Opinion: We need to stop resenting entrepreneurial success

Skip to Content News Archives Economy Energy Oil & Gas Renewables Electric Vehicles Mining Commodities Agriculture Real Estate Mortgages Mortgage Rates Finance Banking Insurance Fintech Cryptocurrency Work Wealth Smart Money Wealth Management Investor Personal Finance Family Finance Retirement Taxes High Net Worth FP Comment Executive Women Puzzmo Newsletters Financial Times Business Essentials More Innovation Information Technology FP500 Podcasts Small Business Lives Told Tails Told Shopping Financial Post Store Obituaries Place a Notice Advertising Advertising With Us Advertising Solutions Postmedia Ad Manager Sponsorship Requests Classifieds Place a Classifieds ad Working Profile Settings My Subscriptions My Offers Newsletters Customer Service FAQ News Economy Energy Mining Real Estate Finance Work Wealth Investor FP Comment Executive Women Puzzmo Newsletters Financial Times Business Essentials This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.HomeFP CommentOpinion: We need to stop resenting entrepreneurial successThe answer to Trump's tariffs isn't just less reliance on the U.S. It's also producing more things the rest of the world can't do withoutLast updated 26 minutes ago Prime Minister Mark Carney during a news conference in Beijing, China, on Jan. 16, 2026. Photo by Bloomberg filesPrime Minister Mark Carney is responding to Donald Trump’s tariffs as though Canada’s economic problems began when Trump imposed them. They didn’t. Trump exposed Canada’s economic vulnerability. He didn’t create it.THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLYSubscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.Exclusive articles from Barbara Shecter, Joe O'Connor, Gabriel Friedman, and others.Daily content from Financial Times, the world's leading global business publication.Unlimited online access to read articles from Financial Post, National Post and 15 news sites across Canada with one account.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles, including the New York Times Crossword.SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLESSubscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.Exclusive articles from Barbara Shecter, Joe O'Connor, Gabriel Friedman and others.Daily content from Financial Times, the world's leading global business publication.Unlimited online access to read articles from Financial Post, National Post and 15 news sites across Canada with one account.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles, including the New York Times Crossword.REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLESCreate an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one account.Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments.Enjoy additional articles per month.Get email updates from your favourite authors.THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one accountShare your thoughts and join the conversation in the commentsEnjoy additional articles per monthGet email updates from your favourite authorsSign In or Create an AccountFor decades, Canada has failed to build enough globally important companies, intellectual property and entrepreneurial infrastructure to give itself real economic leverage. Now we’re fighting an economic war and discovering that many of the weapons we need take years to build.We need to think about what true economic independence means. Canada should not aim merely to be less reliant on the United States. We should aim to be indispensable to the world. The strongest form of economic sovereignty is not isolation. It is having innovations, products, resources and technologies that other countries compete to obtain.Get the latest headlines, breaking news and columns.By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder.The next issue of Top Stories will soon be in your inbox.We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try againCarney’s language is clearly stronger than Justin Trudeau’s. Canada will stand up for itself, build, diversify and become more independent economically. That’s all good. But Trudeau also spoke constantly about innovation, attracting investment, growing Canadian businesses and building an economy for the future. Yet that hasn’t happened.The reason, of course, is that speeches don’t create economic capacity, entrepreneurs do.Economic sovereignty is built long before a trade negotiation begins. It happens when someone starts a company in Toronto rather than moving it to Silicon Valley. When that company can raise enough capital to remain Canadian. When it scales from 100 employees to 10,000. When its founders become investors and finance the next generation. When Canadian companies own technology, brands, intellectual property, manufacturing capacity and supply chains that the rest of the world actually needs.For years, our weakness was relatively easy to ignore. Canada enjoyed privileged access to the largest economy in the world. Economic integration worked extraordinarily well. Then Trump changed the equation. Carney is right to negotiate aggressively, diversify our trading relationships and retaliate where strategically necessary. But firm retaliation shouldn’t be confused with economic strength.Canada has to fight on two fronts: defending our interests today and fundamentally changing the environment for people willing to build tomorrow. We don’t need Ottawa dreaming up even more tax subsidies, credits and special programs for entrepreneurs — who spend too much time already figuring out the rules and navigating the course.We do need a globally competitive and simpler tax system that lets ambitious Canadians focus, build and compete. And we need to remove the frictions with faster approvals, fewer interprovincial barriers, easier access to global talent and regulations designed with the ambition of creating global companies rather than merely regulating domestic ones.This advertisement has not loaded yet.This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.An even harder change, however, is one of attitude. A country that resents the rewards of entrepreneurial success should not be surprised it produces so little of it. Culture follows signals. Canada cannot build a nation of risk-takers while treating entrepreneurial achievement as something to be restrained or apologized for. Our political leaders, schools and universities need to help make our top talent and cutting-edge companies sources of national pride so that entrepreneurship becomes aspirational for the next generation.Canada needs to embrace something we rarely say out loud: creating very successful, even very wealthy, entrepreneurs makes the country stronger. Their wealth doesn’t disappear, however. Founders become angel investors. Employees become founders. Executives become mentors. Capital gets recycled. Networks form. One successful company can help create dozens more.That is entrepreneurial infrastructure. If we’re prepared to spend billions protecting industries once tariffs arrive, we should be equally serious about building the entrepreneurial infrastructure that gives Canada leverage before the next crisis. Carney’s challenge, then, isn’t simply to stand up to Trump. It’s to use this moment to change Canada’s relationship with entrepreneurship and ambition. We ourselves may be fighting today’s economic war without all the weapons we need. But we can decide what arsenal the next generation inherits.The answer isn’t simply more retaliation or less reliance on the United States. It’s more entrepreneurs, more Canadian companies, more Canadian capital, more innovation — and more things the world cannot afford not to buy from us.Rajen Ruparell, founder of Endy and co-founder of Groupon International, is a Canadian entrepreneur and investor.Notice for the Postmedia NetworkThis website uses cookies to personalize your content (including ads), and allows us to analyze our traffic. Read more about cookies here. By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.