Not too early in the weekend for some serious debate - By Guest Blogger M82.

Uploaded on August 30, 2009 by ►christopher◄

I admit it. I like the new look of the CBC. The new anchors, the smooth, it makes me feel slightly less embarrassed about Canadian TV production quality. I just wish Peter Mansbridge sat down. I get the impression he wants to take a seat. You know? The man just wants a seat. We can do that.

This afternoon I came across a new show called the Lang and O’Leary Exchange, reeking of Business News Television with faux partisanship and actual product placement within the news broadcast. No different than a new and improved Shopping Channel. Regardless, one quickly realizes the majority of points and counterpoints were revolving around our revered companion of Kitchener/Waterloo. From the ManuLife stock gossip transitioning into exhausted references of Research in Motion like it’s the last litmus of Canada's burgeoning economy. Just last week, the Globe featured a news clip of the darker shades of unemployment in Waterloo - a short video and article on how the region’s tech industry has taken their respective fiscal hits. The Globe article also mentions that although jobs are being cut, there are almost just as many new specialized positions available.

(View the vid: here.)

So. Numbers first. The region's latest unemployment numbers are around 9.3%. Ontario's is also 9.3%. Canada as a whole is around 8.6%, putting Waterloo just above the national average. I don’t do supply and demand curves, but I do do questions.

Is the image of BlackBerry tumbleweeds and tattered suits roaming the streets of Waterloo too good to pass up for the press? Waterloo should obviously not be exempt from news drama, but the Globe’s portrait seemed overbaked. Not to say the region doesn’t have real issues with poverty, it just seems from anecdotal experience that Waterloo shuffles most of their social outreach to Kitchener to preserve the bourgeois clean tech image.

Maybe I haven’t been paying attention, but when was Waterloo Region arguably the most discussed economic area of our country? Of course we have Alberta, growing Prairie economies and the mixed Ontario bag, but is this region our country’s true bright horse? Are we that fantastic?

How does the region hope to improve this problem? This begs for a political answer, but barring great shifts in manufacturing the region knows how jobs will be changing. Waterloo can’t solely rely on ManuSun and RIM, and it won’t. So what other industries can we attract to the region that will keep the precious and healthy balance? Furthermore, once we have attracted the right people, how do we keep them all happy with arts, culture, food, and recreation? I do have an answer for this one – ask Hilary.

- M82

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Thanks M82! And for the record, I just had a morning chat with a very smart individual - and he fully proved to me that I have no idea what I am talking about... so here's to figuring this shit out together! Comment away dear readers -

-H.