I’m heading off to Florida for the weekend, but looking at the forecast I’m starting to think I should have just stayed in Toronto. (Just kidding!) But before I left, I wanted to make certain to remind everyone to catch my first episode of The Big Decision on CBC, Monday March 19 at 9pm.

In this episode, I come in to see if there’s anything I can do for two struggling Canadian companies — Toronto boutique retailer Lavish & Squalor and Ottawa fair-trade food producer Camino. Is there hope? What happens in the end? I can’t tell you! You’ll just have to watch it and see!

• Watch a preview of The Big Decision

Have a great weekend and a fabulous St. Patrick’s Day!

“Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.” You’ve heard that before, haven’t you? We all have. Because it really is. Breakfast is the fuel that gets us going. It gives us the energy we need for the day, it helps us concentrate, and it boosts our creativity and problem-solving. That sounds pretty important to me. (I need all the boost I can get!)

But if it’s important for me, it’s so much more important for children. They’re still growing, developing, learning. This is the most crucial time of their lives, because what they do today will help them become who they are in the future.

The problem is 1 in 10 Canadian children are at risk of going to school hungry every day.

The Breakfast Clubs of Canada is changing that. They’re helping feed breakfasts to children in need across the country right now. How many breakfasts? 18 million across Canada every year. Because every kid deserves an equal chance to shine at school. And at life.

Just last week, I had a chance to go to one of their events at Highfield Junior School in Etobicoke where they fed over 100 students. 100 kids, all getting a breakfast they might not normally get. And the look on these children’s faces at simply getting a healthy meal — they just… lit up. I can’t express how it made me feel. Beyond humbled.

• See ET Canada coverage of the event at Highfield Junior School

As a mother and a grandmother, it’s hard for me to think of anything more important than making sure children all across the country have access to healthy breakfasts to start the day. So I’m doing what I can to help. And you can too.

You can support the Breakfast Clubs of Canada a number of ways:

• As part of their Help Them Shine Campaign, you can go to Walmart and purchase a $1 bookmark. You can also buy select food products from Danone, Folgers, Kellogg’s, Laughing Cow, and Uncle Ben’s in Walmarts across Canada and they’ll donate a portion of these sales during the Help Them Shine Campaign.
• You can also text BREAKFAST to 45678 to donate $5.
• And you can go to breakfastclubscanada.org and donate online.

$1 feeds one child one breakfast. $5 is a whole week.

We can do this.

For more information, please visit:

http://facebook.com/BreakfastClubsCanadaFanClub

http://breakfastclubscanada.org/

http://twitter.com/BreakfastCanada

I just got home from my holiday in the Bahamas and I’m still expecting to find umbrellas in my drinks. So as I’m trying to get used to wearing boots instead of sandals again, I’m also trying to get my head around what an absolutely crazy fall I just had.

The sixth season of Dragon’s Den is in full swing — I still don’t know how I ended up at the altar with Kevin! — and at the same time, I’ve been filming my new show The Big Decision. On top of all that, I travelled back and forth across the country, speaking at events in Halifax, Dawson Creek, Kitchener, Edmonton, and Toronto (just to name a few!). In November, I got to spend an incredible weekend in Kananaskis with the whole team from Venture — now that’s an inspiring bunch of people.

And my book Persuasion came out this fall. And the response has been far beyond my wildest dreams. I just found out it was 17th on the Globe & Mail bestseller list for 2011. That was a nice surprise.

But as I look back, what I’m going to remember most about the past fall is all the conversations I’ve had and the reactions I’ve received from readers all across the country. At book signings, by mail, online, or just on the street, so many people have spoken to me about how Persuasion has touched them and inspired them and encouraged them.

It’s hard to describe how special it is to me to know people have read Persuasion. To choose to read a book is a sizeable commitment in time and energy. When you decide to read a book, you are dedicating a portion of your life to it. And that’s a responsibility I don’t take lightly. So to know people have given their time to my words and my thoughts and then felt like they had received real value from it — that they feel it has changed who they are and how they think — I literally can’t think of a better Christmas present. So to all of you… thank you. So much.

But enough of this. It’s a new year full of new opportunities and new surprises. And I can’t wait to see what happens.

I also can’t wait for spring.