Huddle’s Top 10 New Brunswick Stories Of 2020
Welp, this year was…it was something.
We think can speak for almost everyone when we say this year did not go as planned.
When we celebrated the beginning of a new decade back in January, nobody was expecting a global pandemic to uproot our entire lives just a few months later.
This obviously was reflected in Huddle’s coverage this year. Covid-19 brought on unprecedented hardships for many people, including small business owners in the province.
People call New Brunswick a lot of things, but one thing we’ve proven to be through all of this is resilient. The Covid-19 pandemic showed that we help each other out, we think of ways forward, and will always find ways to still got ‘er done. And we think that spirit is reflected in our most popular New Brunswick stories this year.
Here’s a countdown of our 10 most-read stories New Brunswick stories from 2020:
10. 7 Reasons Why New Brunswick Schools Should Re-Open On May 4
This commentary from Andy Clark giving his arguments as to why New Brunswick should reopen its schools in May got a lot of views, and started a lot of conversation.
Though when this piece the published the province had already announced its plans to keep schools closed until September, Clark had some concerns about this decision, and he laid his key points out in a list. You guys always like lists.
9. Restaurants, Malls Can Re-Open As New Brunswick Moves To ‘Orange’ Phase
After two months of lockdown, to say the May 8 news that the province would be moving from the “red phase” to the “orange phase” was welcomed would be an understatement.
For the business community, it meant a better chance of surviving. For everyone else, it meant a small return to normalcy, something everyone craved to some degree. It was also a sign that New Brunswickers obeying public help protocols truly made a difference, something that would continue to be seen throughout the rest of the year.
8. New Brunswick’s 7 Most Haunted Places
Guys, it’s literally been four years since this story was first published. FOUR YEARS.
WHY do you keep coming back to this!?
7. New Indian Restaurant Opens In Moncton
Covid-19, unfortunately, meant some businesses in the province had to close their doors for good, that didn’t stop others from setting up shop.
News of a new restaurant, India King, opening on St. George Street in Moncton got a lot of you excited.
6. Moncton IHOP Opens With 80 Employees And Lineups Outside The Door
Speaking of new food places in Moncton, the city also got an IHOP in 2020, becoming the company’s first location in Atlantic Canada.
Plans to open a Moncton location were announced in early 2019. Located right by Casino New Brunswick, the restaurant officially opened in January to excited customers and lineups. We can only hope 2021 will bring more locations to the region. After the year we’ve had, we deserve it.
5. ‘I Want To Marry It.’ Dragons’ Den Investor Commits $420,000 To N.B. Company With ‘Rolling Massager’
The Covid-19 pandemic didn’t stop CBC’s Dragons’ Den from giving entrepreneurs across Canada to pitch some of the country’s top investors on national television. The show held auditions in the region earlier this year and a few New Brunswick company’s made it to the final stage. One was Country Liberty, and the other was Curtis Kennedy and Aaron Turner of Vertiball.
Vitiball, which offers a portable mountable rolling massager, ultimately left with a deal with Arlene Dickinson, who committed $420,000 for 17 percent of the company.
4. New Shop Bringing Some ‘Riff Raff’ Into Uptown Saint John
As we mentioned, Covid-19 didn’t stop some entrepreneurs from putting their plans into motion. One story readers particularly liked was of Trent Wheaton, who opened up a skateboard and record store on Charlotte Street in uptown Saint John. Though the pandemic causes a bit of a delay in opening, Riff Raff officially opened its doors in May.
3. Owners of Popular Indian Restaurant In Moncton Opening Grocery Store
The owners of India King made this list twice! Readers loved hearing about how owners Rupali and Sandeep Saini will be reuniting with their son, Karan with the opening of their new Indian grocery store, Grand King at 326 St. George Street in Moncton.
This story actually got a significant readership outside of Canada, particularly India!
2. Is New Brunswick Ready for ‘The Dance’?
This was the first of a two-part series by Marcel LeBrun and David Alston, former executives at Radian6 and Salesforce.com. Today they are technology entrepreneurs, small business owners, and actively involved in community initiatives in New Brunswick. Back in April, they shared their thoughts on how New Brunswick should go about reopening the economy after a month of full lock-down.
Since New Brunswick did a great job of flattening the initial curve of Covid-19, they argued there was a way to open the economy, while still being vigilant and responding to future outbreaks. They called this “The Dance” and you guys loved reading more about it.
And Huddle’s most popular New Brunswick Story of 2020 was…….
1. New Brunswick’s Re-Opening Plan — A Draft Framework
The most popular New Brunswick story on Huddle this year was the second part of LeBrun and Alston’s series on opening New Brunswick economy after March’s lockdown. In this final installment, they go into the specifics of how they would propose the province open up the economy. With so much uncertainty at the time around when things would return to and sort of “normal” Huddle readers enjoyed reading about a possible, realistic way forward.
And it turns out, the province’s approach wasn’t far off from theirs.