Thursday, March 8, 2007 | 11:24 AM

Looking on the bright side

Supervisor Tom Yack tried to put a happy face on Michigan’s economic troubles yesterday in his State of the Township address.

He skipped that old cliche, “The State of the Township is strong!” in favor of a few charts, graphs and videos that showed Canton could be a lot worse off.

The supervisor was, after all, talking mostly to business owners from the Canton Chamber of Commerce, who were receptive to good news about Canton’s strong retail market. The crowd seemed most enthusiastic to the news about several new developments in the hopper: Best Buy, JC Penney, Gordon Food Service, and a new Community Financial bank, just to name a few. Meanwhile, Starbucks Coffee, IKEA and Office Depot have all opened in the past year.

Other high points: Canton’s still one of the safest communities, with a proactive police force.

“We’re going to think positive,” Yack said.

He meant it: the chamber handed out party streamers and capped the speech with Kool and the Gang’s “Celebration.”

He could have gone another route.

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