Why Ottawa should be like Huntsville
If we’re going to invest this many billions in defence, why not make it work for us?
Link to my Ottawa Citizen column is here.
As my faithful and patient reader knows only too well, I never miss a chance to talk about Huntsville, Alabama. This small city (pop. a little under 250,000 but growing fast) is a model of good, happy, easy, people-centred living. I’ve been going regularly for four years and it never ceases to amaze.
It’s not just me: This British couple is travelling the US and making films where they go, and they recently toured the Rocket City. They were as impressed with it as I was — and continue to be.
My excuse to talk about this wonderful city again this week is the strategy unveiled last week to make the National Capital Region a defence innovation hub and take advantage of all these billions of dollars the feds want to devote to national defence.
This is what made Huntsville the Rocket City, starting with Operation Paperclip 75 years ago. This small city, once a cotton farming community, leveraged the dickens out of federal defence and aerospace investments ever since. Ottawa today is in a much better position than Huntsville was in the 1950s. Just imagine how much better it could be should we decide to use that windfall to make it walkable, clean, prosperous, empathetic and just plain friendly to everyone.