By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON May 30, 2011 – Any event you attend where either the Mayor or the President of the Chamber of Commerce or the General Manager of the Burlington Downtown Business Association and heck even Kyle Benham of the Burlington Economic Development Corporation will remind you that Burlington was named the third Best City to live in – two years in a row. None of these guys give up an opportunity to tell you just how significant we are.
Well, are you ready for this? Last week, Mayor Rick Goldring told his Council that Burlington is now the Second Best City to raise children in – in all of Canada. The only city better than us is St. Albert in the province of Alberta. And you know what else? The Executive Director of the Burlington Performing Arts Centre came to Burlington from St. Albert. This is all absolutely fabulous – isn’t it ? Aren’t you excited?
Well, the devil is in the details isn’t it. We learned from the Mayor that the people who publish Money Sense magazine, they were the ones who said we are number 3 as the best place to live – they also own the magazine Today’s Parent which has us as the number two Best City to Raise Children in. It’s all a little incestuous.
But a prize is a prize – look for the Board of Educations to latch onto this one and every day care in the city will want to put this on their web site. And can you imagine what the real estate people are going to do with all this glory?
Why does Burlington need to have all these awards ? We have the Philanthropist of the Year, the Entrepreneur of the Year, the Citizen of the Year. Are we missing anything? Or are we telling more about ourselves than we want to or should be saying. A smart, sophisticated city tends to grow beyond the need to do all this self congratulating.
Nothing wrong with the people we recognize, they are all fine people. It is significant to note that many of those named in these lists go on to public office; almost as if you can’t get elected unless you have done community service.
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