Hi folks. I am in an Internet Cafe in Stiles, Idaho population 212. The town where we stayed the last two days has a population of 1,110 and no Internet access and my Blackberry doesn’t work (yikes). Great fishing here.…
Continue ReadingDispatches from the road: Vancouver
I haven’t been to Vancouver in 15 years. It’s a great town. Walking around Vancouver you do get a sense of how diverse a place Canada is. 15-20 years ago, one of out every 3-4 people I met out here…
Continue ReadingRegion needs a strong economic development voice
The Times & Transcript ran a front page article this morning on the future of Enterprise Greater Moncton. I think it is totally legitimate to re-examine the mandate and activities of EGM at a time of transition (such as when…
Continue ReadingEducating Americans
We know that a lot of central and western Canadians have skewed perceptions of Atlantic Canada but most of us think the average American doesn’t have any view of Atlantic Canada at all. I’ll be in Seattle briefly next week.…
Continue ReadingGunfight at the O (Ottawa) K Corral
Crazy stuff going on in Ottawa these days. I have come to the conclusion (maybe you have too) that our national government is not really really ready to govern without a majority party. We got used to single party led…
Continue ReadingAtlantic Canada Dataville – the Information Switzerland
Looks like someone in Nova Scotia is taking the data centre industry seriously. My fingers are calloused from all my posts about the opportunity of data centres. Who knows? The current economic crisis presents the Atlantic region with a unique…
Continue ReadingThe wheels on the bus go round and round….
The wheels on the bus go round and round, round and round, round and round. The wheels on the bus go round and round and round….. Check out some of the content in David Alward’s commentary today in the TJ:…
Continue ReadingStaple it together
I got several emails about the last post on equalization so let me clarify again that I am not against the concept of equalization or transfers from a federal government to provincial governments to ensure that a similar level of…
Continue ReadingLook at the broader picture
David Murrell from UNB is weighing in on the Equalization question. He’s reasonably sensible on the issue – contrasting himself from AIMS. I have a slightly different view. On the revenue side, instead of focusing on Equalization my focus is…
Continue ReadingAttracting good wage jobs
I see that NSBI has attracted two IT companies in the past week. One is based in New Brunswick and the other in Ottawa. I think the key to these jobs is simple. One, they are at salaries well above…
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