In an increasingly unstable, multipolar world, Canada must move beyond traditional growth levers—resource exports, real estate, and U.S. proximity—and build sustainable wealth rooted in distinctive national capabilities. The real question isn’t what industries we want to win in, but what we’re uniquely equipped to do better than anyone else.
Core competencies are not sectors or slogans. They are durable systems of knowledge—combinations of skills, technologies, values, and assets—that generate repeatable value. Most successful countries and companies only have two or three. South Korea scaled design-led manufacturing. Singapore institutionalized governance and biomedical R&D. Canada has latent strengths, but we haven’t turned them into strategic engines of growth.
Take hospitality and tourism. We’ve birthed brands like Four Seasons and Cirque du Soleil—yet we’ve failed to build a scalable Canadian-owned platform that captures and commercializes our IP, data, and creative excellence.
Using artificial intelligence, we can now identify emerging capabilities buried in our institutions, workforce, and immigrant talent. We must develop a national portfolio of core competencies that aligns investment, education, and policy with long-term value creation—not nostalgia.
Modesty is not a strategy. The time to act is now. Canada must rediscover what it’s best at—and build a future only it can own.
Core competencies are not sectors or slogans. They are durable systems of knowledge—combinations of skills, technologies, values, and assets—that generate repeatable value. Most successful countries and companies only have two or three. South Korea scaled design-led manufacturing. Singapore institutionalized governance and biomedical R&D. Canada has latent strengths, but we haven’t turned them into strategic engines of growth.
Take hospitality and tourism. We’ve birthed brands like Four Seasons and Cirque du Soleil—yet we’ve failed to build a scalable Canadian-owned platform that captures and commercializes our IP, data, and creative excellence.
Using artificial intelligence, we can now identify emerging capabilities buried in our institutions, workforce, and immigrant talent. We must develop a national portfolio of core competencies that aligns investment, education, and policy with long-term value creation—not nostalgia.
Modesty is not a strategy. The time to act is now. Canada must rediscover what it’s best at—and build a future only it can own.
