The first episode of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, which aired on the BBC in October 1969, was titled “Whither Canada?” More than half a century later, it’s once again a good question.
If we don’t get to a much stronger place soon, we may cease to be a nation-state at all.
We’ve long been aware of the risks of the elephant next door. We have risen to the challenge when called for, before and after Confederation.
When the United States invaded Upper Canada in 1812, under the leadership of British Major-General Robert Ross, we literally ate their dinner (President Madison fled, leaving an untouched feast) and burned the White House down.
The boldest play we can make is to forge a soup-to-nuts clean energy superpower, from critical minerals and batteries to smart grids, financial wizardry and engineering know-how.
After Confederation, to unite Canada and thwart U.S. expansionism, Sir John A. Macdonald, along with a team of builders and financial wizards, led the most consequential nation-building project in our history, pounding in the last spike of the 4,700-kilometre Canadian Pacific Railway in 1885.
The elephant and the polar bear
Here we are in 2025 with the elephant trumpeting again. Trudeau Sr. likened us to a mouse in this dynamic, but by relative weight – and I hope attitude – we are more of a polar bear. What would a polar bear do? According to Inuit lore, polar bears are seen as powerful spiritual beings embodying strength, resilience and adaptability. A polar bear knows the full meaning of “We the North,” and a polar bear never rolls over (unless it’s playing or cleaning itself).
How do we build a stronger Canada? It starts with a stronger economy.
We can take inspiration from some of our winter sport heroes. We need to “skate to where the puck is going.” That means investing where fortunes are rising, not falling. With apologies to Harold Innis, the famed political economist, hewing wood and drawing water (and, soon, drilling for oil ) is not where the money is. The clean energy economy is the locomotive for 21st-century growth. As measured by Corporate Knights and others, it is growing twice as fast as the rest of the economy and is now the dominant driver of economic growth across sectors and the world.
The boldest play we can make is to forge a soup-to-nuts clean energy superpower, from critical minerals and batteries to smart grids, financial wizardry and engineering know-how.
We have all the ingredients to do this. The only thing missing is leadership.
We have a need for speed
It’s one thing to say we are going to be a clean energy superpower; it’s quite another to make it happen. The goons from the status quo industries have been going into the corner and coming out with the puck for a long time: case in point, 10 years after Trudeau was elected on a promise to price pollution, the biggest oil companies are still polluting for free. That’s why we need to keep our elbows up, to make sure we don’t lose the puck.
Markets and geopolitics are moving too fast for us to go slow. No time for Royal commissions or expert panels. We have a need for speed. Like the masters of metamorphosis featured on p. 32, we need to dare to push the limits of what is possible, faster than we have ever gone before.
In the spirit of friendlier times with our neighbour, we can take a page out of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s first 100 days, where he passed 15 major bills and delinked the dollar from the gold standard, laying the way for major public investments (in the order of 6% of GDP for six years) that saved the United States from the Depression.
Let us hope the next leader of our land brings the resilient spirit of a polar bear, the vision of the Great One (on the ice, not off), the sharp elbows of Mr. Hockey and the daring speed of the Crazy Canucks. Mix all that with a little financial wizardry, and we will make magic happen.
Toby Heaps is the co-founder, publisher and CEO of Corporate Knights.
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