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You are here: Home / Featured / Laurel Broten proves Nova Scotia is the land of opportunity

Laurel Broten proves Nova Scotia is the land of opportunity

January 14, 2015 By Tim Bousquet 12 Comments

Take that, naysayers!

We’re sick of the constant barrage of negativity coming from some quarters—you know who you are—about the supposed lack of opportunity in Nova Scotia. Young people whining about not being able to find a job in their field and having to move west for employment. Entry level employees complaining that the pay is too low to pay off their student loans and that they can’t move up the corporate ladder fast enough. Those sniping from the sidelines about a fictional cabal of insiders running the province for themselves.

Culture of defeat, meet Laurel Broten.

Laurel Broten, inspiration.

Laurel Broten, inspiration.

A plucky clerk who applied herself at school, Broten found some mid-level success in Ontario, but left that province due to its heavy-handed government interference. Despite knowing not a soul in Nova Scotia, Broten and her her family moved to Halifax. Here, through sheer hard work and determination, her husband landed a job at the power company, she a position at the university. The couple skimped and saved, and were able to purchase a modest house in Kingswood—the place is so off the beaten path that you can’t even see it on google street view.

Most people would be content with that lower middle-class lifestyle, but not Broten. Ever the optimist (take note, naysayers), Broten continued to put in long hours, saw opportunity where others saw obstacles, and put forward her best self in the face of adversity. “Rewarding risk-takers, dreamers, doers, and builders is exactly what Nova Scotia needs,” she told herself, and put her nose to the grindstone. Soon enough, she captured those rewards for herself.

Broten has been a Nova Scotian resident for just 18 months, but has already established herself as a force to be reckoned with. Today, the province has announced it has hired Broten to run Nova Scotia Business, Inc. The announcement doesn’t say what her salary will be but her predecessor, Stephen Lund, was paid $225,000. We’re guessing Broten and family may soon be moving into splashier digs!

Let this be a lesson to the naysayers. Take the “no” out of, er, Va Scotia. Apply yourself. Be optimistic, banish negative thoughts, and you too can be a contender.

 

Filed Under: Featured, News, Province House

About Tim Bousquet

Tim Bousquet is the editor and publisher of the Halifax Examiner. email: [email protected]; Twitter

Comments

  1. Bill McEwen says

    January 14, 2015 at 12:40 pm

    Ugh

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  2. gordohfx says

    January 14, 2015 at 12:53 pm

    Inspiring!!

    Our plucky heroine done good.

    Dreamers and doers take note – Nova Scotia is open for business and may God help us.

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  3. mchugh-russell says

    January 14, 2015 at 1:50 pm

    If you were looking to get a rise out of people — it worked! Steam is shooting out of my ears. Is this satire? If not, you can cancel my subscription. WTF is this? This woman is not self-made and was a cabinet Minister in Ontario. She got a great appointment to write drivel for the government – proposing that what NS needs is more government austerity. help for the rich, crap for the poor. She is well connected. What is the point of this article. Sure hope its satire, and I am just missing the point.

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    • Tim Bousquet says

      January 14, 2015 at 2:06 pm

      Sigh. Yes, it’s satire

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      • moose says

        January 14, 2015 at 4:08 pm

        I hope the part about that cabal of insiders was also in the same vein because they definitely do exist…
        http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/1107/1107.5728v2.pdf

        Oh and if your response is that Canadian politics aren’t affected by this then I guess we’re the one drop of water in the ocean that doesn’t get affected by the tides.

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      • mchugh-russell says

        January 15, 2015 at 10:51 am

        Whew! Must just have got out of bed without a funny bone yesterday.

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  4. Jennifer Hoegg says

    January 14, 2015 at 11:05 pm

    Did I miss why she’s being paid less than Lund was?

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    • Tim Bousquet says

      January 14, 2015 at 11:17 pm

      Is she?

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      • Jennifer Hoegg says

        January 14, 2015 at 11:40 pm

        http://thechronicleherald.ca/novascotia/1263040-laurel-broten-appointed-head-of-nova-scotia-business-agency

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  5. Tony Walsh says

    January 15, 2015 at 12:06 am

    Such is the power of positivity!

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  6. Kris McCann says

    January 15, 2015 at 11:15 am

    So they hired someone to run NSBI who in November advocated for increased taxation of small businesses?

    As somebody who knows first hand what a struggle running a small business can be financially, with everyone with their hands deep in my pockets at every single opportunity, from the government, to the banks, to the utilities; it’s far from reassuring to know that someone who’s tasked with representing us to the provincial government is advocating for them to pick whatever scraps of meat are left from my bones, and feed it to whatever call centre or chain of department stores will flee from the province the second the hand outs dry up.

    I’m going to loudly and clearly put the “OH HELL NO” in Nova Scotia on this one.

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  7. Robert McGrath says

    January 14, 2016 at 4:43 pm

    I think this is complete validation of us a society. Let’s face it, Nova Scotians suck. We do. How many times do we have to be told the important values we do not possess – our lack of human values that would statistically validate our monetary value. Didn’t you all get the memo, in it’s latest iteration from Frank McKenna? If you are from Nova Scotia, the following desirable qualities don’t apply to you!

    ‘…entrepreneurship, worldliness, drive, consumption and desperation.’

    Why shouldn’t Mrs. Broten be given this job? She has many of the qualities that we apparently need – Upper Canadian worldliness, 4 luxury cars (drive and consumption), and desperate for a place to store that Porsche.

    We have various divisions of government and business class whose job is to remind us that we suck. I guess they need to work harder to get the message out..

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Keonté Beals. Photo: Keke Beatz

Episode #21 of The Tideline, with Tara Thorne is published.

The young R&B artist Keonté Beals — Tara’s former NSCC student, by the way — started out singing in church in North Preston and performing popular covers before digging into who he is an artist. On his debut album KING, he sings about love, loyalty, and authenticity. He zooms in for a chat about its creation, his children’s book, and how not even a pandemic can keep him down.

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In 1995, Brenda Way was brutally murdered behind a Dartmouth apartment building. In 1999, Glen Assoun was found guilty of the murder. He served 17 years in prison, but steadfastly maintained his innocence. In 2019, Glen Assoun was fully exonerated.

Halifax Examiner founder and investigative journalist Tim Bousquet has followed the story of Glen Assoun's wrongful conviction for over five years. Now, Bousquet tells that story as host of Season 7 of the CBC podcast series Uncover: Dead Wrong.

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