, panel discussions, and cultural events attract and connect filmmakers, media artists, programmers, buyers, and industry professionals. The works accepted reflect the diversity of the world's Indigenous nations and illustrate the vitality and excellence of our art and culture in contemporary media.

The Festival this year features one of Australia's biggest international hits. In Warwick Thornton's stunning feature film debut, two teenagers learn that love never judges as they struggle to find their footing. The film screens October 21st at 9pm in Toronto at the TIFF Bell Lightbox. [More...]

OTTAWA

Australian Driver's License Now Recognised in Ontario

From 25 January 2010 Australians living in Ontario will be able to simply exchange their Australian driver’s license for an Ontario license, without having to undergo a driving test. [More...]