I get it that it is hard to get outraged on social media over the fuzzy middle ground. It’s easier to stake out a position on the edge and plumb the depths of indignation. But that’s not the world we…
Continue ReadingThe passing of an entrepreneurial icon: Bernard Imbeault R.I.P.
Since arriving back in New Brunswick to start my career in the early 1990s, I have had the opportunity to meet and have conversations with many of the top business leaders across the province. This is why I cringe when…
Continue ReadingLearning the wrong lessons from the Covid-19 pandemic
There have been a couple stories this week outlining why New Brunswick didn’t get hit as bad by the Covid-19 pandemic. The reasons stated include because we don’t have an international airport, we have less immigration and international students, we…
Continue ReadingDoes having a dominant urban hub matter?
We have talked a lot on these pages about the importance of scale. The top 10 urban centres in Canada are home to nearly 80% of all net population growth across Canada. Talking to Rory Francis from the PEI BioAlliance…
Continue ReadingDo you know the way to Cap-Pelé?
Burt Bacharach wrote the famous and catchy tune “Do you know the way to San Jose?” (Millennials google it). This summer we should push for our own version here in New Brunswick: Do you know the way to Cap-Pelé? The…
Continue ReadingThe Great Cape Breton Experiment: If they come, will you be able to build it?
I know long time readers will be getting tired of my variations on the “if you build it, they will come” theme from the great baseball movie Field of Dreams but I still think this concept underlies a lot of…
Continue ReadingGrowing Pains podcast: Don Mills edition
I first heard Don Mills discussing public opinion in Atlantic Canada in the very early 1990s. His firm, from which he kind of retired in 2018, Corporate Research Associates, was a constant surveyor of public opinion in the region for…
Continue ReadingLet’s wait a little bit more before we throw over the global economic order
It’s amazing how quickly the four horsemen of the apocalypse have rode into town with the Covid-19 virus. They are quick to throw the whole global order under the bus and call for a new nationalism, closed borders, rebuilding local…
Continue ReadingWhat do we want from our universities in New Brunswick?
I hate to change the subject…. But after having reviewed 25 years of data on the university sector in Canada, I think it is probably time for New Brunswickers to start thinking about what they want from the university sector.…
Continue ReadingGrowing Pains: Episode #1 (last week was Episode #0)
We have a packed episode this week. We talk about about a recent article by the economist Richard Saillant where he provides his thoughts on COVID-19’s potential impact on the New Brunswick economy. I discuss what appear to be labour…
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