Imagine… a better life for New Brunswick

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I’ve been thinking a lot about the future…  Heady questions have been the order of the year in 2011.  It’s been a year of introspection and thinking for me.

I grew up in Fredericton, New Brunswick.  After moving away (briefly to attend McGill University in 1987 and again in 1993, after graduating from the University of New Brunswick, to pursue my career in Halifax and Toronto… then graduate school and more “experience” – plus three kids – in Boston… yes, this is a truly horrible run-on sentence), I returned ‘home.’  If you know nothing about New Brunswick, you can read here.

I’ve been thinking about how New Brunswick can become better.  By better, I mean prosperous and more sustainable (or self-reliant).  We have historically been a disadvantaged region, and quite frankly, I’m tired of it… We need to be better if we are to see future generations build their lives here.

So what does it take for a province like ours to become “better?”  What can we be the very best at?  We need to discover our “hedgehog” to borrow from James Collins’ “Good to Great.”  Finding the intersection of what we’re absolutely passionate about, what we’re capable of being the best in the world at, and what drives our economic engine…

Enough academia for today…

I think we can be the smartest province in Canada… highly educated people who are fit, healthy, and happy … have an incredible capacity for research and development … are hard-wired to be entrepreneurial… are starting more companies and social enterprises than anywhere else… and want to leave a positive mark on society… and change the world.  While daydreaming during a meeting, I wrote the storyboard for this simple video …

I can imagine that kind of future.  Can you?

2 thoughts on “Imagine… a better life for New Brunswick”

  1. It’s definitely a place that has so much to offer… I think you’re right by defining the term “better”. And how do we bring back those amazing people who know it’s “better” than other places but who feel they can’t make the most of themselves here in NB. Lots of food for thought Kevin- thanks for the post. Only issue was that i was blocked from watching the vid…?

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    • Thanks for checking it out Jess. Too bad about the “block” – hopefully you can watch the vid when you’re at home.

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