Lessons learned.
Don't give up after the first week. Continue on until the end. As we always have. And always will do.
I misjudged this Olympics thing, because I listened too much to the malcontents of the Left and Right, from Canada, the U.S. and, above all, Europe. And they turned out to be as supericial and wrong, as they always turn out to be.
No matter what any one says, these were a great Games for Canada.
So maybe we should do it again some day. One day. Some day.
It was a gas, my fellow Canadians. Thank you for being you.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Sunday, February 21, 2010
In the Trenches of Economic Development
Richard Florida just sent this link out via his Twitter account -- http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/022110/opi_565570387.shtml
It's an article about a town in Georgia trying to overcome a negative image to kick-start a sluggish conomy in recessionary times. It's worth reading because it is true. I think Florida's point is that economic development is hard work. It's not a glitzy, easy-bake quick-fix. It's a hard slog that pays dividends slowly, if at all.
My favourite example of that truth is Sudbury, a city that found itself on the lip of an economic abyss in the early 1980s. Only those who were inside the crisis will ever know how close Sudbury came to losing it all in those frightening years. Federal industry minister Tony Clement can prattle all he wants about Brazil's Vale Inco saving Sudbury from a Valley of Death, but he will never know the sweaty stink of the real thing. He wasn't there in 1980-81 when nickel prices imploded, Inco and Falconbridge both danced with bankruptcy and the entire region tottered on the brink.
It was only a deep alliance of company, union and region (Wint Newman, Ron MacDonald and Tom Davies), along with a single-minded focus on survival, that pulled Sudbury back from the brink. That monumental struggle also laid an economic foundation that is helping the city surmount its difficulties today.
Sudburians of the 1980s attacked economic development as if they were a goal down late in the third, in the Gold medal game, with the honour of a nation on the line. They refused to accept defeat, they dug in, they fought back and they prevailed.
That's how successful economic development is done in the trenches, when the world is passing you by and the elites are writing you off as yesterday's news. It's not fancy formulas, or someone else's solutions, or intellectual constructs. It's just head's down, shoulder to shoulder, pushing together toward a single goal. It's street-by-street, house-by-house, hand-to-hand combat, in which inches are taken, then lost, then taken again.
Every job must be seized, every grant pursued, every program embraced and every possibility exhausted until the objective is realized.
It's hard, grinding work. But for those who find themselves on the wrong side of economic fashion, it is the only way out.
It's an article about a town in Georgia trying to overcome a negative image to kick-start a sluggish conomy in recessionary times. It's worth reading because it is true. I think Florida's point is that economic development is hard work. It's not a glitzy, easy-bake quick-fix. It's a hard slog that pays dividends slowly, if at all.
My favourite example of that truth is Sudbury, a city that found itself on the lip of an economic abyss in the early 1980s. Only those who were inside the crisis will ever know how close Sudbury came to losing it all in those frightening years. Federal industry minister Tony Clement can prattle all he wants about Brazil's Vale Inco saving Sudbury from a Valley of Death, but he will never know the sweaty stink of the real thing. He wasn't there in 1980-81 when nickel prices imploded, Inco and Falconbridge both danced with bankruptcy and the entire region tottered on the brink.
It was only a deep alliance of company, union and region (Wint Newman, Ron MacDonald and Tom Davies), along with a single-minded focus on survival, that pulled Sudbury back from the brink. That monumental struggle also laid an economic foundation that is helping the city surmount its difficulties today.
Sudburians of the 1980s attacked economic development as if they were a goal down late in the third, in the Gold medal game, with the honour of a nation on the line. They refused to accept defeat, they dug in, they fought back and they prevailed.
That's how successful economic development is done in the trenches, when the world is passing you by and the elites are writing you off as yesterday's news. It's not fancy formulas, or someone else's solutions, or intellectual constructs. It's just head's down, shoulder to shoulder, pushing together toward a single goal. It's street-by-street, house-by-house, hand-to-hand combat, in which inches are taken, then lost, then taken again.
Every job must be seized, every grant pursued, every program embraced and every possibility exhausted until the objective is realized.
It's hard, grinding work. But for those who find themselves on the wrong side of economic fashion, it is the only way out.
Friday, February 19, 2010
Let's Not Do This Again
I'm a big fan of the Olympics. Have been for many, many years. But watching these Winter Games unfold, I have become somewhat pessimistic.
These Canadian festivities are not turning out as we had hoped. Instead of showcasing our humble virtues to the world, they are exposing us to global ridicule. Instead of bringing us together as a people, they have become a flashpoint for the legion of malcontents that infests our public sphere. Instead of engendering pride in our happy experiment, they are stirring the grubby troll of self-loathing that lurks in the heart of all of us.
We have put our money and our mouths on the line for these Games. And what have we gained?
The financial price has been incredible. The striving to be world-class on so many fronts has frayed our national psyche. Our efforts to appear self-confidently mature have been brushed off as arrogant and gauche by the very people we had hoped to impress.
The weather has been ridiculous, equipment quixotic, security a nightmare and incompetence rife. Athletes are being hurt, even killed. Police officers are being sent home for tawdry crimes. Too few people are speaking French. And the world press is feasting on our shortcomings, wondering aloud if these bumbling Canadians have mounted the shabbiest Olympics in history.
Worse, our athletes are seriously under performing, making our "Own the Podium" mantra ring a bit hollow even to our own ears.
We look like a nation of poseurs.
In future, when the subject of hosting a big global event comes up, why don't we let someone else plan it, design it, pay for it and host it? Let someone else take the knocks of an ill-tempered, realpolitik world? Let's dedicate ourselves to attending other people's parties. We are excellent guests. We love to travel. And we can win just as many medals -- if not more -- on someone else's dime.
Let the Americans have them. They are deaf to criticism, immune to pressure and they love to show off. Or the Chinese, who are quite capable of slapping their own people into line in the pursuit of global supremacy. The Russians. The Germans. The French. Even the Koreans, who almost snatched these Games away from us. Imagine if these Games were occurring right now in Korea. We'd be winning just as many medals, at a fraction of the cost, and having just as much fun. Then, at the end of the festivities, we could just laugh and walk away, leaving the Koreans with a pile of bills and a bad case of Olympic indigestion.
It's been a slice. But...let's never, ever do this again.
These Canadian festivities are not turning out as we had hoped. Instead of showcasing our humble virtues to the world, they are exposing us to global ridicule. Instead of bringing us together as a people, they have become a flashpoint for the legion of malcontents that infests our public sphere. Instead of engendering pride in our happy experiment, they are stirring the grubby troll of self-loathing that lurks in the heart of all of us.
We have put our money and our mouths on the line for these Games. And what have we gained?
The financial price has been incredible. The striving to be world-class on so many fronts has frayed our national psyche. Our efforts to appear self-confidently mature have been brushed off as arrogant and gauche by the very people we had hoped to impress.
The weather has been ridiculous, equipment quixotic, security a nightmare and incompetence rife. Athletes are being hurt, even killed. Police officers are being sent home for tawdry crimes. Too few people are speaking French. And the world press is feasting on our shortcomings, wondering aloud if these bumbling Canadians have mounted the shabbiest Olympics in history.
Worse, our athletes are seriously under performing, making our "Own the Podium" mantra ring a bit hollow even to our own ears.
We look like a nation of poseurs.
In future, when the subject of hosting a big global event comes up, why don't we let someone else plan it, design it, pay for it and host it? Let someone else take the knocks of an ill-tempered, realpolitik world? Let's dedicate ourselves to attending other people's parties. We are excellent guests. We love to travel. And we can win just as many medals -- if not more -- on someone else's dime.
Let the Americans have them. They are deaf to criticism, immune to pressure and they love to show off. Or the Chinese, who are quite capable of slapping their own people into line in the pursuit of global supremacy. The Russians. The Germans. The French. Even the Koreans, who almost snatched these Games away from us. Imagine if these Games were occurring right now in Korea. We'd be winning just as many medals, at a fraction of the cost, and having just as much fun. Then, at the end of the festivities, we could just laugh and walk away, leaving the Koreans with a pile of bills and a bad case of Olympic indigestion.
It's been a slice. But...let's never, ever do this again.
Monday, February 15, 2010
A Northern Nation at Last?
Was just reading John Ivison's blog in today's National Post - http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2010/02/15/john-ivison-gst-cuts-don-t-make-the-hall-of-fame.aspx - and some thoughts occurred. Very preliminary thoughts. Possibly wrong-headed and premature. But thoughts, nonetheless.
Ivison opines that Prime Minister Harper may be seeking his legacy in the Arctic, a region that obviously attracts him and could certainly benefit from his attention. Also a region that is of great strategic interest again, given its vast natural resources and the new openness of potential shipping lanes in the northwest passage.
Well, we could probably do worse than look to the north.
Especially since this shifting focus is happening at a time when our Winter Olympics are in full swing, and we are being reintroduced to the thrill of being a northern nation. When the United States, our ideological beacon for the last 150 years, has become social, political and economic porridge. When Britain, an over-bearing presence in our colonial minds, is in a nose-down, stalled-out spiral on every significant dimension of civilization.
What an interest confluence of events.
So I ponder John Diefenbaker and his unrealized northern vision.
Maybe we will finally discover ourselves as a northern nation, and be comfortable at last with our flannel-shirted selves. No more chasing other people`s dreams. No more aping a distant empire`s culture. No more parrotting other people`s ideas and following in other people`s footsteps. Just being ourselves as best we can.
And finally building something of lasting value out of this strange northern brew.
Not the fastest, highest or strongest perhaps, but a fine northern place, full of good people doing interesting things.
We could do worse.
Ivison opines that Prime Minister Harper may be seeking his legacy in the Arctic, a region that obviously attracts him and could certainly benefit from his attention. Also a region that is of great strategic interest again, given its vast natural resources and the new openness of potential shipping lanes in the northwest passage.
Well, we could probably do worse than look to the north.
Especially since this shifting focus is happening at a time when our Winter Olympics are in full swing, and we are being reintroduced to the thrill of being a northern nation. When the United States, our ideological beacon for the last 150 years, has become social, political and economic porridge. When Britain, an over-bearing presence in our colonial minds, is in a nose-down, stalled-out spiral on every significant dimension of civilization.
What an interest confluence of events.
So I ponder John Diefenbaker and his unrealized northern vision.
Maybe we will finally discover ourselves as a northern nation, and be comfortable at last with our flannel-shirted selves. No more chasing other people`s dreams. No more aping a distant empire`s culture. No more parrotting other people`s ideas and following in other people`s footsteps. Just being ourselves as best we can.
And finally building something of lasting value out of this strange northern brew.
Not the fastest, highest or strongest perhaps, but a fine northern place, full of good people doing interesting things.
We could do worse.
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