Nation-building needs founders, not just cranes

Ottawa and the provinces are finally talking seriously about nation-building. Good. Unlock the critical minerals. Build the pipelines and transmission lines. Get housing moving. Big things matter, and we need more of them. But nation-building isn’t only cranes and concrete. It’s also the builders who start companies and create new industries. If we want a prosperous future, Canada can’t just be a place that builds big things; it has to be a place that builds new things. A Founder Nation. Our growth challenge isn’t just shovels in the ground. It’s whether new businesses are forming, whether founders have the tools and freedom to scale, and whether our economy is dynamic enough to let tomorrow’s builders outcompete yesterday’s incumbents. On that score, the picture is mixed but the potential is enormous. The good news: Canada already produces world-class entrepreneurs. Shopify, Lightspeed, Wattpad, Clearco, and dozens more started here and scaled globally. Our universities, immigration system, and quality of life are real advantages. Canada is a great place to found and grow a business. The warning: we can’t take that for granted. A recent survey reported in the Globe and Mail found Canadian tech founders are leaving at an accelerating rate, citing financing challenges, tax burdens, and regulatory friction. The talent is here. The ambition is here. The ideas are here. What’s missing is the ecosystem that makes staying and scaling in Canada the obvious choice. Megaprojects expand our economic frontier. Entrepreneurs push us beyond it. They create jobs, open new markets, and raise living standards for everyone. Every thriving company we celebrate, from BlackBerry and Lululemon to Shopify and SkipTheDishes, started with a founder who took a chance. The goal should be simple: make Canada the best place in the world to start and scale a business. A true Founder Nation. So what’s needed?? Partly, better policy. We still stack too many layers of red tape, maintain tax systems that penalize ambition, and shower subsidies on incumbents instead of sparking new entrants. The playing field tilts toward legacy, not the risk-takers who push us forward. Here’s the agenda: Reduce friction to scale here. Simplify and harmonize regulations across provinces, with one-stop, time-bound permitting for growth companies. Modernize tax policy so employee ownership and stock options help attract and retain talent, and update SR&ED to better support software, commercialization, and scale-ups. Build a competitive financial infrastructure for innovation. Implement open banking (consumer-directed finance) with clear accreditation so new entrants can compete and small businesses have real choice. Double down on talent and education. Protect international student flows and enact faster pathways for founders and technical talent to stay. Invest in research commercialization and co-op programs that turn campus ideas into companies. Change the culture. Success shouldn’t be treated with suspicion. Entrepreneurs aren’t villains: they’re builders of jobs, opportunity, and prosperity. Celebrate them, tell their stories, and make government a first customer with procurement targets for startups and scale-ups. Signal that we reward builders, not just protect incumbents. We should commit at least as much attention and resources to entrepreneurship and business formation as we are to unlocking megaprojects. Both matter. Both are crucial to Canada’s future. Becoming a Founder Nation isn’t a slogan. It’s an ambition and a blueprint. Reduce friction. Unleash talent. Build a culture that treats starting a business not as a risk to be avoided, but as a calling to be embraced. If we get this right, the payoff is large. We’ll keep our talent here. We’ll attract new talent from abroad. And we’ll build companies that serve Canadian customers and scale globally. That’s the nation-building project of our time. Yes, build the mines and pipelines. They’re critical. Also, build founders. Build a Canada where every entrepreneur’s first instinct isn’t how fast they can leave, but how fast they can grow right here. Canada can be a Founder Nation. The opportunity is in front of us. Let’s seize it.