Some are expressing optimism – perhaps whimsically – that New Glasgow has risen a couple of notches in the annual MoneySense rankings. Still, number 196 out of 200 isn’t where local officials were aiming.
The information presented in the report is clinical stuff, to be sure, under such headings as number of doctors per population and how many can afford new cars, but it’s still a measure of what people expect. And, yes, Pictou County is beautiful, compassionate and neighbourly, but this set of stats is a measure in a different dimension.
Tell that to the cynics. If some of the spiteful glee expressed on The News website is any indication, there are a lot who love to find fault with how things are run. A little reminder: they’re free to get involved and help improve things.
Local leaders have good reason to be concerned. Such lack-lustre press might have some effect on families relocating; but it’s more likely to catch the attention of businesses considering where to set up shop: centres offering the amenities that matter to prospective employees.
As for the local postcard campaign to the magazine: even if such a flood of mail were to make a ripple, they were sent only in the last two months. MoneySense is published seven times a year. This year’s rating exercise would pretty much have been wrapped up, in the wings awaiting publication, as the cards rolled in.
So, maybe next year? Gushing messages on postcards likely won’t change anything. If this ranking does matter to the local municipalities, they need to look at the list of criteria: doctors, income levels, employment opportunity, transit and such.
Improvements in those areas are not easy. And unfair as this seems to those who live here because they love the area, those features are essential in a modern, progressive community.
They have to be addressed – continuously, over the long haul. In the meantime, consider the MoneySense ranking a gentle critique. Getting bent out of shape over them is a waste of energy.
Hey no need to amalgamate the county we have that now, what did it get us? It is said that only people with pimples on their noses notice other persons with pimples on their noses. Can that be true as the town leaders look out of their office windows and snort if only "They" would clean up their acts "We" would be number one. Wishful thinking by a thoughtless gang of bureaucrats if ever there was one the whole reasoning for the awarding of first place was because the city involved deserved it, the whole awarding of last or next to last place is because the city or town involved deserved it. Now what is there abou tthis that is so hard to accept?