Time for Canada to think big and take on the world

Our national ambitions aren’t on election agenda

What do you give a country for its 150th birthday?

In Ottawa, we can anticipate a year of events organized by the federal government and the city’s Ottawa 2017 Bureau. Details are scant, but the city has already secured the Canadian Videogames Awards gala. Let’s hope that will not be the top attraction.

The cake, beer and music are a given, but the occasion demands something more. For countries, like people, birthdays ending in zero suggest reflection on what has come before, and more important, what will come next.

With just two years to go until the big anniversary, this is especially true for Canada, a country that seems to lack any national goals or discernible sense of direction. Canadians are too easily content with the status quo, but the status quo is eroding. We can’t just stay in the same position because the rest of the world is changing rapidly. In an increasingly competitive world, Canada has got stuck in the slow lane and most of us have barely noticed.

Other than hockey, in what areas does our country hope to lead the world? Canadians don’t need to wait for the 150th anniversary to start answering the vital question: What’s the big plan?

This fall’s federal election would seem an ideal time to talk about our national ambitions, but the subject is unlikely to be on the agenda. Election platforms are defined by issues that pollsters say can attract votes. That’s why our political leaders are talking about things like tax breaks, pension enhancements and a new national childcare program. The common factor in the national political discussion is about what more government can do for us.

The real discussion should be about what we can do for ourselves. This was a country built by can-do people who came here from all parts of the world, mostly with nothing, and helped build the country we have today. It’s difficult to discern that spirit in many contemporary Canadians, eager as they are for a new government program, handout or tax break.

Canada Day is a day for national pride, but we set the bar too low. Pride should be based on accomplishment. Whether we like it or not, successful countries today innovate and sell their products around the world. That means believing in our best ideas and being willing to invest our money in them. Canadians’ record here is not great. A successful Canadian company could be defined as one that was good enough to be sold to people from some other country.

The Hudson’s Bay Company is owned by an American. A Brazilian company controls Tim Horton’s. Our big bread company is owned by Mexicans. When you drink a beer to toast your country’s 150th birthday, odds are it will be from one of our foreign-owned breweries. Does any of that make you proud?

With some notable exceptions, Canadians don’t go out and conquer the world. We stay home and wait for the world to conquer us.

Canadians need the ability to dream, and the fortitude to turn dreams into actions. Most of all, we need to seize control of our own destiny.

We need to be open to new ideas about challenges as diverse as defining our place in the world and revamping our health care system. We need to believe in and support our own culture, to see our stories as something to sell to the world, not something sustained by government grants.

The ideal gift for Canada’s 150th birthday would be a strong injection of ambition. Canadians used to believe that they could be a model for the world. What happened?

I am a Canadian, and proud of it. I don’t want to be part of a second-rate country, and there is no reason Canada should be one. As long as our national motto is “Canada: not too bad, eh?” that’s what we will be.

Successful countries today innovate and sell their products around the world.