Welcome to the new job, Minister Murray part 2

Now that I’ve been outed by the man himself, I might as well come completely clean.

As some of you may know, I’ve been getting into the weeds for years on the Ontario government’s start-up and VC strategy. Critical? No. Observational? Yes. Constructive? Hopefully. Those fabulous lawyers in Ottawa at Labarge Weinstein call it a “signature part-sage, part-curmudgeon style” of blogging.

I have good news, if you believe inclusiveness and sincerity count for something. Ontario’s new Minister of Research and Innovation has both. And he reads blogs. So when an earlier post from this site winds up on his browser, Minister Murray does something that is far too unusual in politics: he reaches out.

Which led to us meeting last week, for what was an appropriately “unbloggable” chat about the state of the start-up, tech and VC ecosystem. But now that he’s Tweeted about our sit-down (you should follow him @Glen4TC), I feel comfortable giving you a tiny bit of insight — without breaking the code of confidentiality that comes with any meeting with a Cabinet Minister (unless advised otherwise by your host).

My modest skinny is welcome news for everyone who has suffered as a result of Ontario’s particularly bad dose of Canada’s ongoing VC crisis: I think our new Minister is, without a doubt, bringing the right mindset to his new responsibilities! That’s all you can ask for at the outset of any new relationship.

Too often, Politics is about playing your role in the scripted play. Our new man at MRI doesn’t appear at all interested in falling into that trance. Glen Murray shares our passion to make the ecosystem far stronger than it is today.

That’s a great place to start.

MRM