Tanzeel Merchant and University of Toronto

University of Toronto: All difficult topics to be sure, and ones we tend to avoid, says Merchant, 40, who was born in Calcutta, raised in Mumbai, and came to Canada in 2000 to do graduate studies at the University of Toronto, where he obtained his Masters in urban design, according to The Star. Though he has moved around he decided, at age 27, to settle in Toronto because its the first place he felt at home and Culture, identity, demographic shifts, and the impact of our oil dependence on the environment: all are key themes Canadians need to talk about on the way to answering the question of the kind of nation we are building, says architect, planner and urban designer Tanzeel Merchant. He has lived in New Delhi and the Netherlands, and his professional life includes his current work as a consultant in Alberta, where with the regional municipality of Wood Buffalo and the local oil sands industry hes working on developing a strategy that deals with managing the regions growth, land use, and infrastructure challenges. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.