Nova Scotia's Lost Century: a review

I enjoyed reading Ian Thompson's Nova Scotia's Lost Century. We need more people asking Nova Scotians to be proud of where we come from, expect more of ourselves and pursue the opportunities to build a more prosperous province.

Thompson argues that Nova Scotia lost ambition and confidence over the past century, and that we now have a chance to change that. He draws on provincial history and examples of success to make his case.

I enjoyed the history and the reminder of what people here have achieved. At times, I would have liked a clearer connection between the different periods and stories. Most of all, I wanted to understand how we could create more of the success he describes.

The paddling chapter came closest to answering that question. It showed some of the choices that helped athletes improve and a local club build lasting success.

How a local paddling club built success

Cheema Aquatic Club is a sprint canoe and kayak club in Waverley, Nova Scotia. Its athletes have competed at national, international and Olympic levels. Thompson describes how coaches and volunteers helped develop that success.

Frank Garner began by teaching the basics in team boats. As paddlers developed, he moved them into smaller crews and eventually singles. He also sought out better coaching methods. After meeting Hungarian coaches through international competition, he visited Hungary to learn how they trained their athletes and brought those ideas home.

Scott Logan later made the same trip. He concluded that summer training and part-time coaching were limiting what athletes could achieve. When clubs could not finance the approach he wanted, he began offering private coaching, using his own boat and trailer and getting help with facilities from the school where he taught. Cheema later hired Hungarian coach Laszlo Latorovszki, and its volunteers committed to raising money for the facilities he said the club needed.

Cheema gave athletes better coaching and facilities by learning from clubs abroad and raising money locally. Another club could try those things, which made this example more useful to me than a general appeal for confidence.

I would have liked more detail about the training itself, how the club paid for it over time, and how it developed the next generation of coaches. Repeating the approach would require understanding how it kept working after the people who established it moved on.

The hockey material gave me less to work with. Nova Scotia has produced great players, but how much of that success came from coaching and development programs? How much depended on the circumstances of particular athletes? Celebrating them is worthwhile. Drawing lessons for the rest of the province requires more explanation of what helped them succeed.

What a public campaign can contribute

In 2011, Ottawa held a competition to select two shipyards for its long-term shipbuilding program: one for combat ships and one for non-combat vessels. Irving's Halifax yard was competing for that work.

The shipbuilding chapter puts considerable emphasis on the public campaign behind the bid. I was unsure how much it contributed to the selection, given how few yards were competing.

Davie's financial trouble was real. Upper Lakes, which acquired the yard in July 2011, says it was in insolvency proceedings at the time. But the acquisition and a joint venture with SNC-Lavalin allowed it to submit a bid. Davie remained in the competition.

The Library of Parliament's account records three bidding yards for two selections. There were two proposals for the combat package and three for the non-combat package. Halifax won the combat work and Vancouver the non-combat work.

Halifax still had to beat another proposal for the combat work. But this was a small field, with one yard emerging from serious financial trouble. I would need to know more about the competing bids before attributing much of the win to the province's public campaign.

The Auditor General found that the selection process was successful and independent of political influence. Its findings support the fairness of the selection, without telling us how much the campaign contributed.

Thompson writes from direct experience. He was the province's economic-development deputy minister when the bid was issued, and his department participated in the campaign. He also says the campaign was separate from Irving's formal proposal and was intended to build public enthusiasm rather than influence the technical procurement process.

His account also made me think we should have more campaigns like this around major economic opportunities. A campaign can explain what an investment would mean for local jobs and businesses, give people something to work toward together, and help build public support. That seems a useful way to encourage a more confident attitude toward development.

I would still separate that potential benefit from the question of whether the campaign helped win the bid. Getting people interested in an opportunity is worthwhile in its own right, and it is something other industries could learn from.

I wanted a clearer historical thread

I would have liked the historical chapters to draw more connections between the periods they covered. The book opens with Cheema's success, then returns to Confederation. Later it moves between economic history, institutions, shipbuilding, COVID and hockey.

The book did not need to follow a strict timeline, but clearer transitions would have helped me understand what changed between these episodes. Did a loss of confidence contribute to economic decline, or did economic decline make people less confident? Perhaps each reinforced the other. I often felt we had moved on to another subject before exploring that relationship.

Thompson proposes changes to municipal governance and public services, including a guaranteed-income pilot. He wants institutions to change alongside attitudes. The Ivany report offered a chance to examine what earlier calls for change had achieved. Which ambitions had been met? What had governments and businesses done to achieve them, and where had they fallen short? More attention to the results would have helped us assess what the province had already tried.

I have been asking a similar question in Lunenburg's housing discussion: what changed after the policy was adopted? A commitment is easier to judge once we can see what was built and who benefited.

The comparison I wanted on COVID

I had a related reservation about the pandemic discussion. I wanted more comparative evidence about the economic consequences for Nova Scotia and how they differed from those elsewhere.

The book does make an economic comparison. Thompson attributes to Karen Chapple, director of the University of Toronto's School of Cities, the claim that Halifax's economy performed better during and after COVID than other Canadian cities.

I couldn't tell from that comparison whether people kept their jobs, businesses survived, or activity returned to the downtown. Those would tell us different things, and Halifax's experience might differ from the rest of the province. A little more explanation of the measure, and why provincial policy deserved credit for the result, would have made the argument more persuasive.

How do we build on our ocean strengths?

The conclusion gives the book a more specific destination. Thompson wants Nova Scotia and the wider region to become the world's foremost centre of ocean science and technology. The ocean is the opportunity around which he thinks we should organize our renewed ambition.

I agree that it should be a major focus. The book points to existing marine businesses, researchers, naval expertise and institutions such as COVE and the Bedford Institute of Oceanography. These give us capabilities and organizations to build on.

COVE is a practical example: its Stella Maris testing facilities let companies test equipment in the water, with access to dockside facilities and data. Alongside our research institutions and existing marine companies, that is a concrete step toward turning ocean expertise into products we can sell. The book deserves credit for drawing attention to the progress already made.

I am less certain how we become the world's foremost centre. Fisheries, marine instruments, shipbuilding and offshore energy offer different opportunities. I wanted more detail about which ones we should pursue first and how the strengths Thompson describes could help us succeed in them.

I wanted a clearer account of where we could lead, who would buy what we produce, and why they would choose us over established competitors elsewhere. What could grow from the capabilities we already have? What would require expensive new infrastructure or continuing public support? And how would that expansion coexist with fisheries, coastal communities and the ecosystems on which they depend?

Thompson acknowledges that developing a strategy will take years and that carrying it out will be harder still. He is asking us to undertake that work. I support that ambition and would like to see the next steps developed with the same enthusiasm.

I think the book's underlying sentiment is right. We need more confidence in what we can achieve, and we should do more to celebrate and encourage success. In my view, we lose too many of our own people to the careers and opportunities available in other cities. I want more of those opportunities to exist here, so people can build ambitious lives and businesses in Nova Scotia.

I appreciate Thompson making that case. We need more people encouraging Nova Scotians to take pride in the province and help build its future. What I felt was mainly lacking was an explanation of how we get there: how we develop talent, support people who want to build something, and help successful organizations keep producing success. Cheema began to show that process. I wanted more of the book to explain it with the same care.

I recommend that Nova Scotians and other Maritimers read it. Thompson is asking us to expect more of our province and ourselves. I would like more of us to take that invitation seriously.

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