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“Why is Canada filled with ‘low-innovation’ companies?”

In a recent academic paper, Peter Nicholson, a former business leader, bureaucrat and a one-time advisor to former prime minister Paul Martin, poses the question. He then reminds us that for more than a hundred years this has been an exceedingly difficult question to answer.

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“Since 1916 … the main objective of Canadian science policy has been to promote technological innovation by industry. Almost every decade since the 1920s has witnessed renewed attempts by successive governments to achieve it, but on the whole they have all failed.”

Nicholson, there, is quoting from a 1970 Senate report on federal science and technology policy but says there is no reason to think that the conclusion reached in 1970 would be any different in 2017.

And yet, in 2017 and beyond, the government of Justin Trudeau will try to prove to Canadians that it finally has the answer on innovation. Indeed, Ottawa watchers are expecting “innovation” to be the big theme in Trudeau’s second federal budget, likely to be tabled in March.