October 21, 2024
Northern and rural areas are losing stores to e-commerce, cinemas to video-streaming, and professional jobs to e-health and e-education, and getting only a small return in the way of reduced costs of living and limited jobs.
In the 1970s, Canada had an impressive network of highway lodges, gas stations, and motels positioned strategically along the long and winding roads that connected southern and urban areas to rural and small-town Canada. Today, most of these way-stations are gone, and the gaps between the surviving highway stops area are growing. These small settlements are, in many ways, victims of innovation.
The innovations in these instances are less exciting than AI, biotechnology, machine learning, or space travel, and include the development of radial tires and improved automobile gas mileage, combined with the expansion of paved highways and improved road surfaces. These innovations—all rooted in scientific discovery and commercial development—have allowed people to drive further, faster, and more cheaply, with rare tire blowouts, and in greater comfort.