On July 1, our past points to our future
Our culture and environment are our advantage
Coming as it does at the grand, sun-drenched mid-year, Canada Day offers an opportunity to reexamine who we are and where we’re going as a nation. Our economic history is not well known to Canadians, and probably considered irrelevant, given the speed at which business and society are now charging towards an unknowable global future.
But what if our past contains the seeds of our future prosperity?
Canada started as a resource nation: first fish and furs, then timber, then coal, pulp and paper, silver, gold, copper and nickel, and oil and gas. To wrest those commodities from a cold, hard land, we developed sophisticated banking and engineering systems that sped the development of great industrial companies.
Conquering Canada’s vast distances required worldleading engineering skills: railways, bridges and highways, telephones and telecommunications. As a result, we developed strong professional schools and a reputation as an increasingly intelligent nation, not just a bunch of brawny lumberjacks.
Our retail and services sectors, more regional than national for our first hundred years, were created to serve far-flung domestic markets. Our automotive sector was never much more than a spinoff of Detroit, but that relationship catalyzed a powerful manufacturing base. Buoyed by the industrial demands of a world war fought on other continents, by mid-century Canada unexpectedly found itself among the top industrial nations of the world.
Through the 1950s and ’60s, Canada and the U.S. enjoyed the fruits of victory, selling goods and services to a world largely lacking industrial infrastructure and global brands. But with high living standards and higher costs, Canada’s industrial leadership could not last. Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan and then China became the world’s new manufacturing hubs. In Canada, as in Europe and the U.S., entire industries faded away.
For a time, the West retained more information-centric industries: higherend (lower-volume) manufacturing, professional services, and the IT industry itself, but even those are coming increasingly under threat as low-wage economies develop greater production and creative skills.
The U.S.’s leadership role in developing transistors, chipsets and software dominated for half a century, from IBM and HP to Apple, Microsoft, Google and Snapchat. Canada’s role as nearest neighbour gave us a backstage pass to Silicon Valley, aided by our strong educational institutions, strategically generous immigration policies and our legacy advantages in telecom.
(Stay with us. We’re getting there.)
But as the digital revolution circled the globe, the playing field levelled again. New technologies emerged from Europe, Russia, China and South Korea. As the Internet collapsed distance, Chinese or Indian engineers could collaborate with U.S. leaders as easily as Can- adians did. The bright side: With the gradual diffusion of global wealth, the emerging middle classes in formerly underperforming economies were finally becoming full partners in creating and consuming.
Now a middling industrial power, Canada grows slowly, barely keeping pace with population growth (and that only due to immigration). If we are now a second-rank industrial country, we can take solace that we’re in the middle of a much stronger and more prosperous pack of nations. And in that fact lie all our hopes and prospects.
Where does Canada go from here? Our resources are less valuable as new supplies are being developed, often closer to centres of production (South America, Russia, Asia, Africa). Our brainpower remains formidable, but a dwindling fraction of the world’s intellectual potential.
I compare Canada to a bright, 50-something executive who peaked early. He or she scaled the corporate lad- der, accomplished all they could, then got pushed out for new blood. Now they earn their daily bread consulting to other organizations, inspiring others to success with their experience, wisdom and mentoring ability (the oft-underestimated “soft” skills). We have a short window of opportunity where we can now help emerging economies build their own state-of-the-art banking, telecom and justice systems, mines and refineries, business schools, hospitals and transportation hubs. Like most students, these emerging economies will soon surpass their teachers. In the meantime, we can set standards in complex systems and civil society that will launch our client states into the future and build global goodwill for Canadian expertise.
For the longer term, we will have to develop a more sustainable brand. And believe it or not, Canadians are just the people to do it: a land of immigrants and blended cultures, a society that knows the United States better than anyone else – and still resists it — an invasive species still struggling to survive amid the rocks and tundra, and only now coming to terms with our First Nations and the aboriginal cultures we almost lost. We’re an urbanized culture that is fascinated and humbled by our open spaces and wilderness. And we’ve been richly endowed with the sorts of renewable resources — endless coastline and mountains, canoe routes and icebergs, spirit bears and killer whales — that fuel eight billion dreams.
When you truly understand marketing, you know that brands are just stories. In the global marketplace, Canada has great tales to tell. We have epic stories of struggle (think Canadian Pacific and Bombardier), survival (BlackBerry, hockey), connection (Tim Hortons, Shopify), personal growth (Lululemon, DavidsTea) and celebration (Four Seasons, Cirque du soleil).
As Canadians continue to build their creative, inclusive and caring society, we will find new ways to tell these stories. By better understanding ourselves and communicating our diversity and distinctiveness, we will find our rightful place in the world. With glowing hearts, we’ll discover that Canada’s unique environment and culture is our competitive advantage.
As Canadians continue to build their ... society, we will find new ways to tell these stories