Atkins

For those of you who are regulars, you will know I am now in Nova Scotia, spraining my ankles on shoreline rocks, slipping on the seaweed, walking the beaches, disappearing in the fog, dodging lobsters (I’m allergic), promising my daughter I’ll get t

One of the things I like about this new provincial government is that in spite of some of the obvious missteps in the first couple of years, they seem prepared to take some risk and make some change.

There is concern, I think we would agree, about political corruption in Ottawa. The spectacle is hard to avoid.

It doesn’t get more basic than this! A mining company reinventing itself, competing aggressively to stay relevant in a world market it once dominated. A company like Bell Canada getting used to new realities.

I have known J. J. Hilsinger from Sault Ste. Marie for at least a quarter century. I can’t remember when I met him or how I met him. It just seems like I’ve never not known him.

Last month, I had the pleasure of addressing the annual meeting of the Northeastern Ontario Chambers of Commerce. I use the term “annual” advisedly, as I am told the last annual general meeting was some 14 years ago.

It was an inauspicious beginning. I had a date with a group of citizens in Fort Frances to talk about economic development.

With virtually every piece of market research we have conducted within our company, you tell us forcefully to write shorter articles. You are busy. You want useful snippets, not novels. You don’t have much time and you want to maximize it.

Want to get somebody riled up? Stomp on his or her flag. There are serious flags like your country’s ensign and lesser flags like those for provinces, cities, football teams or retailers, which act more like product placements than big ideas.

And now for my annual summer report from the south shore of Nova Scotia. Wet and foggy! This concludes my report. Seriously, this is nuts. The sun came out for 22 minutes the other day, and we didn’t know what to do.