Canada is Chosen Market of the Month
Export.gov, a stateside website that brings together resources from across the US Government to assist American businesses in planning their international sales strategies, named Canada as its “Market of the Month” for May. According to the website: “The United States and Canada share the longest common border between any two nations in the world, a border that spans more than 5,000 miles with 140 border crossings, and offers access to most of Canada’s 33.5 million inhabitants, who live within 160 miles of the border. Our combined trade in goods, services, and foreign direct investment adds up to a trillion-dollar economic partnership. This geographical proximity coupled with common free market values, language, business practices, and a similar standard of living – where US goods and services account for approximately 60 percent of purchases – make Canada our most important export market in the world and an ideal market for US companies wanting to make their first export sale.”
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Prime Minister Harper Announcing Winnipeg’s Centreport Canada Initiative.
Prime Minister Announces New Construction for Winnipeg’s Centreport Canada Initiative
Winnipeg will expand its position as one of North America’s most important trading centers thanks to the CentrePort Canada initiative – a new job-creating investment contained in the Government of Canada’s Economic Action Plan. The initiative involves using the James Armstrong Richardson International Airport and surrounding land as a hub to import goods from Asia and Europe and then distribute those goods throughout North America by air, rail, and road. The governments of Canada and Manitoba are jointly funding the next phase of this project, which involves building a high-speed transportation corridor. Winnipeg plays an important role in both East-West and North-South trade. It serves as a natural connection point between Atlantic shipping lanes and the Asia Pacific Gateway and as the northern terminus of the fast-growing mid-continent trade corridor, with the potential to expand to take advantage of trade opportunities in Canada’s North.
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Canadian Chef Susur Lee Opens Shang Restaurant in New York City
Susur Lee – who has been called one of the best chefs in Canada – has made good on plans to open a restaurant in New York City, shuttering his eponymous Toronto restaurant and settling on a trendy Lower East Side location (187 Orchard Street at Stanton). The result is Shang, located on the second floor of the Thompson hotel, a high-profile structure that is hard to miss amid the neighborhood’s bars and bodegas. In a favorable review in New York magazine reviewer Adam Platt commented: “I tended to like the smaller, dim sum–size dishes better than the larger ones, and the closer Lee hews to classic Chinese ingredients and technique, the better the results. Among the small-plate items, everyone approved of the classic Cantonese turnip cake, which Lee dressed with an artful mixture of baby eggplant, preserved black beans, and shiitakes.” According to The New Yorker, “by far the best dish on the menu came late: rosy lamb chops that could be cut with a butter knife, with a peanut sauce good enough to spoon up by itself.”
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Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach.
Premier Stelmach Meets with OPEC and WTO officials
Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach advocated on behalf of Alberta’s trade, investment, and energy interests with two of the world’s most powerful economic organizations during his May 2 – 9 mission to Switzerland and Austria. Premier Stelmach reinforced Alberta’s commitment to responsible energy development and increased global trade liberalization during meetings with the Secretary General of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), and several key ambassadors to the World Trade Organization (WTO). “These two organizations represent the core businesses that are critical to our success – energy, investment, and trade,” said Stelmach. “It’s always important that we build relationships and position our interests with our international partners – but during these challenging economic times it’s not only important, it’s vital.”
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Canada Maintains a Strong Fleet Week Presence
The Memorial Day holiday weekend in New York City marked the 21st Annual Fleet Week. For six days, from May 20 to 26, US and Canadian naval vessels were docked in New York City. The annual celebration’s inaugural event, known as “The Parade of Ships,” included 13 vessels in all – five of them Canadian – on display navigating the Hudson River in full regalia. Canada’s Deputy Consul General John McNab attended the event, which was hosted by the New York Council of the Navy League. The presence of five Canadian ships underscored the strong bilateral partnership between the US and Canada. “We hope that the Canadian Navy’s visible presence in New York City this week will reinforce the historic friendship between our two countries,” said DCG McNab, “one that has sustained us in peacetime and in war, and one that is shared by the millions of people that live on both sides of our border.” As they do every year, the Canadian Naval troops visiting New York participated in a host of organized activities during their visit.
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The Canadian Embassy in Washington, DC.
Canadian Architect Arthur Erickson Dies at 84
Internationally renowned Vancouver architect Arthur Erickson, whose high-profile career lasted more than 50 years, died on May 20 at the age of 84. Mr. Erickson’s work included the design of mansions, libraries, universities, museums, and, notably, the spectacular Canadian Embassy in Washington DC. He first achieved international acclaim for his award-winning design for Simon Fraser University in his home province of British Columbia, but his work can be seen around the world. Other of Mr. Erickson’s projects includes the Bank of Canada building in Ottawa, the Kuwait Oil Sector Complex in Kuwait City, the Museum of Anthropology in Vancouver, and the Kunlun Apartment Hotel Development in Beijing. In his late 70s, Erickson accepted a non-profit organization’s plea to design a Downtown Eastside housing complex in Vancouver for poor people with long histories of drug abuse and mental illness.
In a statement issued the day after Mr. Erickson’s death, Canada’s Ambassador to the US, Michael Wilson said: “Here at the Canadian Embassy in Washington, I have the good fortune of working in one of [Mr. Erickson’s] inspiring buildings every day, and I hope that his designs will continue to lead innovation and originality in the next generation of international designers.”
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