Anne Golden sits in front of her desk in a rather sparse office looking like the Jeremiah Queen of Canada.
As president and CEO of the Conference Board of Canada, she's giving her annual report to the nation on just how badly it is doing in compared to 16 other conferences that her organization monitors.
In keeping with the Conference Board's push for innovation, Ms. Golden appears on YouTube.
"Hi," she says beginning the 12th yearly report. "Canada Day is a time to celebrate our country and what we've achieved, but, I wouldn't be serving Canada very well if I didn't tell you what's on my mind today."
If you're tempted, at this point, to say, "spare us," I'm with you. The sun is shining. The granite counter tops are glistening. The stainless steel appliances have a newly buffed dull glow and I think I might just take the bike for a spin for an afternoon ride without adding a single carbon particle to global warming.
But Ms. Golden and the conference board web page have my attention. On YouTube, she's worried about what Canada is going to look like in 12 years time, the hindsight year: 2020. If we don't change some of our ways, she tells us, it will be a grim future in which we will look back on what might have been.
"Canadians quality of life is falling behind that of other countries."
If you think it has always been thus, that's because our comparative economic performance has been slipping for a couple of decades. The Americans might have more mortgage failures than in any year since 1979, their consumer and national debt may be exploding into numbers that only a computer can understand, but the grim fact is that those that have jobs and have some control over their credit cards are better off than we are.
Many of us, though, don't feel we are doing that badly. Given the choice, most Canadians would rather live here than south of the border. Many think that Canada is quite a nice place to be, thank you.
Ms. Golden acknowledges this. It's not so much that we are doing badly, as that we continue to do worse than others. On Canada Day, many of us might prefer to take in the sunshine, the opportunity to wave the flag, listen to some outdoor music and take in the celebrations of our successes and put the problems aside for contemplation some time next week.
The nagging thought, though, is that complacency has been with us for so long, the relative decline of Canada has been so gradual, that if we don't wake up, then 2020 will see us having slipped so far behind catching up will be nigh on impossible.
The conference coard's list of how badly we are doing is thoroughly depressing. Canada's economy has been declining against the performance of others for three decades. We have great education and skills training, but that, for some reason, doesn't translate into innovation and our lack of innovation is what is damaging our productivity.
If other countries constantly produce more with fewer workers, then Canadian workers' pay will slip further and further behind that of other countries. Lower pay means a relatively smaller tax-take. That in turn damages an already stressed health-care and social system. Everything suffers.
Canada just doesn't seem to be able to get the innovation thing right. It's not just that we don't create global brands, it's that we don't adapt to new technology quickly either. The Blackberry, that great Canadian innovation, is the exception rather than the rule. At last, on July 11, Canadians will be able to get their hands on an iPhone -- roughly 12 months after it was introduced in the United States. The iPhone is a consumer gadget, but it's a great example of how, as the communication revolution speeds forward, Canada lags behind.
What to do about all this?
The solution of the blue-ribbon Competition Policy Review Panel set up by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and chaired by business leader Red Wilson is to get rid of many of the restrictions on foreign investment in Canadian industries.
Forget the idea that Canada is being bought out by overseas companies, say Wilson and his colleagues, welcome foreign investment and get Canada to compete increasingly with foreigners in its home market.
Ms. Golden and her colleagues make the same argument.
It's not any easy message. Many key Canadian industries, particularly in telecommunications, have become so used to living under government-regulated protection, that they worry about the consequences of open competition. But that has to change and to change quickly.
I wish Ms. Golden had chosen another day for her gloom and doom prognostications, but the message is the message, even if it is a party-pooper.
Nicholas Hirst is CEO of Winnipeg-based television and film producer Original Pictures Inc.
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