[Twitter]
RE: January cover
@TanyaW Smart, sophisticated, provocative and POWERFUL! Great introduction to a sensitive subject.

@Kelly_NL Best magazine cover I’ve seen in a long time. I couldn’t wait to dig in to this issue.

@AaronMarsh321 Way to engage! This cover really got me thinking.

@BrunswickBoy You wouldn’t believe how much debate was sparked by your cover. Best board meeting ever! #Gr8Debate

RE: 34 years in publishing
@WestcottCraig Just chatted with @HubertFHutton at the Board of Trade Summit; still more energy than the Energizer Bunny.

RE: #GoodTimes
@BridieMolloys Thank you for voting our Bacon & Blue Cheese Burger the Best in Bun for #Newfoundland in @AtlanticBus

RE: Atlantic Canada’s Top Employers
@myNBCC How does a company get chosen as one of the region’s most celebrated employers? Find out from @AtlanticBus

[facebook]
RE: Security threat
Jim Dalling This story is so clear and so important. Bringing people back from Alberta is not the answer. International immigration is.

RE: January cover
Kevin Casey Very powerful visually. And takes your brain and heart in all directions. Really, really smart and so topical.

Levi Curtis Awesome cover!

RE: Chump on a stump
Pat Hurley McDonald Very well said, Dawn. If this “man” is elected as President, God help America!!!

Dïn Doyle I’ve got mostly levelheaded friends who aren’t up in their racist arms over the current refugee crisis. So I don’t see a lot of the resistance/bigotry, but if’n you got people who *do* feel such, take a gander at this article. Props to Dawn.

RE: Gallant effect
Craig Estey You know they are closing the homeless shelter in Saint John — the Gallant Effect.

[email]
RE: Security threat
Elisabeth C. Kosters I moved here in 2002 — I don’t want to call it ‘immigration’ although that’s technically what it was. My husband (a Canadian) and I (from a NW European country) had bought our house five years earlier (we have family here) and we spent a few summers here before moving (back) for good. At the time of our move, I had 25 years experience as an earth scientist, working for regional government organizations and in academia, both in the USA and in my native country. I had also been a policy advisor and a Dean. In the latter position, I had built and run a successful PhD program at a prestigious international institution. I had been offered different (senior) positions several times during my career. I arrived in Nova Scotia with glowing references in hand and I didn’t think it would be very hard to find work here. Of course I had a global network of peers. Some of those were based in Canada, and some even in Nova Scotia.

I did not get a single job offer in the 12 years after moving (until I declared myself retired 1.5 years ago). … Once, I was nominated for a position by the faculty members of an academic department (they too were members of my pre-move network), but I was not invited for an interview by the university because I had “no Canadian experience.” I would not have minded to lose the competition fairly, but that argument in itself was no reason to exclude me. I continued to be active in the conference circuit all those years, but I also contributed voluntarily to various technical and policy-related initiatives. I actively sought to meet relevant professionals and discuss my options with them. Without fail, they were polite and encouraging, but nothing ever came of those meetings.

I am sure I made mistakes, but that cannot be the only reason for my lack of success. Using the same strategies, I had been successful elsewhere. Also, my pre-move network proved to work. About five years after moving here, I discussed the situation with a friend, a highly successful American academic. She bluntly stated: “This would never have happened to you in the US.” Somehow, I think that she was right.

William O’Flaherty I read your editorial in the recent edition of your magazine. In there you castigate Donald Trump in no uncertain terms. Let me say that I agree with you in general because I look upon him as a buffoon (you refer to him as the “world’s biggest tool”).

But he is easy prey, and easy to castigate regarding his anti-immigrant attitude; but let us go after bigger prey: the American immigration system and the American government that have proposed admitting a paltry number of 10,000 Syrian refugees over the next year (after having being duly processed in the slow and ponderous and proper — read American — system).

Paltry? Yes. That country has 10 times the population of Canada and we are bringing in, as soon as possible, many more than they plan to admit.

Trump’s attitude, and his intemperate remarks are, in part, a reflection of what he perceives — with justification — to be the wish of the American people, their government, and that of their wishy-washy lame duck president: they don’t want a slew of Syrian refugees entering their country.

RE: Winning together
Peter Halpin, Association of Atlantic Universities I write to both acknowledge and thank Alec Bruce for his thoughtful column in the most recent edition of Atlantic Business (“The ABCs of building a better society”).

The Abacus Data survey cited by Mr. Bruce does indeed indicate that Atlantic Canadians hold a positive view of our universities.

As so well-noted by Mr. Bruce, “…various business and consumer groups, economic think tanks and lobbyists …. have complained bitterly about the failure of Canadian universities to graduate cohorts of job-ready workers.”

However, general society (who universities serve) and major employers hold a decidedly different view.

In that Abacus Data survey, Atlantic Canada’s universities received high marks for offering students the “ability to become leaders; solve big challenges and think clearly and communicate well.” These positive public perceptions of what our universities do to prepare students for the labour market and society align well with the view of business leaders, according to the Canadian Council of Chief Executives. In its 2014 survey report of major employers, problem solving, communication, leadership and analytical skills are among the top soft skills that Canada’s largest employers look for in new hires.

[atlanticbusinessmagazine.com]
RE: Security threat
Amel This was a really fantastic, well written article. I hope people realize the overwhelming benefits to welcoming both immigrants and refugees into the Atlantic provinces.

Bill Being a former immigrant who grew up in Halifax and promptly left, this article is pretty accurate. Try as I might, the opportunities for immigrants just weren’t there; being passed over for positions despite being well qualified time after time just sucked. Moving from Halifax to Toronto more than instantly doubled my income at the time, not to mention actual diversity. People on the east coast are great on an individual level, but as a whole, it just feels unwelcoming.

RE: Chump on a stump
Mike Lee You have a way with words, and you said it all. We need more people like you to put things in perspective. Great on you Dawn. Noreen Costello Very well said, Dawn. Great job! God help America if that man gets elected as their president!