Innovation will drive Canada to a great future
But we harness that drive to change, writes James Forrest.
Canada has always been a country of innovation. Aboriginal people learned to survive and thrive in this vast and varied landscape by devising technological and social innovations over millennia.
The arrival of Europeans brought its own innovations — some incredibly successful, some terribly short-sighted — but nearly all integral steps in the long trial-and-error progression that has made Canadian society what it is today.
When I was growing up in Kamloops, I was mostly interested in sports, and didn’t even consider university until I was in my final year of high school.
I was fortunate enough to have an excellent chemistry teacher (who wrote books that were later used throughout the entire province) who challenged me to be my best in school, and to consider science as a possible career path. To this day, I credit that teacher, as well as my high school physics teacher, with my decision to pursue chemistry and physics in university.
It never dawned on me during my youth that I’d become a physicist and a teacher myself — that it would be my job to challenge young people to think big about what might be possible in the future and to imagine well beyond the limits of what already exists.
Today, I’m proud to be part of the ongoing tradition of Canadian innovation, and in helping young people pursue their innovative ideas. The need for innovation has never been greater, and the opportunities awaiting young people, particularly young Canadians, have never been more plentiful. In fact, there is strong reason to believe that innovation — supported by Canada’s free, diverse and entrepreneurial culture — is entering a period of rapid acceleration. Like a fast-moving car, that acceleration needs to be handled carefully, but if we smartly navigate the road ahead, we may arrive at a spectacular place.
In Canada, we have the scientific, technical, technological and social infrastructure to pursue big opportunities when they arise. Our education system is among the best in the world. Our cities are becoming magnets for educated young talent. Our society is open, inclusive and egalitarian.
With the current uncertainty in the U.S. and Great Britain, our best qualities are magnified, and more needed than ever on the world stage. How will we lead by example? More than anything, we must energize and empower our young people to reimagine the world. They have inherited enormous challenges — environmental, social and economic — but no generation has been better equipped to tackle those problems. They already have many of the resources they need: freedom, stability, time and a national openness to ideas. Now they need encouragement and support.
As the director of Perimeter Scholars International — one of the most challenging physics graduate programs in the world — I work closely with young people every day. They are incredibly curious, collaborative and driven, and they see the world in ways that I don’t. I could say the same about my own children, and the thousands of students who have learned from Perimeter’s educational programs and this country’s other wonderful science outreach programs. We are all born curious and inquisitive; the key to real innovation is to never let those qualities fade.
This year, as part of Canada’s sesquicentennial celebrations, Perimeter Institute is partnering with five national science organizations to create Innovation150. This year-long celebration of Canadian ingenuity officially kicked off this week in Vancouver, launching a two-week science festival in the city. It will then visit more than 60 communities across Canada throughout 2017, with innovation festivals in major regions.
The goal is to inspire Canadians to use the tools at their disposal — freedom, education and a national culture that welcomes diversity of people and ideas — to build a brighter future. That might mean the pursuit of physics or technology, or working toward social innovations in schools, communities, the country or the world.
Not every idea will pan out. Some ideas succeed, some fail. This is how progress is made. Young Canadians must be encouraged to think big, even if some ideas fail, because the greatest innovations rarely happen without some backto-the-drawing-board struggles. A willingness to try to fail, and doggedly keep trying, is the key to accomplishing anything worthwhile.
As Canada celebrates its 150th birthday, it’s important to remember that history didn’t begin in 1867, and it doesn’t end in 2016. We have the opportunity to define our own future, building on the lessons of our past.