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In music, grace notes are considered unnecessary embellishments. But hey, they make performing more fun.
Magazines contain grace notes, and they give editors little thrills. Take this month’s issue. We feature Richard Homburg, a larger-than-life, Halifax-based developer who has his sights set squarely on Calgary’s red-hot real estate market for his company’s next significant expansion phase. That’s a no-brainer, you might say. Anyone can create shareholder value from Alberta’s gushing economy if they have the guts and the capital. But here’s the interesting thing: Homburg was speculating out west when things didn’t look quite as rosy as they do today.
Now here’s the grace note: in David Holt’s strategy column just a few pages away, he provides us with a “who-knew?” history lesson about Genghis Khan, the Mongolian chieftain who conquered more territory during the late 12th and early 13th century than anyone else in history and whose influence on trade, business, innovation, and modernity amounts to an unmatched 800-year legacy that is still rippling across the Middle East and former Soviet empire.
So how are Richard Homburg and Genghis Khan connected? Writer Peter Moreira describes Homburg as a “real estate mogul” in his profile on page 15. To us, it just seemed a tidy bit of synchronicity that we could provide you with a bonus backgrounder on the oft-used synonym for business giants. The point is, the word can be traced directly to Khan’s legacy and that’s why moguls are associated with power, influence, and authority.
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Calgary: prepare to meet a modern-day mogul from the East.
The theme of communication comes up a lot in these pages. Halifax airport’s long-awaited pre-clearance facility, which opens this month, is a case in point. It means that U.S.-bound passengers now have the convenience of clearing customs before boarding flights (called originating pre-clearance) and that more U.S. destinations will be available to this region’s travelling public. But getting U.S. Customs and Border Protection to set up in Halifax took years of high-level talking. On page 36 Robert Martin explains how the sustained effort of many stakeholders was required to address the concerns of Bangor’s airport in order to find a mutually agreeable cross-border solution to a cross-border situation. Some might call that Atlantica in action. David Wilkins, the U.S. Ambassador to Canada, might describe it as the progress that can be made when friends engage in a neighbourly dialogue. He spoke to contributing editor Alec Bruce in July and the interview is on page 53.
Speaking of Alec, Progress welcomes him as a regular columnist this month, and his thought-provoking essays will appear under the banner “Latitude.” His beat will be Atlantica, but he will range broadly and fearlessly into global economics. And only one point of reference is necessary for you to keep in mind when reading Alec’s contribution, and that is that North America’s role in the global trade network has and will continue to change as Asia progresses. Join us as we continue to consider a big, simple question: where do we fit in? |
