There’s a quiet complacency that creeps in when a nation has known peace, prosperity, and relative stability for so long.
It’s almost seductive. We start to assume that what worked before will somehow carry us forward. That the formulas we perfected in the twentieth century will continue to yield results in the twenty-first. That if we simply tweak the old models, we can maintain our advantage. But history doesn’t reward comfort. It rewards those who are willing to question the models, to reinvent the formulas, and to think forward – not just reactively, but structurally.
I believe, and I say it consciously and with humility, Canada needs to wake up.
We need to start thinking, building, and leading differently. This isn’t about some abstract call to innovate. It’s about the very real urgency to understand where the world is going – and the risks of being left behind. Creativity and innovation are not just buzzwords for start-up pitch decks or government policy papers. They are survival skills for countries that wish to remain prosperous, relevant, and resilient.
The pace of global change no longer gives us the luxury of slow pivots. Technology is reshaping industries vertically, not in silos. It’s not enough to build sector-specific capacity anymore. What we need are deeply aligned verticals – where education connects meaningfully to industry, where talent pipelines are shaped by foresight, where leadership development isn’t just about managing teams but about navigating complexity and uncertainty at scale.
This is where the future is being built, and we cannot afford to sit it out.
Yet, we often seem trapped in the romance of what used to work. We look to familiar frameworks, historic success stories, and the comforting benchmarks of past achievements. But legacy models are starting to crack under the weight of modern challenges. Old formulas won’t solve for artificial intelligence displacing jobs, nor will they prepare us for the energy transitions, demographic shifts, and geopolitical rebalancing that are already underway. If anything, they lull us into believing we’re more prepared than we are.
The truth is, Canada has always had the talent. We’ve had the capacity. What we now need is the courage to design differently. To reimagine how we invest, build, deploy, test, learn, and forecast. To push beyond the traditional cycles of government funding windows and predictable corporate strategies. We need bolder moves, faster experimentation, and a willingness to fail forward.
But this isn’t just about the economy. It’s about the kind of society we want to become. Innovation is not just a competitive advantage – it’s an expression of national identity, a marker of whether we are a people who adapt or a people who resist. Economic empowerment isn’t just about GDP growth – it’s about who gets to participate in the future we are building. Leadership development isn’t just about creating more managers – it’s about shaping thinkers, challengers, and bridge-builders who can make sense of complexity and lead through ambiguity.
Other countries are already moving. Nations like Singapore have integrated lifelong learning into their social fabric. Germany’s dual education system deeply integrates industry with education in ways that are both agile and scalable. Scandinavian countries are redesigning welfare and economic systems to match the velocity of technological change. Meanwhile, we’re still debating whether we should modernize certain sectors, still holding on to models that feel safe but are quietly becoming irrelevant.
We have to stop playing catch-up.
Canada’s long game requires us to forecast differently, not just extrapolate the past. It requires vertical alignment across industries, education, governance, and talent development – moving away from isolated efforts towards deeply connected ecosystems. We need to cultivate creativity and innovation not as side projects but as the default posture. The countries that will thrive in this century are not those who optimize yesterday’s playbook but those who are willing to write new ones altogether.
And perhaps most importantly, we need to lead with urgency, but not panic. Urgency requires movement, investment, and curiosity. Panic leads to short-termism, vanity projects, and performative change. We need to move deliberately and intelligently, understanding that the work ahead isn’t about preserving the past, but about securing the future.
It’s time to wake up. The future won’t wait for us.