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'Go west, young man."

That historic advice, during the growth of 19th-century America, might or might not have been first penned by Horace Greeley. The New York Tribune editor and politician did use the phrase in an 1865 editorial. But some scholars contend that another editor, John Soulis, predated him in 1851 with this advice in an Indiana newspaper: "Go west, young man - and grow up with the country."

No matter. High school, community college and university graduates throughout New Brunswick are stepping off our stages these days, being lured with a dramatically different new version:

"Stay east, young men and women. Or come back home to Atlantic Canada. Put your talents and your learning and your potential to work here, where great career opportunities are unfolding."

That's not just an idle wish or a dream anymore. It's a rapidly developing truth. Things are happening here. We're looking to retain and recruit talented new people for the myriad of jobs that will need to be filled in our own domain.

The Province of New Brunswick is actively wooing expatriate workers in other provinces and emigrants from other countries to help swell our population. And that new welcome mat clearly extends to the young graduates who have been coming out of provincial schools this month with degrees and diplomas.

New Brunswick is striving for "self-sufficiency." Our area of Canada wasn't always a "have-not" province. In those pioneering days of "wooden ships and iron men," we were world leaders in shipping and shipbuilding, forestry development, manufacturing and exporting. The rules of Confederation changed that, displacing our north-south trade with a nationally mandated east-west growth pattern, favouring Central Canada. We slipped into a backwater.

A lot of our best and brightest young people found it necessary to follow that "goin' down the road" syndrome to find jobs and career fulfilment in other, more prosperous parts of Canada or the United States. Economic necessity forged that path. But there's an exciting new difference now, with this province blazing new trails in economic growth and a new energy hub potential that promises a vast new range of job options. It's very real and very enticing. The careers and the opportunities will be here.

Whether writing editorials in this newspaper or addressing graduating classes, I have consistently delivered this message to new graduates: "Consider the local market; consider staying here to put your talents and energies into the growth of your home province. If you're able to, stay here and put something back into a community that needs your talents."

I've always been well aware of the global village concept. Today's young people are more mobile than they've ever been. The vast expanses of our lightly populated Canada - and of other exciting countries - are a genuine lure for people with education, ability and ambition. We can't expect all our young people to stay at home. But we'd like to encourage many of them to do so. In the words of the provincial slogan: "Be Here."

For me, graduation - from grade school, high school, college or university - has always seemed an important rite of passage. It symbolizes the significance of the education that was always valued by my Irish-Canadian forbears. Some of them weren't able to make it too far in the fields of higher learning because of their circumstances. But they recognized and valued the virtue of scholarship. Education really matters.

I continue to encourage our youth to appreciate the value of their education and the potential they have to offer. Now being recognized on the stages of schools throughout New Brunswick with their caps and their gowns, their ribbons and their knowledge, young people face an exciting future. And they represent our future.

Consider making your contribution here. We need you.

Fred Hazel is a retired editor-in-chief of this newspaper. His column appears on Thursday.