There’s no place like home.

This week, the Hebron deal was signed and is expected to bring thousands of jobs and billions of dollars into Newfoundland. This is supposedly going to change our fair rock into a “have” province. Many are hoping, myself included, that this is good enough news and a financial reality that is solid enough not only to stop the population bleeding out of Newfoundland, but will actually lure many back home.

Others, like my buddy Dave who recently left Newfoundland for Yellowknife to advance his career are remaining tentative. Dave carefully wonders if this is hype, similar to the buzz surrounding the Hibernia deals from a couple of decades ago.

Maybe cautious optimism is in order. But, to those of us who wouldn’t be heartbroken if presented with an opportunity to prosper in our home province, it’s hard to reign in that optimism. A friend and colleague of mine reflected this to me this week. It’s easy to be hopeful:

I remembered back in the early ‘90s working at the College trying to convince Fisher-folk in Gaultois, Hermitage, and Harbor Breton to train to be Computer ‘fixers’, Hair dressers, or ‘double knot spies’. That was part of the NCARP and then the TAGS program. Remember the news stories about the boys taking the rocks and towing them from one part of the bay to the other on the upside down roof of an old pick-up??

Brian Peckford was almost castigated back in the day when in his Nostradamic way he said “some day the sun will shine, and have not will be no more”.

My son, the sun came up first in NL today. The arse is back in ‘er.

I hope he’s right.