But they also have a strongly competitive agenda.
Sweden's R and D and productivity, for example, have taken off since Sweden entered the European Union in 1995. Sweden has been able to maintain its very elaborate welfare state. It has high marginal tax rates. This is all factual. But they also have double the Canadian performance on productivity.
As you start to examine why, I think a lot of the answer is that Swedish industry is compelled to compete at a much higher pace within an integrated Europe. They're now facing competition from 450 million other consumers and producers within Europe. So they have the combination of targeted state investment of particular industries—and they do that—but they've also opened themselves up to international competition, which we have not.
That's the core message around creating the single Canadian market. We actually believe we can do both. We think we can have much more targeted innovation strategies. We're doing work. We've just created a new council that invites private-public sector academia to work together around innovation.
But we also believe very, very strongly that the balkanization of our national economy is holding back our ability to create sustainable wealth.