Part One: Atlantica: Two Countries, One Region; AIMS publishes new Ideas Matter
Part Two: “Atlantica Council” Officially Launched; Private Sector Leadership, Together With AIMS, Create New Cross-Border Institution
Part Three: AIMS brings Atlantica message to Canada-US Border Trade Alliance, Management Committee of the Council of Atlantic Premiers
Part Four: Buffalo, New York sees its future in Atlantica
Part Five: New Atlantica website takes shape
Part Six: “Out of Atlantica”, New Cross-Border Region Catches Media’s Fancy
Part Seven: George Bush, Canadians and the “narcissism of small differences”: why cross-border friendship trumps everything else
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Part One: Atlantica: Two Countries, One Region; AIMS publishes new Ideas Matter
Is there a natural economic region straddling the border between Canada and the US and including Atlantic Canada, northern New England, upstate New York and parts of southern and eastern Quebec, a region increasingly known as “Atlantica: the International Northeast Economic Region (AINER)”?
AIMS thinks so, and for the first time anywhere, the Institute has brought together in an accessible form the arguments — historical, economic, commercial and political — that explain why this is the “next big idea” in building the economy of Atlantica, a wedge of territory has been outside the charmed circle of North American prosperity for years. Laid out in an attractive and graphics-rich format, this new edition of AIMS’ Ideas Matter publication lays out a compelling case for increased cross-border co-operation in the International Northeast Economic Region.
Available online at:
www.aims.ca/atlantica.asp?typeID=1&id=1033&fd=0&p=1
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Part Two: “Atlantica Council” Officially Launched; Private Sector Leadership, Together With AIMS, Create New Cross-Border Institution
At a recent meeting in Saint John, New Brunswick, several chiefly private sector groups joined together with AIMS to form a new Atlantica Council to promote this cross-border region and its natural economic affinities. Among the groups represented at the meeting were the Atlantic Provinces Chambers of Commerce, Enterprise Saint John, the Eastern Maine Development Corporation, Progress Corp., the Maine International Trade Center and Enterprise Greater Moncton. AIMS took advantage of the occasion to launch its new Atlantica website: www.atlantica.org. This is further evidence of the growing momentum behind this concept, which AIMS has been instrumental in popularizing.
The full column can be accessed at:
www.aims.ca/atlantica.asp?typeID=4&id=1049&fd=0&p=1
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Part Three: AIMS brings Atlantica message to Canada-US Border Trade Alliance, Management Committee of the Council of Atlantic Premiers
AIMS President Brian Lee Crowley was invited to bring the Institute’s Atlantica message to the annual conference of the Canada-US Border Trade Alliance (CanAmBTA) in Chicago on November 8th. In this speech and slide presentation, Crowley reviewed the logic of Atlantica in the context of a growing movement to continental economic integration and globalization. This conference, which included a session with representatives of each of the Canada-US border regions reaching from the Pacific to the Atlantic, underlined the extent to which the Canada-US economic relationship is increasingly being managed by the emerging regions. Atlantica is well behind some of the most advanced regions, such as PNWER and the New York-Quebec region, but it was clear from the reception given to the AIMS presentation that there is tremendous support and enthusiasm for the Atlantica concept among the growing sector of the continental economy that depends on open borders and efficient movement of goods, services and people throughout the NAFTA territory.
To read the full talk go to: www.aims.ca/atlantica.asp?typeID=3&id=1048&fd=0&p=1
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Part Four: Buffalo, New York sees its future in Atlantica
Buffalo, New York is the second largest Port of Entry to the United States, second only to Detroit and ahead of New York. This commanding position in international trade flows is due to Buffalo’s proximity to Canada’s industrial heartland and the windows on world commerce that Canada’s east coast ports provide. And where does Buffalo see its future growth coming from? Atlantica — the International Northeast Economic Region. In their video promoting Buffalo as a major gateway to the American heartland, the city’s connections to international trade routes via the Port of Halifax are highlighted. This video has received wide play, including by the New York State Transportation Commissioner, Joe Boardman. View this video, and see how the western and eastern ends of Atlantica are tied together by economic logic and powerful trade relations.
www.aims.ca/atlantica.asp?typeID=3&id=1051&fd=0&p=1
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Part Five: New Atlantica website takes shape
Atlantica: the International Northeast Economic Region (AINER) is going on-line at www.atlantica.org. Atlantica is defined chiefly by geography, economic trends and trade patterns; common problems and experiences; and politics, but to be effective, it also has to have a cyber-existence. AIMS, with assistance from numerous other organisations, has now put the Atlantica story on-line, and will continue to make new resources available on the new site to underline the progress the Atlantica concept is making in the minds of decision makers and policymakers throughout the region and in Washington and Ottawa.
Visit the new Atlantica website to read the Atlantica Story and see how this idea is rapidly gaining momentum throughout the region.
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Part Six: “Out of Atlantica”, New Cross-Border Region Catches Media’s Fancy
“Take a gigantic chalkboard eraser and wipe away the borders between Atlantic Canada and the northeastern United States. That’s what the creators of Atlantica want to do, especially when it comes to trade. They envision this zone, known as the International Northeast Economic Region, as the next major financial mecca.”
Read this piece from Nova Scotia’s largest daily newspaper, the Halifax Chronicle Herald, to learn more about how the Atlantica concept is gaining strength across the region.
www.aims.ca/atlantica.asp?typeID=4&id=1052&fd=0&p=1
This piece from the National Post shows just one way that Atlantica is taking advantage of the new realities of global transportation and commerce.
www.aims.ca/atlantica.asp?typeID=4&id=1053&fd=0&p=1
Business Voice, the flagship publication of the largest Chamber of Commerce in the region has been a strong advocate of the Atlantica concept – returning to it in this cover story.
www.aims.ca/atlantica.asp?typeID=4&id=1055&fd=0&p=1
The community of Bangor has consistently opposed U.S. customs pre-clearance for Halifax International Airport, until now. Read this piece in the Bangor Daily News to see how the principles underlying Atlantica have again born fruit.
www.aims.ca/atlantica.asp?typeID=4&id=1042&fd=0&p=1
Read this piece from Atlantic Business magazine, a major regional publication, to see the debate around Atlantica heat up.
www.aims.ca/atlantica.asp?typeID=4&id=1054&fd=0&p=1
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Part Seven: George Bush, Canadians and the “narcissism of small differences”: why cross-border friendship trumps everything else.
While Canadians don’t like to be reminded of it, we are more like Americans than anyone else on Earth. While we often engage in the “narcissism of small differences” (pretending that marginal differences between us are more important than the vast body of common experiences and values), to people from outside North America, Canadians and Americans are virtually indistinguishable. In his fortnightly column in the largest circulation newspapers in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, AIMS President Brian Lee Crowley explored this fundamental truth as we prepared to welcome U.S. President George Bush on his first official visit to Halifax and to Canada.
To read the full piece, see:
www.aims.ca/atlantica.asp?typeID=4&id=1044&fd=0&p=1