Newfoundland born Rick Mercer is a Geminiwinning television actor and best selling author who chronicles, satirizes, and ultimately celebrates all that is great and irreverent about this country. His top-rated CBC show, The Rick Mercer Report features his trademark rants, hilarious fake newscasts, commercial parodies, and comic encounters with famous Canadians. On full display is his understanding of what delights, and occasionally enrages us about our politicians, our media, our neighbours to the south, our unique pop culture, and our place in the world.

Together, Restaurateur Stephen Beckta and Chef Michael Moffatt have brought you BECKTA dining & wine, Ottawa's #1 restaurant and critically-acclaimed, small plates Play food & wine. This dynamic duo has raised the bar immeasurably on fine dining in the nation's capital. On November 15th, they will harness their exceptional talents to create a unique culinary experience that transcends typical event catering. Playing off of their signature chef's tasting menus, Beckta's team will lead you through an interactive tasting menu of exceptional ingredients before the main event. They will welcome you back for an encore with an array of delightful desserts after the show.

Hope Live Songwriters' Circle brings together some of today's most talented Canadian singer-songwriters sharing songs and stories in an aucoustic environment. It's an up close and personal audience experience with Juno and Grammy award winning artists – Jim Cuddy, Kathleen Edwards, Gordie Sampson, and Ron Sexsmith. Four stools, four guitars, four voices and a night you won't soon forget.

When Jim Cuddy got his first guitar at the age of ten, the first song he learned was Gordon Lightfoot's "That's What You Get For Loving Me". Today, twenty-five years after the formation of Blue Rodeo, Jim Cuddy and Greg Keelor are widely respected as one of Canada's best songwriting teams.

In 1998, Jim released All in Time which went on to sell Gold in his native Canada. His next album, 2006's The Light That Guides You Home, was released to critical acclaim and won the Juno for Adult Alternative Album of the Year.

On September 27, 2011 Jim will be releasing Skyscraper Soul, his 3rd solo album. His voice, always a voluptuous instrument, has never sounded better and Cuddy proves once again that his songwriting ranks with the best Canada has to offer.

www.jimcuddy.com

Ottawa native Kathleen Edwards spent 2010 cooped up recording a new record with co-producer Justin Vernon (Bon Iver). The first fruits of their labour can be heard on the just released 7" entitled Wapusk. The full album is scheduled for release in 2012.

Kathleen will be touring this fall to begin road testing the new material. Along with long time band mates, Jim Bryson and Gord Tough, the trio will be performing in select Canadian, US and European markets. Included in the dates is a stop at the Pitchfork Festival in Paris, France.

Since the release of her debut LP, Failer (2003), Kathleen has toured across Canada, USA and Europe several times over, sharing the stages with the likes of My Morning Jacket, John Doe, Willie Nelson, and Bon Iver. Along the way Kathleen has garnered critical acclaim for her live shows and Juno Award nominated records Back To Me (2005) and Asking For Flowers (2008).

www.kathleenedwards.com

Gordie Sampson's worlds collide with the Canadian release of his new Country record, Almost Beautiful. Written with many of his long-time Nashville collaborators, the songs exemplify the kind of thoughtful and clever writing that has earned Sampson a Grammy award, multiple awards for his recordings and an international reputation as an outstanding songwriter. A musical chameleon, his production and performance slide easily into the contemporary country music scene here at home, and in America.

From September until May, Sampson lives and writes in Nashville,where he has become an established member of the community.

Carrie Underwood, Keith Urban, Little Big Town and Faith Hill are just a few American artists who have covered Sampson's songs. In the summers, he heads back home to Canada to spend time with family and friends in his beloved Cape Breton and to perform in the Maritimes where audiences welcome him, year after year.

Despite the rarity of his Canadian concerts, Sampson continues to find a home on Canadian radio and garner awards and nominations for his records.

www.gordiesampson.com

Ron Sexsmith is a Juno Awardwinning singersongwriter acclaimed for his insight into the human heart.Born in 1964, Ron was raised in St Catharines, Ontario. Brought up by his mother in low-income government housing, Ron's largely absent father left behind a box of Johnny Cash and Little Anthony And The Imperials singles which would serve as songbook primers.

Ron 's 1995 self-titled debut, produced by Mitchell Froom, represented the cream of nearly 200 songs that had been road-tested for years in the bars of Ontario. Fans like Elvis Costello called it an instant classic, while Rod Stewart led an eventual legion of admiring artists from Feist to Michael Bublé in covering Ron's work.

What has followed is a body of work that very few songwriting recording artists, living or dead, can match for consistently sky-high quality. As legendary record producer Daniel Lanois, told Love Shines, the documentary about the making of Ron's new album, Long Player Late Bloomer,"Not a lot of people have Ron's gift: the ability to see a tiny snapshot of a feeling, then expand upon it and deliver a beautiful song. The songs are like Polaroids."

Though no stranger to the stage, Ron is naturally shy and ambivalent about public attention, craving validation of his music yet distrustful of success for success' sake.

www.ronsexsmith.com