I am one of those people trying to watch my weight. Usually this means alternating from binge eating to starvation (alternate days).
But I digress.
The point here is that I am also one of those people that sits in oodles of meetings every month on economic development issues and also reads dozens of articles on said subject matter.
And I am getting tired of the ‘pies’.
You see, just about every meeting these days – despite the politically incorrect posture of flaunting high carb, high fat food in the face of all in view – will include a reference to ‘the pie’. More specifically, somebody or some group wanting their share of ‘the pie’.
So, while one of the eight levels of consciousness in my brain is thinking about strawberry pie or rhubarb pie or mincemeat pie (with ice cream of course!), somebody is pounding a fist on the proverbial table and demanding more pie*.
Big communities or provinces want their ‘share of the pie’ (example Quebec’s aerospace industry). Small communities or provinces what a larger ‘share of the pie’ because the other guy has gotten a larger share for the past 30 years and now has grown fat and thinks he needs a larger share of the pie because he is so large.
Some complain they get almost no pie at all and they are starving (erstwhile bloggers pining for more foreign investment as one example).
Some are having whole pies thrown at them and are now telling the pie throwers to only throw banana cream pies (Brampton, Ontario for example).
Somebody actually used used the ‘pie’ metaphor and ‘sweet’ versus ‘tart’ the other day in a meeting. While I was kind of dozing off at that point, I think he was refering to the side benefits or costs of a various economic development initiative (maybe the proposed refinery – I forget).
The problem with all these pie metaphors is that a) they are not in synch with our new wellness focus (hence distracting) and b) they tend to imply a finite amount of pie (except in the case of Brampton) that we all wrestle over.
If New Brunswick attracted an auto plant, for example, some would say that’s at the expense of southern Ontario (we stole their pie). I, on the other hand, tend to look at it differently. The 37 new auto plants that have set up in the US over the past decade, maybe one could have located here? Would that be at the expense of Ontario?
I think NB needs oodles more pie – er foreign business investment – but not at the expense of anywhere else in Canada – per se. If Canada attracts x billion in foreign investment each year without NB on the train, I think we need to attract x2 with NB on the train and then everyone wins.
Bigger pies is the goal here (presumably low fat and sweetened with Splenda).
I think I’ll go to the Homestead in Riverview for lunch. I might just have a piece of pie.
*It’s a bit like the Robert Munsch story “More Pies“. One of the side benefits of having three young children. You get to read hundreds of Munsch stories.