AT THE DAWN of the 20th century, Canadian Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier declared, “The 20th century belongs to Canada.” It was an audacious prophecy, steeped in optimism, a vision of a nation poised for global influence. For decades, this belief held weight. Canada was a country of immense potential, a resource-rich land with a fiercely independent identity, primed to chart its own destiny. Yet, as the 21st century unfolds, one question looms: Where did that audacity go?
Jim Balsillie, the former Chair and Co-CEO of BlackBerry and one of Canada’s most incisive voices on innovation and economic sovereignty, does not mince words. “There has been a substantial erosion in our prosperity and security,” he says. “It’s been a product of decades of elite policy failure – mismanagement of how we look after a nation in a changing world.”
Balsillie is not interested in nostalgia. He is interested in reality. The reality that Canada, despite its world-class talent and intellectual capital, has been systematically sidelined in the modern digital economy. The reality that policies rooted in the 1970s have left the country vulnerable, failing to adapt to a world where power is no longer dictated by borders but by the ability to control data, technology, and intellectual property.
Canada, he warns, is sleepwalking toward irrelevance. The country has perfected the art of discovery but remains anemic in the business of commercialization. It has the talent, the research, and the raw intellectual horsepower to lead in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and advanced manufacturing, yet its best ideas are often capitalized upon elsewhere monetized by foreign giants while Canadian innovators struggle to scale.
A FAILURE OF THE IMAGINATION
What explains this paradox? Some blame an absence of venture capital willing to take high-risk, high-reward bets. Others cite regulatory inertia or a culture that rewards incrementalism over disruption. But Balsillie sees something deeper at play – a failure of the imagination.
For decades, Canada’s economic and policy frameworks have been constrained within an Overton Window that defines what is politically and economically viable. Unlike nations that have reimagined their futures – China, where AI is an instrument of state strategy, or the United States, where capital markets aggressively fuel tech expansion – Canada has remained risk-averse, debating disruption rather than embracing it.
“We’ve been living on borrowed time,” Balsillie says. “All the successful innovation economies in the world changed their strategies, institutions, and policies. Canada didn’t.”
The result? The country has become a vassal state in the global knowledge economy—an exporter of raw materials, talent, and research while foreign corporations reap the economic benefits. The nation’s flagship industries are sustained not by strategic foresight but by inertia. “We make the rest of the world rich,” he says. “And then we wonder why we’re not rich.”
RECLAIMING SOVERENIGTY IN THE DIGITAL AGE
For Balsillie, reversing this trajectory demands more than policy tweaks. It requires an entire rethinking of Canada’s economic strategy. It requires a cultural shift that positions innovation as a national imperative. It requires moving beyond passive participation in global markets to actively shaping them.
This means investing in the commercialization of Canadian technologies—not simply funding research that will inevitably be acquired by foreign entities. It means treating intellectual property as the foundation of national wealth, not an afterthought. It means reforming procurement policies so that government spending prioritizes Canadian firms instead of subsidizing multinational giants. It means an aggressive industrial policy that aligns with the realities of the modern economy.
Canada’s approach to AI serves as a cautionary tale. The country was a pioneer in the field- home to luminaries like Geoffrey Hinton, Yoshua Bengio, and Richard Sutton- yet it failed to create an economic framework that retained its innovations. “The world’s leading AI companies – OpenAI, DeepMind, Anthropic – are not Canadian, even though their origins trace back to Canadian research labs,” Balsillie points out. “The question isn’t whether Canada can build great companies – it’s whether we believe we should.”
THE BATTLE FOR CANADA
History is filled with nations that assumed their place in the world was secure, only to find themselves overtaken by those willing to dream bigger. Canada is at such a crossroads. The question is no longer whether it has the resources or the talent to lead – it does. The question is whether it has the will.
In 1972, Team Canada entered the historic Summit Series against the Soviet Union with unshakable confidence, only to be humiliated in the first game. They were outplayed, outmatched, and on the brink of defeat. And yet, with their backs against the wall, they recalibrated. They adapted. They changed the narrative.
Balsillie believes Canada must do the same. “The times they are a-changing,” he says. “And if we don’t change with them, we will be left behind.”
The challenge ahead is daunting. The stakes are existential. But history offers a reminder – Canada is not a nation that shies away from a fight. It is a nation that, given the right vision, the right leadership, and the right ambition, is capable of rewriting the odds.
It has done it before. It must do it again.
