Business at home and abroad

The Valley business community, particularly its entrepreneurs, has been front and centre lately.

Let's not forget, these people - whether they inherited or built from the ground up - are the ones who pay the bills. They are the ones whose livelihoods and reputations are at stake everyday.

The Eastern Kings Chamber of Commerce (EKCC) hosted the 12th annual Kings County Business Awards Dinner at the Old Orchard Inn Nov. 9. Lifetime Achievement Awards went to Peter Peill, Lyndhurst Farms, Sheffield Mills; Peter Clarke, Southview Farms, Woodville; Earl Kidston, Nova Agri, Sheffield Mills; and Peter Herbin, Herbin Jewellers, Wolfville. Happy Day Spa, Wolfville, was the Outstanding New Business for 2006; Absolutely Fabulous Bed Bath and Home, New Minas, Outstanding Small Business; and Wheatons', Berwick, Outstanding Large Business.

It was interesting to note comparatively large corporations - besides Michelin, which was a nominee in a category - such as Aliant and Emera were on hand at the event to lend support.

As for the future, the Kings CED Agency's Kings Innovation Council recently held its Innovation 101 session in Wolfville. Some 200 folks showed up to take part in the event and heard former corporation CEO Dr. Lance Secretan speak about innovation and leadership in entrepreneurship.

As well, the area received a visit from Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) president and CEO Catherine Swift, who noted young people are now more attracted to entrepreneurship than they had been in recent decades. In the not-so-distant past, the idea was get a government position or a job with a large corporation.

Freedom and satisfaction are factors in entrepreneurship, Swift noted, but so are taxes and debilitating government regulations.

Most entrepreneurs aren't in it for the money alone. And because they are closer to the community, small and medium businesses tend to be socially conscious. In fact, many small and medium business owners work alongside their employees, who may be family or friends. The intertwining of business and community is important for business as a whole.

It's important for our community to understand the necessity of business and entrepreneurship and innovation. At the same time, it has to be understood at the national level.

In the federal Liberal party - which has been known to support big ideas and entities, and not necessarily the private sector - our own Kings-Hants MP Scott Brison is offering for leader. Accused of having his Tory blue show through at times, Brison is the only contender who has a solid economic plan - including, and this is important, environmentally-centred economics.

Brison's background as a Progressive Conservative serves him well in that he is socially progressive (as are most Liberals), but also fiscally responsible - or conservative; with a solid understanding of the importance of business in creating the wealth that bankrolls social spending.

His detailed knowledge of how hard it is to make a living in rural Canada - including the Maritimes - should serve him and the party well - if the greater membership listens.

Does Brison have a hope of becoming leader and focusing the party on the economy? The numbers aren't there - yet. Time is getting short, fast. But the Liberals have done far stranger things for far less sensible reasons - think 1968.

Don't get me going.



The world’s business

Meanwhile, on the government benches, Prime Minister Stephen Harper's concerns for human rights in China and Vietnam are well placed. But pissing off the Chinese leadership over Tibet - an issue long past its due date - and its treatment of dissidents is a luxury we can't afford, let alone get involved in anyway.

Would any country have put up with the carryings on at Tiananmen Square in June 1989? After all, the demonstrators drew first serious blood on the security forces.

Even the Taiwan situation isn't one that’s up to Canada to go to any lengths to protest, particularly alone. It's an internal Chinese issue - not our problem.

On the other hand, the Chinese industrial espionage is something that has to be dealt with by our own security services, as well as through corporate measures. After all, even long-time friends aren't above such moves in the global economy.

As with China, the way to help the people of Vietnam - particularly those in the conquered south - is to foster economic growth and trade. Meeting new trade partners and developing mutual economic dependence, down to the personal level, is a sure way of opening borders and minds.

Let's not forget the lessons of South Africa in the last decade of apartheid, when the west attempted sanctions to pressure the racist regime. Much of what the sanctions did was merely bust up the economy for folks at the lower end of the socio-economic scale - the very people whose human rights were curtailed by apartheid.

What was needed was more application of the Sullivan Principles: any American company setting up in South Africa had to adhere to strict rules in ethnic equality through pay and promotions.

With economic power come political and social rights.

An odd aside, with the South African sanctions, the shunned country built its own advanced arms industry, Armscor. When Nelson Mandela became the first post-apartheid president, he inadvertently, automatically, became the biggest arms merchant on the continent. Further, the new top-of-the-line mine-resistant trucks the Canadian Army is using in Afghanistan are built by the South African arms industry and were developed out of necessity during the apartheid era.

As for other examples of sanctions and trade warfare, we don't even want to talk about the disaster of the United Nations sanctions on Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

Well-placed businesses of the right kind and with the right attitudes can go a long way for lifestyle and rights.

We know that in the Valley; Brison is carrying the message to the rest of Canada; and, hopefully, Prime Minister Harper will behave accordingly in foreign policy