Well Known Business Writer Likes The West
by Scott A. Sumner
www.thunderbaybusiness.ca
Long time Globe & Mail newspaper senior writer Gordon Pitts gave a presentation to a business group as part of the Thunder Bay CEDC luncheon speaker series. Pitts has 35 years in the business and started during the oil crisis of the 70’s, becoming a business writer for the
Ottawa citizen and then the Financial Post and has written 5 books including his current book, Stampede which won an award as the best business book of the year.
“ If you are not looking west you are dead. That’s where you future is at least for the medium term. We have had a shift in power of Canada to the western provinces. Any one who is not thinking about that is making a big mistake. My focus today is about the book and what it
means for Thunder Bay. This economy should look west more and more. Maybe Thunder Bay is a western city, not an eastern city. That is the mentality you should be in,” said Gordon Pitts. “ The sources of economic growth are in areas like engineering and fabrication. The ring
of fire development here is a dream and will probably happen, but the west is a reality now. The west is becoming an economic unit on its own. Why not expand the linkages to Thunder Bay.”
“ Ontario is a great place and will come out of the recession. Some are doing well but the old auto or industrial economy is changing. The opportunities are west. I fly over Thunder Bay a lot and unfortunately that is what most people do. That is the thing of selling you brand or vision. You must stand up and say we can offer solutions in manufacturing and so on. If you want to create a good flight schedule to the west with the airlines you have to have the activity.”
