No need to get mopey, all the stuff that was great about this place remains

I have been practicing my choir pieces this afternoon and the director has put together a pull on the heart strings program to all things Maritime (Canada, that is). Songs including Four Strong Winds, As the Ship Went Down, Citadel Hill, Home I’ll Be, along with some Cockburn and Lightfoot.

I was thinking about those powerful cultural references - in the current context and remembering a conversation I had a few years ago with an old timer lamenting all the changes - “we won’t recognize our communities”.

There is no need to get mopey. Twenty years from now we will still have a fishing industry. Men and women will still be harvesting trees, potatoes, maple syrup and blueberries. It might not come with all the angst, however. The songs of loneliness, migration, poverty and grit of the 1970s-1990s will need to be updated to reflect a multicultural society infused with a lot more technology, and, one assumes, a new type of economic and social challenges.

I believe you can have both.

We will still be eating poutine rapée (if you have acquired the taste) alongside the lobsters, scallops and oysters.

For someone who studies the long term trajectory of economies, I really believe this region is primed for an exciting 20-30 years but it will take the attraction of lots of folks to provide the human capital, lots of entrepreneurs to invest the financial capital and governments interested in fostering a thriving economy.

There is no doubt the industries that power the growth of the regional economy in the next 30 years will be different than the past 30 (likely more mining, energy, urban activity, etc.) but those old staples that have anchored this economy for 200+ years (fish, forestry and ag) will still be at the core of things.

Cheer up, Bluenosers, Herringchokers and SpudIslanders you will still have a distinct culture in the future. It will be infused by lots of new influences but Miramichi’ers will still be able to sidle up to someone and ask “how’s she goin’?”.

You would prefer the alternative?