Summerside Regional Development Corporation

2016-06-10
: WATERFRONT VISION - PUBLIC OPEN HOUSE - JUNE 22, 2016: 7PM; Ekistics Plan+Design is helping Summerside to plan for the next 25 years of its waterfront and dow...

2016-06-09
: EXPLORING ATTRACTS; Adventure Canada aims to deliver unique experiences of culture, history, and natural wonder, and suc...

2016-05-20
: VECTOR UPGRADES CAPACITY WITH NEW ENGINE TEST CELL; Trevor Hogan sat behind a shiny new control panel Wednesday morning, with all kinds of monitors, but...

2016-01-19
: SUMMERSIDE GROUP PLANNING WATER TAXI, UPGRADES TO HISTORIC LIGHTHOUSE; There are plans afoot to introduce some unique attractions to the City of Summerside�s waterfront. ...

ISLAND IN THE STREAM

THE DISCUSSION HAS TAKEN an unexpected turn, and Robert Ghiz pauses, as if to hold his breath. For the better part of an hour, the youthful, effusive Premier of Prince Edward Island has been extolling the virtues of his government's new plan to reshape the economy of Canada's smallest province. He has spoken cheerfully and animatedly about the Island's thriving bioscience, information technology and aerospace industries. He has talked about establishing "a disciplined course of action, making the public sector" more orderly and accountable and working together "as a single community on big goals and new ideas".

Now, a spectre from the past has risen to cast a shadow on the future - or, at least, the future of this conversation. "Mr. Premier," I venture again, if the urgent issue for PEI, with only 140,000 people, is sustainable prosperity, doesn some form of union with the other Maritime provinces ultimately make sense"

It's not the sort of question you pose in polite, educated company in the land of Anne of Green Gables. To many, here, it's like asking Newfoundland to join Cape Breton because they share fiddle music, seafood pie and hard winters. Still, it's a legitimate query if for no other reason than that PEI, the seat of the 1864 Charlottetown Conference when regional amalgamation was first seriously considered, is the historical nexus for this particular brand of navel gazing in the Atlantic provinces.

And so, the 34-year-old Ghiz - who was elected in a Liberal landslide just over a year ago to break the tethers of tradition and blaze new trails for opportunity-seeking people and businesses - does his best to accommodate me today. The above excerpt was taken from the most recent issue of Atlantic Business Magazine. Our complete editorial content is available in print form only.