I was reading today from another book on the experiment that was the Soviet Union (I am becoming an amateur historian on the subject I think) today and came across a reference to an old Russian proverb that says “success has many fathers but failure is an orphan”. I had to chuckle at this because recently I heard of a battle among economic development agencies as to which was to get the credit for landing a big project. There were three or four groups all taking credit.
My opinion on this is simple. Who gives a rip? The important thing is that the deal was done and hundreds of people will be working in good paying jobs and not required to leave the province to find work (this project was not in NB – I would not classify many in recent years has offering hundreds of good paying jobs).
If there were multiple agencies involved and they played a role, they should be free to take some credit. For me economic development is about good ideas and successful strategies to grow a vibrant and sustainable economy in the Atl. region that allows people the option of staying in their communities or at very least their province to work if they so choose. It’s also about having an economy that is strong enough to generate the required amount of taxes to allow government to offer the level of public services and the social safety net that we expect.
I think this is more important than personalities or infighting over the credit.
In the case of New Brunswick, I wish there were more cases for economic development agencies to fight over. In this province, the credit for the lack of ‘success’ seems to be orphaned in the Russian sense.
As for Sao Paulo, things seem better here but you do get the sense of being in a can of sardines. There is always traffic jams, line ups at restaurants, congestion on the streets, malls, etc. 11 million in an area considerably smaller than the Greater Moncton CMA. 29 million people in an area smaller than the Halifax Regional Municipality.
Makes a person long for the crowds and congestion of Moncton.
But Moncton doesn’t have the restaurants, museums, opera, professional sports, urban entertainment centres, urban parks, etc. that this town has. So, each has its due.