Nothing to do here

We're in trouble here.

We've lost 1,100 good industrial jobs at Trenton with the coming closure of the railcar plant there. This is almost beyond words for me, like a death in my family.

Though I myself have more calluses on my arse than on my hands, many of the immediately proceeding generations of my family worked at and got their trades skills at the Trenton plant.

Add the loss of 380 jobs we're losing at the Canard poultry processing plant here and we have large rends in our province's economy. Centripetal economic forces within the country have affected the Canard plant, while crass globalization has brought down Trenton.

It means many more valuable workers and their families will be heading west.

Don't expect any sympathy from outside our region. Columnists from as wide a spectrum as The Globe and Mail's John Ibbitson and the Western Standard's Ric Dolphin have written us - and much of the rest of rural Canada off; unless, of course, an area has oil resources.

Now, the Liberals' enthrallment with the Kyoto agreement could well lead to more and more Trentons across the country.

I have to ask how much will we save on these Kyoto bucks or coupons or credits now that we don't have Trenton works? Will Mexico pay them now? Not very likely.

We're going through a global warming cycle that could well be similar to others the earth had undergone in recent millennia - including 1.000 years ago when Haarald, Sven, Knut, Karl and Bjorg wandered these parts sporting horned helmets and such, rowing across a globally warmed ocean, settling in Newfoundland and munching on grapes along our coasts.

It's nowhere near that warm yet. No accord, forged in Kyoto or anywhere else, is going to stop future warming.

That said, we're not off the hook. We have to be just as cautious and enthusiastic about not contributing to this natural phenomenon. But, we have to make a living - hopefully in places like Canard and Trenton.

It's about people, too.

Like most of us, I've gone to my home town to find many of the people with whom I'd gone to school are nowhere near. It's a Babylonian Captivity.

It had been a problem prior to confederation - which Nova Scotia vehemently opposed, with good reason. Once in, industrial centralization after 1867 made things worse, for our economy and demographic critical mass. Industrial centralization began immediately; later, young Maritimers were offered free one-way trips out west.

The Second World War showed the most effort to centralize. So it continued into late in the last century.

I refused to leave. Though my parents had emphasized Australia when I was younger, it never entered my mind to go to Ontario or Alberta. I've always felt I had things to do here.

I recall a local woman being quite proud her daughter had acquired a good job elsewhere in the country. After all, she said, there was nothing for her to do here.

No, just build an economy, and rebuild a working society. No, there was nothing to do here.

That's how we got to this point. As it stands now, there is little we can do about it.