Turning around our innovation performance requires both bold policy and grassroots mobilization. The challenge is not a lack of ideas but a lack of execution.

At a policy level, we must invest more ambitiously in productivity-enhancing areas: intellectual property, advanced machinery, and R&D. BCG's analysis suggests that just five industries account for over 80% of the investment gap with the U.S., including ICT, manufacturing, and finance. Targeted tax incentives, fast-track permitting, and mission-oriented R&D funding can help close these gaps.

We must also fix our infrastructure bottlenecks. Our population has grown by 3 million in just three years, yet we lag behind in housing, transit, and energy capacity. A thriving innovation economy needs cities where people can afford to live and move. Renewed investment in core and social infrastructure will not only support innovation but also boost societal resilience.

Perhaps most critically, we must tackle our inclusivity deficit. Sixty percent of Canadians now live with negative net savings, and Indigenous peoples, recent immigrants, and youth are disproportionately affected. Innovation policy must be deliberately inclusive—focused on scaling startups beyond Toronto and Vancouver, reducing income inequality, and unlocking talent from underrepresented communities.

But governments alone cannot drive this change. Youth have a pivotal role to play. We can champion innovation through entrepreneurship, advocacy, and education. We can push for digital literacy, sustainability, and civic engagement in ways no policy ever could. Our future innovators must also be political participants: asking hard questions, holding leaders accountable, and helping craft the future we wish to inherit.

The time to act is now. Without intervention, the prosperity gap will widen. With it, we can transform from laggard to leader. But it will take a whole-of-society effort—from policymakers to students, from cities to provinces—to turn vision into progress.