The Icelandic Canadian - 01.03.1968, Blaðsíða 22

20
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Spring 1968
You can become aware and know-
ledgeable about your own province.
We have a Manitoba history, a Mani-
toba environment, a Manitoba situ-
ation. Learn as much as you can about
this province of ours, including the hi-
story of the Icelanders in Manitoba.
Their story is not confined to Win-
nipeg.
You can be a salesman for Mani-
toba. You meet people from other
places. You travel. Take pride in the
achievements of your province and let
people know about it. The decisions
of outside businessmen often depend
not only on physical things that can
be measured, but on the feeling and
spirit of the place where they will lo-
cate and expand their activities. One
dissatisfied gas station attendant or
grouchy store clerk may nullify the ef-
fects of a site and market survey that
took months to prepare. We may never
know exactly why that visiting in-
vestor’s interest evaporated.
Claude Ryan, the publisher of Le
Devoir, was recently discussing die
downturn in investment in Quebec.
He blamed it on the climate of un-
certainty in Quebec at present, and
went on to say:
“In most of these cases, the investor
who decided to choose another prov-
ince over Quebec is not going to boast
of his decision to the Quebec Minister
of Industry and Commerce or to a
journalist.”
The same thing applies here. A
potential investor who is discouraged
by lack of confidence of the people
of this province is not going to tell
us why he decided not to proceed with
has plans. His plan is just quietly dis-
carded.
This past Centennial summer the
Pan-American Games were held in
Manitoba. All of us now know what
a resounding success the Pan-American
Games were. But beforehand there
were some people who thought that
the Pan-American Games would ibe a
failure.
It was only once the Pan-American
Games were completed that everyone
realized exactly what had made the
difference between failure and success.
It was total community involvement
—the whole-hearted commitment and
active participation of the community
as a whole. Thousands of people help-
ed to promote and operate the Pan-
American Games—and the whole prov-
ince has benefitted from a job well
done.
This is the kind of spirit we must
have in our economic development.
This involvement of all of us, this
awareness of all of us, is what is going
to ensure our success. This is the true
spirit of “70”.
THE SPIRIT OF ’70
Now you can feel the beat in
Manitoba,
The big beat booming out the news.
It’s a stirring beat, that has us on
our feet
Shaking hands and telling everyone
we meet,
That you can feel the beat in
Manitoba,
A million people on the go.
Give a shout, give a cheer
Tell the world the future’s here
Oh man Oh Manitoba, let’s go!
It’s the spirit, wonderful spirit,
It’s the spirit of ’70 that’s beating on
the drum;
It’s the spirit, wonderful spirit,
From the city, from the farm; Oh, you
can feel it come,
That’s the spirit, the spirit of ’70,
The prairie sky is all aglow,
Give a shout, give a cheer,
Tell the world the future’s here
Oh man Oh Manitoba, let’s go!