The capital N and the Great Eraser.

• Position: ECONOMICALLY SPEAKING

How many teachers in Northern Ontario tell their students that the name of the region is spelled with a capital "N?" It isn't a trivial question. It teachers think "northern Ontario" is the correct spelling they are giving their students a signal. Northern Ontario only exists from the point of view of the south.

That's what Patti Tasko, the senior supervising editor with Canadian Press (based in Toronto) decided in 1999 when she revised the Canadian Press Stylebook. Northern Ontario is not a place with a name-it is a general area defined by being north of Toronto.

In doing that she abolished the memory of a region with a distinct history. She made the notion of Northern self-government disappear for every Canadian Press (CP) reporter. She told us that Southern Ontario has gone a long way toward completely forgetting Northern Ontario.

Patti Tasko isn't the only one working to make Northern Ontario disappear. The Northern Growth Plan carefully erased any notion that Northern power should supply Northern businesses. George Smitherman, the most powerful minister in cabinet, was in charge of getting power for southern Ontario. Even before the plan began George was committed to expanding the power transmission lines to the south. We can't pretend that the Minister of Northern Development and Mines had one-tenth the influence George had.

But Patti and George can't make Northern Ontario disappear without help. They need the help. They need the help of the Great Eraser. The Great Eraser is one of our largest employers, with thousands of professionals working to prevent Northern Ontario from ever knowing itself. The Great Eraser is the public school system.

The public school system makes sure that no Northern student grows up reading the poets and writers of Northern Ontario. The Great Eraser makes sure that children in forestry towns can't recognize a single Northern tree. The Great Eraser works constantly to make sure young people leave the North by making sure they don't know the North.

Counsellors working for the Great Eraser encourage high school students to pursue university education. A survey of high school students in a Northern Ontario town found almost on interest in the resource-based or manufacturing industries. Not one expressed an interest in creating a business. University education is a good thing, but most private sector jobs in Northern Ontario require either high school, apprenticeship, or on-the-job training. Education and health...