The source of our joy.

even our ducks know the happy dance

Happiness, Happiness

It's the greatest feeling I possess

Oh, I thank the Lord that I've been blessed

With more than my share of

Happiness.

(Camp song sung most loudly and enthusiastically by boys young and old.....an anthem to their own Mr. Happys. Why? Because they have 'appiness......and it gives them great joy.)

Fill yer boots Upper Canada, Get Rich working at Walmart Alberta and Lotusland West Coasters...........looks like Nouveau Brunswick will from here on in be known NOT as the drive thru province, but as the province inspired by happiness......or perhaps more than one happiness. Many happinesses!! And you know what? It makes us SMILE ........... a whole friggin' lot! It puts a whole new spin on our tourism promotions this year.........."New Brunswick, No Small Wonders"

News has leaked out however.......and the race is on to cash in on this joyful revelation with a slogan contest for our province's self-sufficiency plan to put a halt to the brain drain and to encourage expatriates and newcomers to head east. This could be our cash cow......our pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Who isn't in search of happiness?? Forget the Reversing Falls! Quit promoting our Tidal Bores! Magic Mountain? Magnetic Hill? Been there....seen it..... No people want to see our source of joy...... Investors want a piece!!

So far the entries are:

"Fooled ya! Happiness isn't found in your heart. It's found in your Stanfields!"

OR....

“Happiness is like a kiss...you must share it to enjoy it. We'd like to share ours"

or how about this one....stolen from Maxim Gorky who I presume has a park named after him somewhere in Russia...with an added tag on the end

“Happiness always looks small while you hold it in your hands, but let it go, and you learn at once how big and precious it is. New Brunswick is full of precious happiness....come see."

This one is being considered as well.....with much thanks to Nathaniel Hawthorne. I like it because, well, who doesn't like an analogy describing happiness as a beautiful monarch?

“Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you. Here in New Brunswick it will make you smile, smile, smile right down to your knickers.”

Yes, it's true......we've got 'appiness cornered in this country. According to the latest stupid survey results (most likely funded in kind by YOU the taxpayer) published in the Globe and Mail, New Brunswick is Canada's family jewel. Some nasty pessimist named Pierre sums it up this way.........and it leaves me wondering if he really gets it.....happiness, I mean..... or perhaps he's just plain jealous that the little province next door to la belle province needs no viagra in their pursuit of happiness.........

“It's about the glass,” says Pierre Cote, a Quebec City marketing consultant who created the study, to explain New Brunswick's score. “I think maybe they are happier with what they have.” For instance, people surveyed in New Brunswick were the least likely to say that modern society made happiness more difficult to achieve, and the most likely to say people are as happy today as they had been in the past or will be in the future.
As far as individual happiness goes, health and family and having a job you like counts for more in Canada, according to the study, than wealth and sex.
And about 20 per cent of the people surveyed gave their happiness a perfect score – 10 out of 10. Are they the lucky ones? Again, it's all about perspective. Pierre Cote says he found this last finding among the most discouraging. “If you're that happy, it's time to die,” he said. “Life is about the pursuit of happiness.”

Pierre!!! For God's sake man............stop and smell the coffee.....and while you're at it.....just because we are considered a "have not" province in the greater economic scheme of things, I'm here to tell you that we have it...............and lots of it.........happiness that is. And now that the rest of Canada knows..........well, we will spend the rest of our economic and tourism dollars flaunting it!!

It's time to scrap the old ship logo on our stationary and license plates and paint the real picture in all it's glory.....anyone out there a graphic designer?

I've got no silver and I've got no gold

But I've got happiness in my soul.

Happiness, happiness

It's the greatest feeling I possess

Oh, I thank the Lord that I've been blessed

With more than my share of

Happiness.

Perhaps this beloved Province should recruit Lucien to be our official spokesman. Can't you just hear him now........."da nort shore is the best shore, dats for shore....we got lots of 'appiness ready to go to work for you." Lucien? Are you up for dis challenge, n'est pas?