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3 | W aterloo C hronicle | T hursday,S eptem ber 26,2019 w aterloochronicle.ca Born in Northern China • Raised in Beijing • Educated in Wisconsin, received his Master's Computer Engineering With his wife, they chose Waterloo to raise his family in 2004 • An entrepreneur with his own consulting business As your true voice in Ottawa, "I will make our community the priority!" Jerry Zhang ELECT 102-410 Conestogo Rd. Waterloo, on n2l 4e2 jerry@votezhang.ca • www.votezhang.ca • 519-804-6239 @jerryzwaterloo@jerryzwaterloo Economy - lower taxes - cut red tape for businesses - balanced budgets. Environment - a strong commitment to National and International environmental concerns. Immigration - just and equitable policies. ❑✔ ❑✔ ❑✔ Authorized by the official agent for the Waterloo Conservative EDA Amalgamation might still be a dirty word in some corners, but a grassroots movement that's grown from a discussion about the need for better collective branding is gaining steam in Kitchener, Waterloo and Cam- bridge. In conjunction with local BI- As, hundreds of street light ban- ners and marketing materials placed in the uptown and down- town cores are all about celebrat- ing the region's past, present and future, as the Creative Capital of Canada - an idea sparked by a dis- cussion between community stakeholders a couple years ago, says Scott Higgins, president of HIP Developments. "The unique part is it's one of the first times in Waterloo Re- gion's history that we've had con- sistent banners across the region celebrating regional unity," Hig- gins said. Some 350 banners across the three cities - 162 of them in up- town - feature photos and imag- ery depicting local landmarks and buildings such as CIGI and the Perimeter Institute, events such as the jazz festival, various inventions and achievements, and some of the individuals be- hind them historically. Before the Creative Capital of Canada, the best everyone was coming up with were tag lines that had been borrowed or used, like Silicon Valley of the North and Canada's Technology Trian- gle, or "fractured" brands like Make It Kitchener and Quantum Valley, Higgins noted. Being known as the Toronto- Waterloo Region Innovation Cor- ridor is somewhat broad, yet at the same time limiting to the re- gion's past, Higgins believes. "In that conversation we said we need to succinctly tell the world who and what we are as a region," he said. "We're not doing that yet and we really need to get focused, because what you cele- brate you attract, and what you don't celebrate you forget and you eventually lose." Higgins, who has several large-scale, multi-residential projects on the go locally, includ- ing one in Waterloo with a STEAM (science, technology, en- gineering, art and math) learning component on the ground floor, said the one word that started to resonate from discussion groups was creativity. Though it's a word often associated with arts, it actu- ally has a "wide and inclusive" definition - one that can extend across all sectors, from advanced scientific research to much sim- pler day-to-day processes, he said. "If the definition is solving complex problems collaborative- ly, inventing and pushing things forward, Waterloo Region has al- ways been, in relation to its pop- ulation, an extremely creative community." Higgins believes the region's successes go beyond the tech sec- tor and post-secondary institu- tions that were, in fact, fostered by industrialists and traditional forms of manufacturing. "We revolutionized egg pro- duction, the artificial insemina- tion of cattle and the two-piece hockey stick." Kaufman, Breithaupt, McCul- loch, Krug, Bauer and Lazaridis are all names behind an inventive spirit that gave birth to Hush Puppies, Crown Royal, Tiger Brand, Bauer Skates, Home Hardware, BlackBerry, the Uni- versity of Waterloo and a few No- bel Prizes, to name just a few suc- cesses. "It's a lineage," Higgins said. Promotional pins recently handed out to first-year students at local universities during orien- tation week came in the form of miniature homegrown creations - BlackBerrys and Blue Boxes, Imax glasses and oil light indica- tors - with Creative Capital of Canada branding. Each card at- tached had information on the "original smartphone" and asked people "What's better than Elvis and his blue suede shoes? Water- loo Region inventing the first model for community recycling." Higgins said the Creative Cap- ital of Canada movement has grown to include several hun- dred community supporters and ambassadors, from individuals and large private corporations, to the Waterloo Public Library and the Wilmot Terry Fox Run. It encompasses the townships, but it isn't owned by local coun- cils, politicians or anyone, he said. "We are thrilled to work along- side our BIA colleagues and cele- brate Waterloo Region's collec- tive, creative achievements," said Tracy Van Kalsbeek, executive director of the Uptown Waterloo BIA. "From our days as an indus- trial powerhouse to becoming in- novative, economic leaders, the people in Waterloo Region have always demonstrated outstand- ing creativity and it is high time 'CREATIVE CAPITAL OF CANADA' PLANTING FLAGS ACROSS WATERLOO REGION BILL JACKSON bjackson@kitchenerpost.ca NEWS MOVEMENT AIMED AT CELEBRATING A REGIONAL IDENTITY, FOSTERING FUTURE ENDEAVOURS Local developer Scott Higgins stands on King Street North in uptown, with banners and swag - including Blackberry and Blue Box pins - highlighting the Creative Capital of Canada. Bill Jackson/Torstar See 'WE', page 17