I think there are lessons to be drawn from the Leicester City Foxes who recently won the 2015-16 English Premier League. The Foxes were 5,000 to 1 to win on the season’s opening day.
I can’t help but take a little jab at my Edmonton Oilers – a team I have followed since they joined the NHL in 1979 (I was 12 at the time). In many country professional sports leagues (like the EPL) whole teams can be demoted if they don’t play good enough to remain in the top league. I suspect if the NHL had that approach (i.e. the Oilers as a team would get demoted to a lower league) you would have far better hockey because teams would be extra vigilant to make sure they put a quality product on the ice. These days teams like Toronto and Edmonton can languish in obscurity and still turn a nice profit for their owners (in fairness I have no idea if Edmonton has been profitable).
One of New Brunswick’s biggest challenges relates to how a small jurisdiction positions itself in a world that is more open and global than ever before. Capital, talent and ideas are more mobile than at any time in our history (at least until the Trump Express hits the Whitehouse) and New Brunswick risks being left behind.
Leicester City shows that an innovative approach, a little luck as well as a version of the Tortoise and the Hare story can help elevate underdogs.
I am a little concerned that New Brunswick is too under the radar from a national economy perspective. If Ontario had our province’s economic performance over the past eight years it would be an international issue. When Alberta’s economic growth fell to zero (and slightly below), the nation’s media was awash in stories. When NB has zero growth for seven straight years (on average) no one notices or they shrug their shoulders and say “that’s just New Brunswick”.
Why this matters is that we need the federal government to be concerned about NB’s economic trajectory and help where it can – in areas such as immigration, our share of national innovation funding, helping promote NB around the world using its global network of trade and investment officers, etc.
We need to attract national and international investment – like we have in the past – if we are too under the radar that becomes more difficult.
We need to attract a lot of talent in the coming years. That too requires a focused effort.
The Economist magazine, after several articles extolling the virtues of Leicester City and drawing much broader lessons for the economy – has piece concluding that “underdogs are overrated”.
That too is an illustration of the challenges we face moving forward.