St. John's Named A Smart City

From VOCM News:
According to Maclean's Magazine, the City of St. John's has been named one of Canada's smartest cities by the Canadian Council on Learning. With the discovery of more than two billion barrels of accessible oil off our coast, the fate of St. John's -- once a hard-luck port town -- changed dramatically. Hibernia, Terra Nova and White Rose oil fields have provided about 14,000 jobs in spin-off industries. Technip, a local subsea engineering firm, is using its "Engineer here, live here" campaign to lure Newfoundlanders back from Houston and Calgary. St. John's has also managed to focus on investments in the arts, sports and recreation, and formal education, making the capital city a bustling Atlantic centre.

Our Composite Learning Index score has shot up from 65 in 2006 to 80 this year, helping us to jump 10 spots in the ranking to 14. Although Victoria has been named Canada's smartest city, the CCL has appointed St. John's as the city which has shown the greatest improvement.

A few weeks back Bay Roberts,NL was voted by another Magazine as one of the worst places in Canada to live. So it looks like the Townies are one up on the Bay Guys.

Why do i always cheer for the Underdog? Mark Wilson may just be that, but i sure wish i was a resident of St. Johns, i would be volunteering a bit of my time at 16 Duckworth Street helping him out with his quest to be Mayor. Good luck Mr. Wilson.

Mary Walsh is looking for bold volunteers

Mary needs at least 500 volunteers to show up on the St. Johns waterfront to take part in something called "Flesh Architecture." Here's the story at the CBC news site on her project. You would think that being from NL , she could of picked a warmer time of year! Mary will not be baring her bum in this one and here's a quote from her on the subject.."I'm a 55-year-old woman, let's face it, I don't want people to be frightened," Mary,Mary.Mary! Don't you talk so foolish girl. My dear girl, a fellow like myself would jump you in a heartbeat! Especially if you dressed up in that Marg,Princess Warrior outfit.Best of luck on your project.