The Walrus Talks In Saint John
SAINT JOHN – The Walrus Talks came ashore to the Port City on Monday night to talk innovation.
Around 300 people attended the talk, which featured speakers from across the country as well as some innovation superstars from New Brunswick.
Walrus magazine editor-in-chief Jonathan Kay said they’ve hosted many events major centres like Toronto and Vancouver, but Saint John has often been overlooked.[mks_pullquote align=”right” width=”200″ size=”18″ bg_color=”#e5e5e5″ txt_color=”#ffffff”]See slideshow of the evening’s highlights >[/mks_pullquote]
“Sometime we have editorial meetings and we go over the list of places that we haven’t done and I think everyone was shocked that we haven’t done Saint John,” Kay said in an interview with Huddle.
“We aspire to cover the important urban areas in Canada with are talks and this is one we had just missed so we’re glad to have the opportunity to cover it.”
The talks’ theme of innovation was well-suited for the region. The Atlantic has long been looked at as the home of the “have not” provinces, relying on equalization and EI payments while overly dependent on seasonal work. But Kay says with provinces like Ontario recently falling into “have not” status and provinces like Newfoundland joining the “haves,” the conversation is changing.
“I think there is more of this healthy dialogue between the regions in Canada now. In the late 90’s it really used to be “here is central Canada and here’s Atlantic Canada and the relationship was just us giving money to them. Now the dialogue is completely different,” Kay said.
“When people talk about things like Energy East, when they talk about building new innovation hubs, when they talk about digital technology, there’s a dozen different places where you can build these places. So I think the dialogue has changed immensely over the last 20 years.”
Though Saint John is pretty small compared to most of the country’s major urban centres, Kay said he was impressed with how many people showed up to hear about innovation on a Monday night.
“I admire people who dedicate their evenings to getting smarter. It’s very easy to stay at home and watch Netflix,” he said. “To come out to an event like this and learn about innovation, these are the people who don’t only make the Walrus a better place, they make the world of ideas in Canada the place that it is.”
Didn’t get to make it? That’s cool.