A Modest Proposal: Seven Bold Steps for Canada’s Economic Sovereignty

Dear Prime Minister Carney,

Congratulations on your leadership victory. Your call for urgency in transforming our economy is exactly what Canada needs. The world is shifting faster than we ever imagined, and the time for action is now.

And you are right, the challenge we face is not just strategy—it’s speed. The coming tariff war with the United States, coupled with broader economic pressures, means Canada must take bold steps quickly to secure its future and to make it clear that we don’t want – but if we must – we can go it alone. 

Is that pride? No. It’s a negotiation. And Mr. Carney, in your time in key positions in both public and private sector organizations, you have had tough negotiations. 

So you know the truth. If the other side doesn’t think you can walk away – you are not negotiating – you are begging. 

But let’s face it. People are right when they say we are negotiating with a giant, and one who knows the power they wield. We can’t pretend to sit at the table as equals – in size anyway. We are David to their Goliath. 

But they espouse the “Art of the Deal.” We need to read “The Art of War.” 

The good news is that you are new and unpredictable. So if we act decisively, we can strengthen our economy, drive GDP growth, and build true independence from external pressures. If we move quickly, we can do this while they are focused on “winning their way into a recession.”

We have much to do, some of which will take years to accomplish in terms of diversifying our economy so that we are not vulnerable again.

But there is good news. We are on the precipice of a new economy – digitally enabled, driven by Artificial Intelligence. The rules of how wealth is created are being rewritten. 

With that in mind, I propose seven strategic initiatives that can be implemented swiftly to reshape Canada’s economic foundation. These are not abstract policy ideas—they are practical, high-impact solutions that will resonate with Canadians and directly benefit our businesses, workers, and investors. 

These can be done quickly and they can show results in a very short period of time – if we have the courage to work like our country depends on it – because it does. But each of these is not a cost – it’s an investment. 

We’ve been doing that “throw money at things” for too long. We have valued inputs and not outcomes. We say we are solving problems – “look at the money we’ve spent.” 

I know that you feel this way too. Even where spending is the only solution, you’ve said – no general tax cuts. We’ll target funds at those most in need. It makes sense. Besides, what good is a tax cut to someone with no income. 

Respecting that, I suggest only investments that will have real direct payback as well as an enormous indirect payback.  For each, we can and should be able to set real measurable goals and equally we can and should measure our achievements. 

It’s going to take a new team, with a new attitude. Those who we charge with the management of these programs should have you and your government’s total support. You should be prepared to help our champions knock down walls and break down silos. 

Ultimately, you know you need to pick talented people and give them authority. But equally, they should commit to results. If they don’t show measureable outcomes, and you have done your best to help them, you should have the courage to have them stand aside and let others take the lead. 

So let’s consider the 7 key areas we can make immediate changes.

1. Make It Easy to Buy Canadian

Canadians want to support Canadian businesses, but finding truly Canadian products is harder than it should be. Just as we mandate food labeling in both official languages, we should require clear, standardized labeling for Canadian-made products—one that cannot be gamed with a token Maple Leaf on the package.

A simple, transparent system could drive Canadian job growth and reinvest profits into our economy. If consumers knew which products directly support Canadian businesses, they would choose them. The government can lead by example, ensuring its own purchases favor truly Canadian products.

Also with clear labelling you have other options. I wasn’t in favour of the last GST rollback, but if you did have to propose this again, we’d know exactly what to tax and what not to tax. And patriotic merchants could reward Canadian shoppers with sale prices and discounts. Win. Win. Win.

2. Prioritize Canadian Procurement—Like Our Future Depends On It

Forget trade agreement technicalities—government procurement is a national security issue. The U.S. has long used this rationale to favor domestic suppliers. It’s time we did the same.

• Cybersecurity: Canadian firms provide world-class security solutions, yet our government buys more cybersecurity services from foreign companies than our Five Eyes allies buy from us. Think about that. Other countries value our products more than our government. That whole attitude needs to change immediately. 
• Cloud & Data Sovereignty: No Canadian government—federal, provincial, or municipal—should host data on the U.S.-controlled platforms. It’s a national risk. We must immediately move towards hosted in Canada solutions.
• Hardware & Software: Instead of defaulting to foreign tech giants, let’s contract Canadian firms to assemble and service government PCs. And let’s break dependency on Microsoft by investing in open-source alternatives.

While I’ve given these examples, we must ensure that we drive to find more. We want a culture of government purchasers who are always predisposed to buy Canadian. That goes from large to small purchases. Wherever there is discretion, it should go towards a Canadian purchase – right down to insisting that government workers don’t use Uber – they call a cab. 

There will be those who say that Canadians work for these large American firms. Don’t worry. Canadian firms will eagerly hire them from software engineers to cab drivers.

Government spending is a powerful lever for economic strength. Let’s use it.

3. Transform Canada Post into a Cooperative E-Commerce Giant

Amazon’s dominance in e-commerce is built not just on products but on logistics—warehouses, fulfillment centers, and last-mile delivery. As a result, it is more difficult for Canadians to buy products or even to develop products. 

What if Canada had its own version of Amazon? Instead of an American multinational, what it was a cooperative infrastructure that empowered Canadian entrepreneurs and retailers?

This is not far-fetched. A significant portion of Amazon’s business is powered by independent sellers who rely on its fulfillment network. The key difference? Right now, Canadian businesses must pay hefty fees to Amazon, send their inventory to foreign-controlled warehouses, and depend on logistics networks that prioritize Amazon’s interests over their own.

We have the pieces to build a better alternative—one that benefits Canadian businesses first and solves a key problem – what is the future of Canada Post?

How It Can Work: Canada Post as the Backbone of Canadian E-Commerce

Instead of just being a postal service, Canada Post could transform into a national fulfillment network, providing Canadian businesses with affordable delivery from coast to coast. 

Shipping is a huge problem for Canadian e-commerce companies and even local merchants who want to sell by e-commerce. It’s not uncommon for a purchase of say 8 dollars to have shipping costs of 12 dollars. Amazon doesn’t have that problem. Why? They have mass purchasing of delivery services and have such market penetration that they can offer things like Amazon Prime. 

But what if we had a preferred shipping rate for Canadian businesses – one that made it possible for a Canadian e-commerce provider to reach customers quickly and cheaply? 

But Canada Post could do more. They could be an enabler of businesses. Functioning like a vast e-commerce co-op, they could expand to offer a Digital Marketplace: A Canadian-owned and operated e-commerce platform where businesses can sell their products without being squeezed by high fees and algorithms favoring Amazon’s private labels.

• Warehousing & Storage: A nationwide network of fulfillment centers, leveraging existing Canada Post facilities and new strategically located hubs.
• Order Fulfillment: Packing and shipping services, enabling businesses of all sizes to compete with Amazon’s speed and efficiency.
• Returns Processing & Customer Support: A seamless returns system that gives Canadian retailers a frictionless way to manage returns, improving customer confidence.

This is not a government-run retailer. It’s a new type of infrastructure – as relevant as the railway, the St. Lawrence Seaway or our electric grid. 

The private sector—Canadian entrepreneurs and businesses—would drive the innovation, branding, and competition. Canada Post provides the infrastructure, just as it does with mail and shipping.

For once, we’d be serving the SMB from entrepreneur to local retailer and more.

4. Build a Canadian Open-Source AI Ecosystem

AI is not just another technology—it is the new infrastructure. While it’s a bit of a tired phrase to say “data is the new oil” – the use of data and automation through Artificial Intelligence is as important as natural resources.

Not only will AI agents drive businesses but AI insights and automation will revolutionize all industries, from mining to construction, from farming to manufacturing, from healthcare to education – and more. No aspect of our economy will not be enabled by AI in the coming decade.

Yet Canada is at risk of being frozen out – renting our AI from foreign sources. When they say, you can only have our AI if you also buy our services, what will we say? 

Canadian researchers were instrumental in AI’s development, yet we allowed our intellectual property to be snapped up by U.S. tech giants. If we don’t take control of our own AI future, we will soon be at the mercy of foreign firms that could cut us off at any time.

Fortunately, there is hope. Recent developments have brought open source models to the world. So instead of trying to fight the IP wars that we have already lost, we can take a different strategy. 

Canada can immediately adopt an open-source AI platform, hosted in Canada, free for use in healthcare, education, agriculture, and business. We can, in the parlance of Open Source, fork existing platforms and work to enhance them.

Imagine Canadian:

• Healthcare AI improving patient care while keeping data secure on Canadian soil.
• Precision farming AI giving every Canadian farmer access to cutting-edge technology.
• Education AI: providing a new approach to education across the country
• Business AI tools that Canadian startups can use without paying foreign licensing fees.

All this and more. Canadians would not be limited by technology, they would only be limited by their imagination. 

With an open source solution and revenue from subscriptions and corporate use, Canada could make AI freely or cheaply available to all of us, wherever we live. 

This is not a moonshot—it is an essential step toward digital sovereignty. Once again, if we take the point of view that we are investing and reward those who get results, we will be paid back many times over. 

5. Establish a Sovereign Satellite Network

Increasingly we are relying on Starlink for rural connectivity. This is a system controlled by a private U.S. company. That is a vulnerability we cannot afford.

Canada should collaborate with European partners to develop our own northern satellite network, ensuring secure, independent communications for Canadians—especially in rural and remote areas. This is also an opportunity to support our homegrown satellite and telecommunications industries.

Better yet, if Canada builds this, we can partner with other northern democracies, turning knowledge of connectivity into a national asset instead of a dependency. 

Most importantly, this network would provide Indigenous and northern communities with affordable, high-speed internet access, allowing them to fully participate in the digital economy. These communities, often isolated by geography and underserved by existing infrastructure, would gain new opportunities for education, healthcare, entrepreneurship, and civic engagement. 

Digital inclusion must be a national priority, and our own satellite network can make it a reality.

6. Simplify Innovation Programs—Invest in Success, Not Just Spending

Canada has no shortage of innovation grants and programs. The problem? They are fragmented, bureaucratic, and often run by gatekeepers and sadly, not real investors.

We have to change our thinking.

• We are not giving money away—we are investing. Those running these programs should not be gatekeepers, bureaucrats or frustrated, or failed entrepreneurs. We need investors with expertise who can actively help applicants succeed. 
• Measure success differently. Don’t reward program managers or programs  based on how much they spend. Reward them on how many applicants achieve real results. There is a careful nuance here. We are not looking to only pick sure winners, we want to also develop winners.

We have done this before, and have pockets of excellence with programs like NRC’s Industrial Research Assistance Program (IRAP), when their job was simply to help businesses grow—not manage endless compliance checklists. 

But we’ve not only overly bureaucratized it, we’ve given huge amounts of funds to companies that are not Canadian. We have “cutouts” and foreign companies that are taking massive amounts of our investment. 

Further, when we invest, we should be investing in companies that are here for the long haul. Our investments should be convertible to equity if a company chooses to move out of Canada. But if they stay, we need to reward the entrepreneurs handsomely. 

7. Let Canadians Invest in Our Own Future

While there are startup programs, Canadian entrepreneurs struggle to scale because capital is scarce. As a result, many have to go to the US to get money to scale. 

Meanwhile, many ordinary Canadians are hungry for investment opportunities beyond real estate and index funds.

Why can we not partner with the private sector to create Canadian venture funds. These could be structured like private-sector investment pools but with one difference: ordinary Canadians can invest in them and get tax advantages.

These funds would focus on scale-ups, not just startups, and would be managed by professionals with skin in the game. We would help our Canadian private sector investors leverage their investments and we’d all profit from the capital received. 

I stress that this partnership with private investors would ensure that these funds are managed for success. The private investors are going to want to make a profit and they will support scale ups wisely. Ordinary Canadians will have a tax vehicle that they use to build their wealth.

We’d give Canadians the opportunity to invest in the next Shopify, the next generative AI powerhouse, the next great clean-tech company and more. 

A Final Word

Prime Minister, you know better than most that Canada is at an inflection point. We can continue to be a resource economy reliant on foreign investment, or we can build an independent, resilient, innovation-driven nation.

The time for managing inputs is over. The time for measuring progress by how much we have spent is done. 

Funnily enough, Canadians actually understand this. We know that when it’s late in the third period and we are down a goal, what really matters is that next goal. It doesn’t have to be pretty – it just has to get into the net.

Mr. Prime Minister, this is all doable, but only if we do it with heart, passion and a refusal to fail. 

We are late in the third period. We are down a goal. We are the underdog. But let them underestimate us. Let them think they can play rough. Our battle cry is clear:

Elbows up! 

Sincerely,

Jim Love