Canada’s innovation story is a split-screen. It scores well on the inputs to innovation — institutions, talent, research quality and even access to

venture capital

— according to the latest Global Innovation Index (GII). Unfortunately the picture is very different for outputs: chronic underperformance on the things that really matter for prosperity: patents, high-tech exports, value-added products and services and premium pricing.

We educate and attract exceptional people, produce respected research and enjoy deep reserves of trust and stability. But we come up short when it comes to turning those strengths into world-beating products, premium brands and durable

productivity

gains.

The gap isn’t about knowing what to do; it’s about believing we should conquer markets abroad and holding ourselves to the standards that winning requires.

National culture sits at the centre of this. Canadian niceness is a virtue in civic life; in business, it can blur into comfortable mediocrity. We avoid hard conversations, rationalize soft targets and tolerate OK results because nobody wants to be the bad guy or gal.

In the European countries we should benchmark against — Switzerland, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Germany — there’s a conviction that their companies belong on the global podium. That belief is not American-style bravado; it’s quiet confidence. It tightens timelines, forces choices and treats excellence as the expectation, not the outlier.

Economic structure amplifies culture. Our most concentrated home markets — telecom, finance, transport and parts of retail — dull the urgency to out-innovate and raise formidable barriers for challengers. If new entrants can’t win enough customers in Canada, they go elsewhere to scale up or sell out too early. More stringent competition laws would help clear the runway.

But even without them, incumbent and insurgent companies alike can change the tone: set global ambitions and align rewards with great outcomes rather than activity.

The countries we admire didn’t climb up by being nicer; they climbed up by being better and being clearer about results, tougher on standards, faster to learn and unembarrassed about winning. Don’t get us wrong: we are not advocating for rudeness. Respect and appreciation of others is a prerequisite for lasting success.

Here’s the good news: the wind is finally at our backs on talent. Canada is now a top destination for global talent, overtaking the United States in preference in a recent international survey.

The

Donald Trump

administration has handed Canadian employers an even bigger opening: a new $100,000 fee on new H-1B visa applications raises the cost of hiring skilled foreign professionals in the U.S., pushing many companies to rethink where they build teams. If we act decisively, Canada can convert that policy shock into a recruitment and retention coup.

Seizing the moment means changing how we lead. Replace the reflex to be agreeable with a reflex to be excellent. Treat international market share, premium pricing and sky-high stock valuations as the real score, not domestic optics. Hire and empower professionals who have scaled up abroad and let them reset the bar on how we price, sell and ship. Above all, make belief explicit: insist — out loud — that Canadian companies can and will dominate outside our borders.

This isn’t a call to wait for government programs or another round of pilot projects or, for heaven’s sake, new white papers. It’s a call for businesses to raise their own standards. Set the ambition, reward excellency and move on from what doesn’t measure up. The inputs are here. The talent is increasingly here and more is available if we move fast.

Canada doesn’t need a new personality; it needs a new posture. Keep the courtesy. Lose the complacency. Light a fire in the belly. The external results will follow, and the world will look at Canada and see not just a pleasant place to build a life, but a place to create value and lasting prosperity.

  • Canada can’t rely on pipelines alone — It’s time to scale up innovation
  • Andrew Chau: Trump’s US$100,000 visa fee opens a rare opportunity for Canada to recruit the best talent

Alice de Koning is a professor of entrepreneurship and innovation at the Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary, and academic director for the Hunter Hub for Entrepreneurial Thinking at the University of Calgary. Yrjo Koskinen is the BMO professor of sustainable and transition finance at the Haskayne School of Business and research director at the Institute for Sustainable Finance at the Smith School of Business, Queen’s University.