Publications: Lawrence Zhang

Canada should approach exploratory talks regarding a Canada–EU digital trade agreement with caution. Greater alignment with the EU may appear to provide a hedge against U.S. influence, but in practice it risks importing a framework that impedes the potential for Canada’s digital economy and industries while raising compliance costs.

The Bureau should not treat algorithmic pricing as a risk category in itself. The relevant concern is not whether pricing is algorithmic, dynamic, or AI-enabled, but whether it is used to harm competition or consumers. Addressing that will require focusing on market context and firm conduct rather than the type of tool used.

Canada has zero entries among the world’s top 50 science and tech clusters. Waterloo is the best candidate for elevation. To make that happen, the federal and Ontario governments should create an incentive: Tech start-ups based in Waterloo, as well as firms outside Canada that relocate meaningful R&D and innovation production to the region, will pay no tax for a decade.

Canada needs a new federal institution that makes its innovation system more than the sum of its parts: a Canadian Innovation and Industrial Transformation Agency. This institution wouldn’t replace programs. It would govern them coherently, strategically, and at speed.

Canada stands at a pivotal moment to leverage its natural resource boom into long-term industrial strength by tying faster permitting and land access to reinvestment in innovation. A modest levy on resource extraction could fund a new federal agency focused on turning Canadian R&D into real production and globally competitive advanced industries.

Canadian firms are underinvesting in productivity-enhancing capital such as machinery, software, and advanced technologies. Without targeted reforms to boost investment and improve data collection, Canada risks falling further behind in global competitiveness and economic growth.

In an era when AI is poised to improve everything from crop yields to cancer detection, Canada’s central priority should be accelerating AI adoption to enhance economic prosperity and quality of life, not erecting barriers to innovation through overly precautionary regulation.

The Canadian economy is shifting faster than its institutions are. This playbook lays out an agenda to address what Canada must fix, build, and scale in order to compete through technology.

Canada has long embraced its identity as a “middle power,” but it has the potential to be more than just a supporting player. With greater ambition and the right vision, Canada can shape global markets and emerge as a dominant force.

The goal for the next Canadian decade should be simple yet ambitious: to support and scale at least 100 mid-sized, export-oriented companies that dominate strategic niches in global markets—Canada's own generation of Mittelstand-esque champions.