Atkins

Dear John, Tom, Lynn, Vic and John, congratulations on your success. There is no greater honour than to be elected to lead your community. The voters, who know you well, have said they trust you.

It was a little more than a year ago I first floated the idea of a new regional government for Northern Ontario. The occasion was the spring 2005 meeting of the Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities.

I like the looks of Mick Davis, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Xstrata, the new owner of Falconbridge.

I have known Jimmy Hinds for more than 30 years. Not close and intimate like many, but regular and respectful and with a mutual affection based I think on our interest in people and politics and Sudbury.

It has been my great honour to publish this newspaper, in this city, for more than 33 years. I can tell you it has never been a straight line.

It has been my great honour to publish this newspaper, in this city, for more than 33 years. I can tell you it has never been a straight line.

We held a conference the other day in Toronto that got me thinking about the limits of policy making. It was put together by Northern Ontario Business’ sister company, ITWorldCanada.

The only thing worse than a petulant child-like control freak in your book club, sports team, classroom, scout troop or volunteer organization is a really smart one who grows up and becomes prime minister. Stephen Harper is scary smart.

It was a quarter century ago when I first started thinking about community energy. Actually it was my friend Narasim Katary who had the idea.

The conventional wisdom up here is Northern Ontario needs to be tuned into the telecommunications revolution (read bandwidth) that is enabling the rest of the world to acquire attention deficit disorder.