Year-round support for our engines of growth

LORI ABITTAN, Publisher

This month in Vaughan Today we continue our coverage of local businesses both in our regular business section and in our ongoing Best of Vaughan pages. As you may recall, the Best of Vaughan Awards were established by this magazine to recognize the local shops and services that you our readers voted as the best in the city.

The awards were in September and reported in our October issue. So why continue writing about them? Because we as a publishing company decided local business, the employees they hire, and the consumers who patronize them deserve year-round support.

We have just been through a major economic downturn that has affected us all in Vaughan, along with the rest of the world, and we may not be out of it yet. We cannot afford to ease up on our mutual support to help each other progress to better times.

Political leaders across North America often mouth phrases declaring small and medium-size businesses are the engines of growth and the biggest producers of employment. Focusing on the local scene we can see this is certainly the case here.

We expect to continue to talk and write about the Vaughan economy — and its most successful creators of products, services and jobs — throughout the coming year in our Best of Vaughan pages. Think of this as a monthly assistance we provide with the actual awards of the same name coming at 12-month intervals as we wrap up each year of the business cycle.

Incidentally, I’ve noticed a little confusion in other media about the status of the kinds of businesses we typically cover in Best of Vaughan. To set the record straight, these are not the super-rich corporations or wealthy investors excoriated in the streets these days. They are not the “one percent”.

The great majority of small and medium-size businesses you see lining our streets and advertising in our local publications are run by struggling entrepreneurs who find it increasingly difficult to keep their positions in the middle class. It is in our interests — all of our interests — to help keep them afloat and prospering by shopping locally whenever possible.

And since Vaughan has almost every product and service available right here, when is it ever not possible? Check our pages to help find whatever you need in this wonderfully wide and diverse city.

Speaking of not being the one percent, this is a neat segue into mentioning some of the other features in this issue.

The cover story is our editor-in-chief’s partly whimsical search and partly serious search for OccupyWallStreet-styled activism in our own fair city — and a discussion of how Vaughan citizens actually do engage with the city’s political apparatus.

And speaking of that, several of our reporting staff have contributed to the first-year report card for our city council, looking back at the strange and inspiring 12 months we’ve just had in Vaughan’s halls of power.

This makes it all the easier for many of us residents to enjoy the finer things in life Vaughan offers. In this issue we continue to discuss these pursuits with you — namely, home and family, arts, dining and local sports, which is being expanded with this edition of Vaughan Today.

I hope you enjoy all the serious and not-so-serious content of the magazine that’s in your hands.

And, as always, I trust you’ll let us know what you like and where you think we’re falling down. You can use mail, email or twitter to let us know.

As mentioned elsewhere in this issue, you can always count on Vaughan people to speak their minds.

We always look forward to it.