Turning innovation into commercial success on a global scale is the golden goose Canada pursues. The challenges are multi-faceted and even culturally embedded, but solutions are in sight given Canada’s strengths.
Impact Centre senior fellow Charles Plant’s research notes that Canada’s innovation ecosystem is caught in a few vicious cycles. His work, “The Narwhal Project,” analyzes the obstacles Canada has to overcome in order to create a world-leading innovation economy. Canada ranks last among similar OECD countries in the number of innovation economy companies with more than 250 employees per million of population. Clearly, a better balance between small, medium-sized, and large companies is needed.
Image: A BlackBerry employee works at the company's Network Operating Centre in Waterloo, Ont., in this file photo. BlackBerry is one Canadian company that grew into serving consumers and businesses globally. (The Canadian Press/Andrew Ryan)
