Why I’m Betting on Halifax

The Halifax State of the Economy conference occured earlier this week. An initiative of the Greater Halifax Partnership, which leads the development of the region’s economic plan, the conference discussed the progress to date, and initiatives to grow the region, and its economy. Following along on Twitter, I was impressed by most of what I [...]

Reimagining the Bookstore

I read a story yesterday proposing a new model for bookstores. That bookstores have struggled in recent years is a secret to no one, with high-profile closures like the Borders chain making headlines, to say nothing of the many communities that have lost long-time independent shops. The author of this post was writing about one [...]

One Day in England

Tomorrow is the last day of the English Premier League season. As a Liverpool fan, I have to say thank goodness for that. But as a fan of the sport, I’ll miss what I consider the world’s best league. There are a number of important matchups, and battles for first place and Champions’ League spots, [...]

Management Lessons from Canada’s 41st Election

The 41st Canadian general election took place one year ago today, heralding significant changes to the political landscape. Looking back, there are lessons in the results of that night that we can all apply to our organization. Flickr/Dave Cournoyer Challenge the Conventional Wisdom For decades, everyone’s believed that the road to a majority government went [...]

Unions and the New Economy

Today is International Workers’ Day, more commonly known as May Day, an international celebration of workers’ rights. I don’t belong to a union (but am fortunate to work for an employer that treats and compensates me fairly). In fact, I’ve never belonged to one (edit: in the workplace – forgot to note the Students’ Union). [...]

What Drafting Quarterbacks Can Teach Us About Picking Good Leaders

The 2012 NFL Draft took place over the past few days. The first selection in the draft is often a Quarterback (4 years in a row now, and 12 of the past 15), and players available at this position receive disproportionate attention from both teams and viewers. It makes sense, as it’s rare for a [...]

Jasper Ave Blues: Downtown’s Heart is Already Alive and Beating

Edmontonians were abuzz earlier this week when new images of the proposed downtown arena were first released, leaked by Edmonton Journal columnist David Staples, then officially posted by the City of Edmonton. Overhead shot of proposed new arena and adjacent office tower to the south (City of Edmonton) Initial reaction to the design was largely [...]

The Next Four Years: Part Two

In the first part of my election post-mortem, I wrote about some broader trends. This post will focus on each of the five main parties who contested the election. Tory Challenges With a strong mandate, the Tories nonetheless have some challenges ahead of them. They campaigned on a more progressive platform than in elections past. [...]

The Next Four Years: Part One

With the Alberta election results now 36 hours old, a bit of reflection and thought on what may be in store for Alberta. In a similar vein, I’d encourage you to read Colby Cosh’s short post-mortem, and Calgary Grit’s thoughts on where we go from here. This post focuses on some broader trends across the [...]

Alberta’s Election by the Numbers

I spent some time looking over last night’s election results. Here are some of the numbers and trends for each of the five parties that I found interesting. Three or Four-Way Races Never Materialized Calgary-McCall and Lethbridge-West were the only ridings where the top 3 finishers were within 10% of each other: Calgary-McCall – Liberal [...]