With all the attention on the negotiations, ratifications and entry into force of the USMCA/CUSMA trade agreement in recent years, it has been easy to overlook another significant catalyst for trade between Canada and the United States that is also a physical manifestation of our powerful trading relationship – the construction of a new international bridge between Windsor, Ontario and Detroit, Michigan.

Due to the geographic, demographic, and ideological similarities between BC and California the two jurisdictions have been historically key trading partners and will continue to be so in the future. Based on the dollar value of merchandise trade, California is the second largest destination for BC exports and third for Canadian exports. Total merchandise trade between BC and California was $6.2 billion Canadian dollars in 2019.

Both Southern California and Canada offer strong tech markets overall at a significant cost savings in combined labor and real estate costs to the San Francisco Bay Area. The largest Canadian markets of Toronto, Montréal and Vancouver rank highly on the quality of tech talent and the size of their tech communities with above average concentrations of tech talent in the labor force. Each are attracting more talent than they are graduating within their markets too. Smaller markets in Canada and Southern California offer more affordability and growing tech talent communities.

My first recollection of the meaning of “trade” was as a child trading hockey cards with school mates when I was a young boy growing up in Ontario, Canada. We’d bring our cards to school and at recess we would come together in the school yard to compare our collections regardless of how cold it was. In rapid fire we’d shout out “Got ‘em”, “Need ‘em” as we’d take turns flipping through our decks of Guy Lafleurs, Dave Keons, Gilbert Perreaults and Tony Espositos.

The City of Irvine is certainly well known for repeatedly earning the distinction as the Safest City in America and many may also know that it earns the highest marks for fiscal strength - recently ranking first for a fiscal health index among 116 U.S. cities with a population of over 200k. And as the third-largest city in our unique county-wide tapestry of 34 cities and over 3 million people, Irvine is also Orange County’s economic engine. And this is where we can and should go beyond the veneer of knowledge about the Greater Irvine region in Orange County because the city’s growth has been exceptional.

Collectively what we are doing together is celebrating a tremendous economic relationship that exists between Southern California and Canada - as trading partners, mutual investors in each other’s economies, allies and friends. If we were to look at ‘Start-Up’ as the foundation of the economic development equivalent of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, this ‘Support Up’ stage would be the tip end of the pyramid where corporate citizenship to a region and a country, are in evidence. ‘Economic self-actualization’ dare we say?

In recognition of the fourth anniversary since the founding of MAPLE Business Council®, we want to take a step back and say thank you. It is because of the support and participation of our members, team, board, partners and network that MAPLE has continued to grow as a community and a voice on behalf of bilateral investment, trade and entrepreneurship opportunities between Southern California and Canada.

The Select LA Summit is held annually by the Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation (LAEDC) that owns the rights to the local World Trade Center franchise. Like its larger counterpart, Select USA, Select LA is an investment attraction event intended to bring and retain investment into the L.A. region. As MAPLE Business Council is a partner of World Trade Center LA, and their CEO Stephen Cheung has been so kind to speak in Vancouver and Toronto, I thought it would be good for me to show my support by joining them on this occasion.

We have hosted several events in Vancouver since I became MAPLE’s Business Ambassador to BC in 2017 but this was my first trip down to SoCal for one of their quarterly grouping of three events in San Diego, Los Angeles, and Orange County. On this Wednesday December 4th I head out mid afternoon on one of three daily nonstop flights on Air Canada from Vancouver to San Diego to be fresh for our first meeting at the Bella Vista Social Club and Caffe tomorrow morning at 7:30am. Only three hours gate to gate and no time zone changes, the geographic and time zone proximity between B.C. and SoCal can’t be understated. It is sunny in Vancouver today but only a high of 4c however we will be arriving to sunny skies and 21c in San Diego. Another benefit for Canadians to join the MAPLE events in SoCal during the winter.

MAPLE Business Council® is excited to be presenting a comprehensive tour of one of Canada's most dynamic and vibrant centers of innovation and collaboration as we visit Québec, Canada. Our three-day mission on June 13-15, 2018, will provide our delegates with a window on Québec's leading sectors as well as their unique and highly successful industry cluster economic model.

We created MOMENTUM because there is a wealth of expertise and insights throughout the MAPLE membership and our strategic partners. A monthly e-newsletter seemed a practical way to celebrate some of the collective expertise in our community beyond the one-to-one networking that occurs at our 12 networking events throughout Southern California, our outbound delegations to major Canadian markets, our special event programming, and our social media. And while a lot can certainly be said in a tweet, the topics of trade, investment, and entrepreneurship are simply deserving of a little more substance.

With a population of close to 40 million, California has had a long-standing relationship with Canada and BC.  Within California, Southern California with a population base of over 22 million brings in combination with BC a total combined population of almost 27 million connected within the same time zone only 2.5 hours away by plane.  Many BC residents know Southern California from childhood trips to Disneyland while many Southern Californians know BC through Alaska cruises or ski trips to Whistler. In fact, today the annual number of air passengers traveling between Vancouver and Southern California exceeds 1 million passengers a year, almost 200,000 more than that between Vancouver and Mainland China

It’s the holiday season—a time when temperatures drop and many Canadians look toward Los Angeles, planning winter getaways that break up the long cold winter. But while Canadian vacationers come to L.A. seeking sunshine, beaches, and attractions like Disneyland and Universal Studios, a growing number of Canadian businesses head to the Southland because they see the wealth of investment, talent, and market opportunities available in the region.

MAPLE Business Council wishes to thank our members, board, sponsors, partners and followers on the occasion of the second anniversary since launching our cross-border organization. A special thank you to our ambassadors and volunteers who have sacrificed their valuable time to help grow our organization. We appreciate everyone's participation and contributions to our mission of connecting Southern California and Canada more closely together. To mark the milestone, we have developed a new infographic to profile the MAPLE community "By the Numbers".

As Pacific coast neighbors, California and British Columbia embrace both an outlook for new ideas and an appetite for innovation. To their respective countrymen in the rest of their nations, these innovative regions are viewed with a sense of pride and curiosity as wellsprings of new trends, ideas and tastes. They also have the best waves for surfing.

At MAPLE Business Council, events are a key component of our cross-border outreach between Southern California and Canada. With a mission to connect individuals, ideas and organizations together across sectors, growth stages and regional and national borders, events are a pivotal foundation for building relationships.

MAPLE, the Canadian-U.S. Business Council of Southern California, had the pleasure this week of hosting a panel discussion on doing business with Canada at the inaugural Get Global Growth Conference in Los Angeles. Here are some sound bites from a wide-ranging discussion on the advantages and opportunities to do business in and with Canada.

Excellence spans our coast. Silicon Beach, Pasadena, Irvine, San Diego, Downtown LA and Santa Barbara – the names are all familiar. Many of us have visited for business or pleasure. But how much do we know of these communities as centers of innovation? Moreover, how are they different from each other in their sector focus and supporting ecosystems? And if I am seeking to launch my innovation in SoCal, which is the best location for my startup?

One of the rewards of growing a cross-border organization promoting trade, investment and entrepreneurship between regions are the discoveries you make. People, places and innovations. One of these discoveries is Waterloo Region in Ontario, Canada.

Ideas can travel around the world in 140 characters. But an entrepreneur is more often to be rooted in place tethered to a nurturing ecosystem as they develop their business. How can we help the entrepreneur explore new markets across borders that can provide new stimuli for their vision and in so doing fortify their model and accelerate their growth?

Many of the world’s great cities are known by their bridges. San Francisco has the Golden Gate, New York has The Brooklyn, Sydney – The Harbour, Vancouver - The Lions Gate, and Paris – Pont Neuf. There are many more that have captivated visitors and made an indelible mark on a city’s identity.

It has been seven months since we launched MAPLE. With an exciting new brand, five networking meetings in three cities, 13 organizations represented in our membership, 15 presentations, and hundreds of new friends, MAPLE is establishing itself in the Southern California communities we serve with our own unique voice.

Going international is not typically an initiative that start-ups undertake within the first six months of forming but when your mission is cross-border trade and investment, it figures more prominently on the launch calendar.

Canada is our neighbour to the north. The one who spells neighbour with a "u".

Generally it is a country we don't spend much time thinking about even though (or perhaps because) we share the longest undefended border in the world and have forged the world's largest trade and security partnership. Over $734 billion a year in two-way goods and services trade in fact. That's $1.4 million per minute. Canada is our #1 customer nationally buying more from the U.S. than does any other nation and that includes all 28 nations in the European Union - combined.