Dear Mr. Atkins:

After all these years, I still thoroughly enjoy reading your column, and indeed turn to it first. That rare quality of honesty and integrity shines through, and for such as myself, is entirely refreshing. You seem to have no sacred cows; nor egos which you are unwilling to puncture, gracefully and with dignity. I am truly delighted that you have been so successful in your pursuits. May your notable achievements continue both professionally and personally.

I do not write to you often, perhaps once every two or more years. But something caught my eye in your May 2006 column (“Rethinking the power equation in the North”), something so basic and simple, that it is practically ignored by most economic development agencies and personnel:

“Economic development starts from the bottom up, not the top down ... if there is no homegrown leadership, you are just wasting your money” and time.

But the “bottom up” agencies almost never look to themselves, but to something regional, provincial, federal. Self-help is a dead issue. No local initiative, no enterprise, little in the way of intelligence – and not a place where one would care to be established, especially an innovator.

There seems to be an inherent laziness, a desire to have everything all done for them. This is pervasive throughout the continent, not only in Northern Ontario, although the latter’s isolation, much like Appalachia, contributes a great deal to the rural “ we don’t care, we’ll die first, we’ll never change” ideology.

I do not know how one neuters this thinking, but I do believe Northern Ontario ought to be a territory or province unto itself. Self-government isn’t easy, can be bad-tempered and inbred, but at least it is repatriated to those whose lives are affected. It is easier to blame others than oneself, but without local responsibility, maturation never takes place.

The basics of economic development refer back to the mining of local capacity. People need to understand this, and if your organization would conduct seminars and workshops in every Northern Ontario town, and do so severely and with determination and not pandering, something excellent might evolve.

People or municipalities would pay a fee for this service, money well spent.

But the seminar leaders need to be individuals of your intelligence, insight, integrity and vision, or it won’t work.

There is nothing wrong with Northern Ontario that an infusion of reality, freedom, self-reliance and a bit of glorious emancipation will not cure.

You are an educator, Mr. Atkins, a fine one, a good future President of Northern Ontario. They’d be lucky to have you. But, you remember the old James Thurber maxim (from the Peace-like Mongoose): “Ashes to ashes/Dust to dust/If the enemy doesn’t get you/Your own folks must. Intrepid leadership is risky business, but for some of us, it’s bred in the bone.”

L.D. Jacobs is a retired professor living in Stratford, Ontario.