A Province With Staggering Potential And Great Pizza
Mark Leger is the editor of Huddle. This is a weekly column that features opinion, analysis and reflections on Huddle stories, podcasts and business news in the region. It’s published first as a Saturday morning newsletter – sign up and receive our free daily newsletter too.
If I needed a lift heading into the last week of summer before school starts and the fall winds begin to blow, I could do no better than having conversations with Frank McKenna, Jason Gallant and Mylène Theriault.
McKenna you know, of course. The former N.B. premier, Canadian ambassador to the U.S. and now Deputy Chair of TD Bank will be in Saint John on September 7 as the featured guest at a L’Arche Saint John fundraising event. This week, he and I spoke about the theme of the evening, “Building Community,” and talked about the state of the New Brunswick economy coming out of the pandemic.
Of course, he was characteristically upbeat and optimistic about the province’s prospects. The Cap-Pelé-based bank executive – who I refer to as the province’s most high-profile “remote worker” – extolls the virtues of living in a small, affordable, yet connected region like the Maritimes.
To speak with McKenna is to come away inspired about the benefits of living and working in New Brunswick.
“This is the most blessed moment in our history and the potential is staggering,” he told me.
He said New Brunswick has in the past been disadvantaged because it has a small population and is, geographically speaking, “fairly remote.”
“But connectivity allows us to be connected to the world. And the pandemic has made that a virtue,” he says. “Our cost of living, our quality of life added to that connectivity allows people to live here and enjoy, perhaps, a piece of property they could never enjoy somewhere else.”
“You put all of those things together and we’re getting people from all over the world coming to New Brunswick.”
He said if we are vigilant and train people for the digital era, “the opportunities for us are staggering.”
McKenna recently invested $5-million to establish an institute at the University of New Brunswick to help grow the digital economy in the province.
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Gallant and Theriault share McKenna’s enthusiasm and sense of optimism. We introduced you to them earlier this summer when Love for Local New Brunswick launched the “Electric Summer Social Tour.” For more than two months, they have been travelling the province as ambassadors promoting small businesses and organizations in 104 communities.
Huddle is a media partner for the tour. I haven’t been along for the ride, but I have connected with them on the road and lived vicariously through their adventures. In late July, I spoke with them on a stopover in Campbellton and recorded the first of a series of special edition “Home Office” podcasts. Earlier this week, I caught up with them in St. Andrews, just as they were about to leave to catch the ferries to Campobello Island.
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Among other things, we chatted about their night at an old Dorchester jailhouse turned into a bed and breakfast; a tour of the lush Kingsbrae Garden in St. Andrews; and the raucous National Acadian Day celebrations in Caraquet.
“We’re having a blast, lots of laughs,” says Gallant. “We’re meeting incredible people with amazing stories … in every town, it doesn’t matter the size.”
“A lot of times, I forget I’m in New Brunswick,” says Theriault. “I think I’m in this whole other province. We don’t have to go far to feel like we’re on a true vacation. All parts of New Brunswick are unique, and all of the people are so authentic and beautiful.”
Gallant and Theriault have even inspired people from outside to explore the province.
“When I was in Caraquet, I went by a restaurant and this couple recognized me,” says Gallant. “They said, ‘hey, we’re from Montreal. We didn’t know where we wanted to go for vacation this summer and we were following you guys, so we [took the same route] along the north of the province.’ They did all things we did up to Miscou Island and the Acadian Peninsula…it’s such a great way to put it out there, that New Brunswick is…pretty much, awesomeness.”
Gallant, Theriault, and McKenna have a gift for sharing their enthusiasm for people, communities and businesses across the province. And it turns out they have a shared appreciation for the same Italian restaurant in Hillsborough, a small town around 30 minutes from Moncton: Rocco’s Cucina.
“It’s awesome and what a wonderful and amazing guy with a great story, having moved from Ontario to here and built this place,” says Gallant. “When you walk in, he welcomes you like you guys have been best friends for years, and the food is delicious. It’s a great little spot.”
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McKenna had praised the Hillsborough restaurant with the “pizza to die for” in a recent chat with Don Mills and David Campbell on the Huddle “Insights” podcast. He was talking about the great amenities that exist in many of our rural communities, many of which Theriault and Gallant are discovering in their travels.
“Organically, there are a lot of good things happening in our rural areas… maybe that’s become an advantage for us, one that we should be marketing,” says McKenna.
The former Canadian ambassador to the U.S. could just as easily be a “Love for Local” ambassador too, hopping into the car with Gallant and Theriault as they travel the province. They’re on the road into early October. To maintain my own sense of optimism as leaves begin to turn, I should go along too. Do you want to come? We could make it a caravan.
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