These events and revelations include: the U.K. decision to change its century old tax rules; the realization that large pools of capital are managed outside of New York and London by “Have Bloomberg will Travel” advisors; the difficulties for families of key employees to resettle to places which are vastly different, expensive, cliquish and far from family and friends; and the increasingly easy air travel from downtown Toronto to major financial centers like New York and Chicago (Thank you Porter Airlines for allowing me to beat my Summit NJ based college roommate to lunch in Mid-Town Manhattan).

Toronto has a number of existing advantages to commend it, including excellent schools/housing/medical facilities and general infrastructure; large pool of educated workers; an ethnically diverse population; EST zone location, and relatively low cost of living compared to other destinations. However, along with some other practical policy improvements (raise your hand Federal Immigration and Finance Ministers!) to increase its attractiveness, what it most suffers from is a concerted co-ordinated effort to sell itself internationally. It is wonderful that Toronto managed to win over such a high profile cheerleader like Richard Florida but we need to back him up with a winning team of professional “closers” who can market and sell Toronto on the world stage.

Canada’s federal government would need to take the lead on high-speed rail, and they’ve shown little interest. There was $400 million in the most recent budget for minor service upgrades.

I think most Canadians would support high-speed rail, especially along major corridors like Toronto-Montreal and Calgary-Edmonton, but there wasn’t much buzz here specifically about Obama’s rail plan. As for getting “easier access to the US market”, wasn’t that what NAFTA was all about? The “thickening” of the border is a major concern here, given that US trade accounts for 80% of our exports (30% of the economy overall).

Personally, I’d love to be able to take high-speed rail from Toronto to NYC. It’s a 544 mi (875 km) train route of which about 85 mi (135 km) is in Canada. Right now, it takes 12 1/2 hours, of which two hours is for on-board customs processing. But at the FRA’s target speed of 125 mph, and with customs handled off the train, it’d be a 4 1/2 hour trip, which would be a more viable alternative to flying or driving. And there’s heavy air traffic from Toronto to New York, so there are plenty of potential riders.

Forthcoming you will also see a paper on Ontario’s Entrepreneurial potential.

Any reaction from Canadians to the $8 billion for US High Speed Rail in the stimulus package? The map looks like it goes to Vancouver and Montreal, as well as Buffalo right near Toronto (in fact, there’s probably no other reason to go to Buffalo). Do Canadians want to
get easier access to the US market, or are we too close already?

http://www.fra.dot.gov/us/content/203

Here’s another question for you – how is the entrepreneurial climate in Toronto? Have you looked at this? Not just in terms of business, but in terms of that overall attitude “hey, what can I accomplish” — social entrepreneurship, etc.? Not sure how one measures it, but there must be a way.

Reason I’m asking: a couple weeks ago I was in Edmonton for a discussion on that city’s economic environment (as well as investment real estate markets). One of the participants was based in Toronto (and spends a lot of time considering the Toronto investment environment). He felt that Edmonton’s leaders had a vision and a plan for civic, community and economic development that just didn’t exist in Toronto. His sense was that Toronto’s leaders wanted to “level down” rather than encourage real business growth and entrepreneurship — and that they were reactionary rather than visionary.

I’ve heard this same comment from others I know in Toronto, although slightly less forceful. Granted they are probably coming from the right-of-centre politically, and didn’t vote for Mayor Miller.

But their perspective raises a question: is Toronto a good place for entrepreneurs? Is there a “cluster” of this activity — or is there this activity within a number of key clusters?

As I think that for Toronto to be a great world city, it needs to be a place where people with great ideas will go to turn those into a success. And, it needs to be a place that will foster existing residents to develop and run with their cool ideas.