With a mission to inform, empower, celebrate and advocate for British Columbia's current and aspiring business leaders, BCBusiness go behind the headlines and bring readers face to face with the key issues and people driving business in B.C.
Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/751527
10 BCBUSINESS DECEMBER/JANUARY 2017 PORTRAIT: CLINTON HUSSEY; CLOTHES COURTESY OF NORDSTROM B ritish Columbia—Super Natural prov- ince that it is—is prone to superlatives, with our "most livable" cities, "most popular" resorts and "best" airports. Every year, people wait with bated breath to see how Vancouver compares with Zurich and Melbourne on the Mercer rankings or whether Condé Nast will once again favour one of the Island's oceanfront resorts. When we launched the Best Cities for Work feature two years ago, we ƒgured there would be an appetite for a ranking of B.C.'s most eco- nomically attractive communities. And we were right: two years running, the Best Cities feature is our most read, most shared, most talked about content on BCBusiness.ca. As with most such rankings, designing the list is as much art as science: we struggle to ƒnd the right balance between factors such as house- hold incomes, unemployment rates and shelter costs. And each time we do the list, we make people mad. This year will be no di‡erent. Before you dive deep into the num- bers, our methodoloˆy and the stories behind those numbers (starting on page 25), I want to suggest why you might want to consume it all with a grain of salt. Rankings are a great tool, but important life decisions like where to live and work are highly personal. I moved to Vancouver almost 15 years ago for school and had no inten- tion of staying here. As some of the key metrics in our Best Cities formula indicate, Vancouver has its share of challenges: lower-than-average wages, higher-than-average shelter costs and relatively stagnant growth. I knew that staying here would cost me in job prospects and lost earning potential. Yet, despite that, Vancou- ver has also a‡orded me a great life. Every day I wake up to an unparal- leled view, on the doorstep of the "world's top park" (according to TripAdvisor). I get to eat in some of Canada's top restaurants. And against the odds, I've built a decent career here, too. Undoubtedly the highlight of that career has been getting to edit BCBusiness—not once but twice. The job has allowed me to work with the very best journalists—and best magazine team— in the province. It has provided me keen insights into how our economy works, exposed me to countless stories of inspiring entrepreneurial- ism and allowed me to get up close with you—the men and women driving business in B.C. While I sign o‡ as editor with this issue, I will continue to call Vancouver home—damn the numbers!—and in my new career as a free- lance writer/consultant, I hope to stay in touch with many of you (ƒnd me on LinkedIn). In the meantime, keep your eyes on this page as BCBusiness—now entering its 45th year— unveils its exciting next chapter. C O N T R I B U T O R Matt O'Grady, Editor-in-Chief bcb@canadawide.com / @BCBusiness Born in the United Arab Emirates and raised in Oman and the U.K., Alex Harvey- Wickens, this month's cover designer, showed an interest in design and art from a young age. He studied design at Capilano University, where he won a Salazar Award for a book jacket design. Putting together this cover was a collaborative effort with Cathy Mullaly, BCBusiness creative director. He says her vision made the design process seamless. "Cathy is an awesome character. She knows exactly what she wants and gives clear and concise instructions." editor's desk We reveal B.C.'s 65 most inuential and loved brands. Plus: David Sidoo's secret passion IN FEBRUARY Beyond the Numbers CORRECTION: Our prole of UBC president Santa Ono, "The Healer" (November 2016), incorrectly stated that the chair of the board of governors resigned after an inquiry found he had breached a professor's academic freedom by calling her. In fact, an inquiry by former B.C. Supreme Court justice Lynn Smith found that the former chair did not infringe any university policy, but that UBC "failed in its obligation to protect and support Dr. Berdahl's academic freedom." BCBusiness regrets the error.