‘The future is just another name for a past that has lost its relevance.’ – J.G. Ballard
HISTORY does not favor the reticent. The great economic powers of the day are not merely adapting to change; they are engineering it – reordering trade alliances, weaponizing technology, and reshaping the global architecture in their own image. Meanwhile, Canada stands at a precipice: a nation rich in intellect, natural resources, and geopolitical leverage, yet too often unwilling to dream beyond the familiar, to reach for the impossible, to take the moonshots that will define the next century. We have the capacity to lead – but do we have the courage to imagine a future that is wholly our own?
For investors, entrepreneurs, and visionaries alike, Canada is not just an economy; it is a frontier of uncharted potential. As supply chains realign and energy security takes center stage, artificial intelligence redefines the limits of human potential; the world’s economic map forever redrawn. Canada – long admired for its resiliency, ingenuity, and measured governance – has the potential to be more than a supporting player. It can be a gravitational force for technological ambition, a crucible for industry-defining breakthroughs, and a lodestar for the boldest ideas of our time. Nations do not rise by inertia; they ascend through intent. It demands a new national ethos – one unafraid of risk, unshackled from incrementalism, and driven by the audacity to build what does not yet exist.
Despite its extraordinary talent and academic capital, Canada has yet to establish itself as the true architect of its AI revolution, allowing others to reap the commercial rewards of its groundbreaking research. Similarly, with its abundant energy resources and the potential to lead in sustainable industrial transformation, the country remains constrained by regulatory inertia and a failure to reconcile climate ambition with economic dynamism – leaving its strategic assets underleveraged and its ambitions unrealized. Meanwhile, global investors and businesses, angling for opportunity, continue to underestimate Canada – not because of what it lacks, but because of the stories it has failed to tell about what it could be.
Hello Canada is not a summit of polite conversation – it is a provocation, a challenge to complacency, and an urgent call to reimagine Canada’s place in the world. Taking its name in deliberate counterpoint to J.G. Ballard’s prophetic Hello America – his unsettling portrait of a superpower undone by the weight of its myth – this perspective will bring together 125 of the most brilliant and consequential minds of our time: dreamers, creators, and changemakers determined to rewrite the narrative of Canada’s future. The discussion will go beyond national self-reflection to address how Canada can position itself as a powerhouse of sustainable technological and energy leadership – an intellectual and commercial nerve center for solving the most complex challenges of our time.
For American and international businesses, Canada is not just a trading partner; it is an undervalued strategic frontier – a gateway to global markets, offering unparalleled talent, investment-friendly incentives, and a unique geopolitical position in an era of perpetual disruption and reinvention. The opportunity is as vast as the stakes. The time to move, invest, and expand is now.
Canada has the talent. It has the resources. But does it have the resolve to shape the 22nd century rather than inherit it? The question is no longer what Canada can do – it is what we will dare to become.
