Thanks for those comments.
I'm an entrepreneur, so I'm generally an optimist, and I take the optimistic view of this. But there are those who take the dire straits view and the digital colony and what have you.
We are a country that has only 2.5% of world GDP. We are a country that has an even smaller percentage of world population. So I believe we have to take that perspective, first and foremost, to realize our throw weight, our capacity, our critical mass.
Having said that, we have some tremendous attributes as a country. One, we have a multiculturalism.... I travel the world, and we have a wonderfully well-working country. Although, when I come back to Canada, I know we all talk about how terribly it works, we have a wonderfully well-working country. We really do. Many of you who are familiar with other parts of the world know what I mean.
That gives us an opportunity. When you consider some of the comments you've already heard, and the comment about the importance of relationships, we have an opportunity to capitalize on the reverse diaspora of this country in a tremendous way. We have capacity that countries of our size wouldn't normally have.
Think of it: we have Open Text; we have Research in Motion; we have Cirque du Soleil. And I could go on. For a country of our size to have so many world players at different things...? We're a small country, and yet we have an ability to leverage a lot of the infrastructure assets, along with the academic community, and our cultural community. But when you add in that reverse diaspora, then you have an ability for us to punch way above our weight in this regard.
That's where leadership comes in, where we create something--a set of goals, or a methodology--that creates an environment for us to capitalize on those advantages that we have. We have some tremendous advantages.