Cape Breton has a pretty serious issue with growth and advancement, we have a dwindling population, a failing local economy and an obsession with a past that is questionable at best. So, what can be done about this? I don't really know, but I can point out a few things that we are doing very wrong that maybe aren't as obvious as they should be.

Stop looking at employers as the enemy:

I honestly didn't notice this until I moved away from Cape Breton for a while and moved back. We, as in Cape Bretoners, tend to look at our employers as an adversary that is actively trying to take advantage of us, and though that does happen, it is far from the norm. Most business owners are trying to accomplish two things:

1. Produce enough business for themselves to not have to work for other people. This is a pretty important principle for most business owners,myself included, I place my independence from an authority figure on the top of my value totem., the amount I make above not having to be dependent isn't all that important.
2. Make our communities more desirable for business of all sorts. We want to see our communities grow, and see more people in business, and see enough business to hire people and so on and so forth.

Like I said earlier, I understand that there are corrupt managers within businesses and there are also corrupt business owners, but that is not the norm in my experience. So it's wrong to frame your boss as the enemy, in fact, normally, bosses and business owners are the greatest advocates of your community.

Stop expecting the government to do something about the state of employment:

Local economies thrive with LESS government involvement, not more, so stop demanding the Canada, Nova Scotia or CBRM governments do something about the state of unemployment in the area. The government can't do anything about the employment situation anywhere, that's up to the people, you are the one that is capable of building enterprise, opening business and stimulating our economy. “Well, if it's that easy, how do you suggest we do that then, Mr. SmartGuy?” I assume you are probably thinking something along those lines right now. I never said it would be easy, but there are a lot of ways you can get involved in the building of our local economy that doesn't include demanding your government take an active role in business. Lets start with: Open your own small business. This one is hard, it requires a great amount of sacrifice, and has an extremely high rate of failure. It's still possible, and if you have the ambition, it is 100% worth it. Next: Encourage and support the business owners and startups in your community. This one is a little easier than the last, but it is just as important, the number of businesses I've seen fail because of a lack of community support is staggering. Lastly: If you have the capital to invest, invest it locally. Put some seed money in for a local startup instead of investing in stocks or large corporations. There are many businesses that never make it off the ground because they can't find seed money to get started, so be that person with the seed money. Investing in a local business is great for your community and great for you, it gives you an investment you can monitor easily, it stimulates the local economy and it just makes you feel good to know that you invested in little johnny's video game store.

Stop buying your groceries at Walmart:

Really, you shouldn't be buying anything at Walmart if possible, but especially your groceries. I'm guilty of this myself, it's easy, cheap and convenient to do your grocery shopping at Walmart, but it's really bad for your local economy, especially if there are local alternatives available. Smaller stores and local butchers keep their money in the local community, where as Walmart sends their money away, at least Sobeys and SuperStore keep their money in Canada. Keep track of where your money goes after it's out of your hands, and try to keep it within your community as much as possible.

Give a little extra support to local businesses that sell their products mostly off island:

Making sure our money mostly stays on the island is good, bringing money onto the island is better. How do we do that? Well, that's one of the reasons Manufacturing is so great for an area, manufactured goods are usually shipped off island and sold elsewhere, which means that the salaries and wages earned in those workplaces aren't spent on the merchandise being manufactured, so that is revenue added to your community and the community becomes wealthier. Online businesses, engineering firms and any business related to the arts that isn't retail are also usually pretty good for this principle, so those businesses should be supported before any other.

Overall, I think my message is that it is we who are in control over the future of this island, and that asking for government to “fix” our communities problems is only going to make things worse. The strongest economies in the world weren't built by governments, they were built by the conscientiousness and ambitious citizen who decided to take matters of the economy into their own hands, who were supported by their community and who took the time to do it right. Your government isn't there to be a mother, to fix your problems and make the bad things go away, you are more than strong enough to do that yourself.