James and Deborah Fallows have been visiting remote corners of the US by small plane to tease out the secrets of successful local economies. In Eastport, Maine, they heard lots of talk about the potential of Eastport's deep, ice-free harbour, and relative proximity to Europe, to attract European trade. I noted that the same case has been made for Canso, where construction of the causeway to Cape Breton in 1955 inadvertently created a similarly deep, ice-free superport. Inveterate boosterism deflator Tim Bousquet of  The Coast, a Halifax newsweekly, isn't impressed: I think boosters of both the Canso and the Eastport "superports"—and you and...

31 October, 2013

[See correction and clarification at end.] Two months ago, Atlantic journalists James and Deborah Fallows began traveling around the United States in a small plane, visiting relatively obscure cities in a quest to find out what makes some thrive while others struggle. They spent much of last week in Eastport, Maine, hard up against the New Brunswick border. Jim's initial blog posts bespeak a community well on the way to recovery, populated by leaders determined to go the distance. Since Eastport shares much in common with struggling Atlantic port communities, Maritimers might want to perk up their ears. In a post last...

28 October, 2013