BCBusiness

10 BCBusiness FEBRUARy 2018 PORTRAiT: ADAM BLASBERG A s the country song says, every- body's got a little dirt road in 'em. This city slicker is no exception: I spent half my childhood in a tiny English village (when not evading cows, pass- ing the crumpets really was a thing there) and a hardscrabble Newfoundland •shing town (that's where the dirt roads come in). Those years made me more appreciative than some urban dwellers of the charms, rewards and dif•iculties of rural life. For good reason, residents of smaller communi- ties throughout British Columbia don't like to think of their hometowns as the hinterland. That place is a •ction, created by people who have fooled themselves into believing a big- city existence beats the alternatives. Besides, the province's rural and urban economies are hardly two solitudes—one home to hewers of Douglas •ir, the other inhabited by drawers of craft beer. In fact, they're tightly connected. Val Litwin, who knows that better than anyone as head of our partner the BC Chamber of Commerce, came to us with an idea: why not show it in words and pictures? The result is "Two Economies, One Province" (p.31), a tour of B.C. that reveals how businesses everywhere from Vancouver and Kitimat to Kam- loops and Dawson Creek are working together for mutual bene•t. Helping tell their stories is assistant editor Nathan Caddell, who in this issue also interviews Stewart Phillip, presi- dent of the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs, about a subject that has divided urban and rural communi- ties: the potential social and environ- mental costs of resource extraction. Something everyone can agree on? Launching a charity. But look before you leap. On page 38, associate editor Felicity Stone demysti•es the world of giving in "The Not-for-Pro•t Motive," a primer for anyone with that dream. Through conversa- tions with prominent B.C. philanthropists Sylvia Bosa, Lotte Davis and Rick Hansen, Stone o˜ers practical advice on starting, run- ning and building a foundation. Our cover story, "High Standards" (p.26), introduces Vancouver botanist and entre- preneur Jonathan Page, whose deep knowl- edge of cannabis genetics gives his Anandia Laboratories Inc. an edge over other compa- nies looking to pro•t from the looming legal- ized marijuana boom. B.C. is known for its bud, but Page could take our reputation even higher with novel pot varieties that comfort the aŸicted and a˜ect the comfortable. As writer Andrew Findlay shows, he isn't blow- ing smoke. Nick Rockel, Editor-in-Chief bcb@canadawide.com / @BCBusiness editor's desk Meet B.C.'s most influential women in science, technology, engineering and math IN MARCH We're All in This Together C O N T R I B U T O R S One of assistant editor Nathan Caddell's first assignments was an interview with Grand Chief Stewart Phillip (p.23) at his office in downtown Vancouver. "I feel bad for his secretary because he's such a talker," says Caddell, who's worked at a variety of other publications, including the Georgia Straight and Vancouver magazine. "I waited half an hour to talk to him, and when I came out much later there was a line of people waiting to get in." Before capturing portraits of famous musicians like Diplo and Deadmau5, Pooya Nabei cut his teeth snapping Vancouver's nightclub scene, so it's safe to say he's spent time around the city's favourite plant. The photographer visited Jonathan Page's marijuana lab for our cover story. "He's a very funny person," Nabei says of Page. "He's into photography, he loves skiing, and he's been to where I'm originally from [Iran], so we talked about that a little." C M Y CM MY CY CMY K

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