Celebrating excellence this year in Thunder Bay.

• Author: Atkins, Michael
• Position: President's Note - Travel narrative

Three years ago, my daughter (then 14) competed at Mount Baldy in an Ontario Alpine Ski Race. It was a big deal for me. I don't get to Thunder Bay as much as I used to and I had a story to tell. I made her find time for an afternoon tour of the highlights of my launch into the newspaper business in Thunder Bay some 43 years ago.

The old Fort William Times Journal building on Memorial Drive where I got and lost (fired) my first newspaper job. Crown Street in Port Arthur where I lived and where my first daughter was born. The Hoito where I had breakfast. The Kangas Sauna where I thawed out. The various addresses of Lakehead Living (a weekly newspaper), which I owned for some 20 years.

The top of Mount McKay where Mayor Saul Laskin told me my tires would freeze in February (he was right) if I had the temerity to hang around through winter (I was a refugee from Don Mills). The post office where I worked I next door to Bob Andras and his constituency man, Michael Gravelle.

I had fun. Jackie fell asleep in the car.

I don't blame her. It was a forced march. I didn't introduce her to people. I showed her spots.

One of the historical notes I did not think to tell her at the time is that we launched the Northern Ontario Business Awards in Thunder Bay 29 years ago. Although it was our idea, we couldn't have launched it without the initial support of David Peterson, the premier of the province at the time. He was a big supporter of Northern Ontario and was keen to bring Northerners together to build community and business.

Since that moment so long ago, we have celebrated more than 250 people and companies who have made Northern Ontario a better place to live.

The thing is that it is not easy to create wealth and jobs in Northern Ontario. We live with extraordinary cycles of growth and retraction, we battle limited visibility and political clout at Queen's Park and Ottawa, and we endure higher costs to do business, limited scale and considerable distance to markets.

And yet, and yet. We have the only medical school in Canada anchored at two universities that are more than 1,000 kilometres apart. It has been a spectacular success. We have a Northern Policy Institute that spans the North and is helping us understand it. Each major...