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About a year ago, Jim Meek wrote in this magazine that Scott Brison was an MP to watch, a big thinker with an ambitious agenda, even if he was representing a minority government. We took Jim's advice and kept our eye on him, looking forward to featuring him in our annual gallery of pacesetters and fearless status quo buckers. As the cover story by John DeMont points out, Brison has been thinking long and hard about ways this region can become more prosperous. The irony is that just as he was settling into a groove as one of the country's most innovative and hard-working ministers, the government he represented was getting weaker by the day.
But truly good ideas don't have a “best before” date. The remarkable thing about Scott Brison is that we don't give a hoot whether he is or isn't a federal minister when this magazine hits the streets because his ideas about progress are sound, well-articulated, and delivered with conviction. I might add that long after the initial interview was finished and the story was delivered to us, the busy but relentless Brison continued to leave voice mails for John with points he felt could have been made clearer or other ideas he wanted to add. My crystal ball is in storage, but I think Jim's conclusion about Brison, formed shortly after the last federal election, still stands: Don't underestimate the guy.
There are more than a dozen other exemplary individuals that we invite you to read about in what we fondly label
our People Issue. Personally, it's one of
my favourite issues of the year. There is nothing more inspiring than being
introduced to and learning more about people who are unabashed about making change happen;
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such thinkers and doers embody the very idea behind Progress magazine. In making our selections, we've tried to present a broad reflection of our regional personality, as multi-faceted and quirky as it is. You'll meet artists and entrepreneurs, university presidents and students, consultants and teachers, activists and volunteers, and connoisseurs and architects. Two traits they all have in common: pragmatism and courage. (Thanks to those readers who helped us narrow down our list. If you have nominations for next year's People Issue, please don't hesitate to get in touch with us.)
Interestingly, the “progress people” theme runs throughout the magazine, as it often does. On page 33, business writer Peter Moreira examines the focused mindset behind Killam Properties, a publicly traded real estate company whose recent acquisition-fest is keeping numerous crackerjack lawyers busy. The point is, Killam couldn't be realizing with such fervour on the growth plan it embarked upon three years ago if it didn't have such a strong relationship with its legal team.
On this issue's back page, Jim Meek reacquaints us with chemist Kelvin Ogilvie, former president of Acadia University and another big thinker whom we've met before in previous editions of Progress. So what's new? Well, while Ogilvie is now focused on developing an innovation strategy for Nova Scotia, it's his broader interest in the future of post-secondary education that gets Jim's attention. Actually, it's sound advice for the regional economy as a whole: Let's collectively agree on what we're really good at and bet the farm on it. Just a thought. |
