Atlantic Canadians rethink chilly phrase
• Glynn Williams remembers the wariness and distrust he faced 11 years ago when he started buying properties in a small, economically depressed town in eastern Nova Scotia.
“There were some vocal people … who said, ‘Who’s this guy from Toronto, and who does he think he is buying up the town?’ ” said Williams, who spent 20 years running a Bay Street equity firm before bringing his entrepreneurial zeal to Guysborough, N.S.
They called him a CFA — a “come from away.”
It’s a slight that — to some — speaks volumes about Atlantic Canada’s apprehensive attitude toward newcomers and its legendary cliquishness.
Now, Nova Scotia’s senior federal cabinet minister is on a mission to change that. In recent weeks, Scott Brison has provoked debate by suggesting the phrase should be banned from the Atlantic Canadian vocabulary.
“It’s in our collective interest, economically and socially, to not use terms that reflect a negative view of people who choose to make Atlantic Canada their home,” the Treasury Board president said.
For Williams, attitudes softened over the years as he invested more than $20 million into the town under his Authentic Seacoast brand, establishing a high-end inn, café, pub, craft brewery, coffee business, golf course and distillery.
Brison said a change in attitude is required as part of a larger strategy that includes new immigration measures aimed at changing what he called “a terrifying demographic trend line.”
Newfoundland and Labrador has the oldest age profile of any province, and Nova Scotia is a close second, says the report, written by a panel led by Acadia University president Ray Ivany.
The report recommended that the number of immigrants admitted annually to Nova Scotia — about 2,300 — should be tripled.
Earlier this week, the Atlantic premiers announced details of a pilot project designed to boost the region’s flagging economy by ensuring newcomers don’t join the steady stream of out-migration to other parts of the country.
Don Desserud, a political scientist at the University of Prince Edward Island, said the notions that Atlantic Canadians have about outsiders — particularly those from other provinces — represent a symptom of a much larger problem: the region’s economic stagnation.
Desserud said that despite deep roots in New Brunswick, he has experienced the subtle reminders of being a CFA since moving to P.E.I. five years ago.
It’s not unusual for Islanders to swap stories about their generations of shared history while he is present, leaving him feeling a bit left out, he said.
“You have nothing to add to that. You do end up thinking, ‘I’ll never have that.’ ”