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.

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.

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.

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?