Edmonton is flexing its muscle on the national stage.
Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel is leading an Alberta posse to Toronto and Ottawa this week (April 27-29) to showcase the city as a first-rate business centre and tourism destination.
Mandel, along with Edmonton Economic Develop-ment Corp. (EEDC) officials and select business and arts leaders, will sing the praises of the city as they attempt to put Edmonton on Ontario's radar screen.
Through the "Edmonton Edge" event, the city's leaders will make their case to business decision-makers in Ontario along with getting out a message - through the media - that Alberta's capital has a lot going for it.
"We want to showcase Edmonton as a premier place to do business and as a preferred tourism destination," says EEDC spokesman Jim Rudolph. "That's one of the underlying concerns we're trying to address with this initiative. Edmonton's business and tourism attributes are not sufficiently addressed in southern Ontario, and this is a beachhead into those markets."
Edmonton's political CEO sees this trip as an important first step.
"I think it's a start," says Mandel. "I really think Edmonton needs to be a player on the national business scene if we're going to bring national business players to Edmonton."
Mandel will also take his message to Ottawa, where Alberta's arts scene is being showcased at the National Arts Centre. In Ottawa, the Edmonton push will be more government- focused. Business leaders, meanwhile, are only scheduled to take part in the Toronto leg.
The mayor, who has been in office for less than a year, is being cited as a visionary for his involvement in getting this project off the ground.
"From all I heard about Stephen Mandel, he is quite a forward-looking mayor with strong initiatives to build on the future and quite a thoughtful person," says Craig Applegath, managing partner in the Toronto office of the architectural firm Cohos Evamy.
"That's what the two cities (Edmonton and Toronto) have in common. David Miller (Toronto's new mayor) is quite forward looking and quite thoughtful, too."
A mayor's leadership has a huge impact on a city, Applegath added. "It's not so much about control as it is about the influence of leadership. I'm very optimistic because of David Miller and, from what I've heard from my colleagues in Edmonton, because of Stephen Mandel."
Cohos Evamy, which has offices in both Edmonton and Calgary, is one of the business members of the Edmonton Edge delegation. Edmonton-based Doug McConnell, Cohos Evamy's chairman, says he will carry the message that his city is both exciting and open for business.
"It is an opportunity for Edmonton to really put its face in the centre of the Canadian business community," says McConnell. "It's a very exciting time in Edmonton's evolution, it's extremely invaluable. I have to commend (EEDC president and CEO) Allan Scott and Stephen Mandel."
"I think the timing's perfect. We have a new mayor taking Edmonton by storm and he is putting his stamp on the way Edmonton does business."
Mandel says he can't talk about what went on before he was elected as mayor last October but he did say it's time to try doing things differently.
"I don't think you go to people and ask them for something. I think that's been our problem, we always go and ask," says the mayor. Rather, he believes Edmonton should decide what it wants to do, make a commitment and then find partners to participate in its vision.
Another message the delegation will try and get across is that there's a lot more to Edmonton than Wayne Gretzky or the Edmonton Oilers. Rudolph says focus-group testing in Toronto drew a positive reaction about Edmonton, with respondents citing the hockey superstar and his former team.
However, he notes that even though the focus group was comprised of well-educated businesspeople, one person thought Edmonton was a small town comprised of only 50,000 people, rather than the one million people now living in the greater Edmonton region. Others thought the city was cold, dull and boring.
John Stanton, president of the retail chain The Running Room, with stores in nine provinces and the United States, is another member of the group going to Ontario. He's also quick to dispel the city's stereotypical image.
"I'm a proud Edmontonian and Edmonton is a good place to do business. It's our home base," he says. "Certainly from a quality of life perspective, it's one of the best cities in Canada to live in."
Stanton also sings the praises of the city's river valley green-space and accompanying trail system - much larger than New York City's Central Park - and mentions the affordable housing prices, relatively short commutes, and strengths in education and medical disciplines.
Jacqueline Shan, president and CEO of Edmonton's CV Technologies, maker of the Cold f/X prevention pill, hopes that in the long run the Edmonton Edge branding mission will result in more skilled knowledge workers opting for Edmonton as their home.
"We have a great business environment and we're excited to be part of it (Edmonton Edge)," says Shan, who chose the city 18 years ago when she left China to come to Canada. It was the University of Alberta and its proficiency in medical research that lured and kept her here, she adds.
Biomira's Alex McPherson, another Edmonton booster, is delighted that he'll be able to show people in Canada's Golden Triangle that there's more than snow and frost in his city, though he has some misgivings about the mission itself.
"I'm going to be pitching biotech as an example of a knowledge-based industry that's an outgrowth of the incredible contributions and investments made in our universities and schools like NAIT (the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology) and SAIT (the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology)," says McPherson.
"But I don't have great enthusiasm that a trip like this is going to do it. It's going to take a lot more of continued activity but I get the idea that this is where Mayor Mandel is coming from."
McPherson is also hoping to change the attitude towards biotech in Alberta. "The reaction, by and large, in relation to our biotech industry is ho-hum," he says. "They'll say, 'you can come to see us and we'll talk to you, but don't expect us to come and see you. We're too busy.'" McPherson said from a financial perspective, there is more interest in the United States for Alberta biotech. But leveraging people and scientific knowledge is more likely to come from other parts of Canada, he says.
It's not often that mayors from other Canadian cities come courting in Toronto, says Glen Stone, spokesman for the Toronto Board of Trade.
While Stone says the BOT is always glad to broaden trade and business opportunities, generally these types of delegations tend to be from foreign destinations such as Hong Kong or Spain.
"Perhaps it's an indication of how little we have exploited the trade possibilities within our own borders," says Stone.
(Laura Severs can be reached at laura@businessedge.ca)
