Canada had a catastrophic confusion between science and technology strategy and innovation strategy. The fact that the concept of freedom to operate is being introduced for the first time in May 2016 means that the policy community in this country has a tremendous amount to answer for. We thought science and technology was innovation. We thought we had an orthodoxy that if you get free trade and stable banking and then you give a bunch to universities and spray and pray a few grants out there, it would all work out.
What we did not understand is that success and innovation is a set of deliberate and systemic exercises. We did exactly the opposite of what successful innovation economies like Germany, Israel, the U.S., Korea, Japan, and Sweden did. We zigged when the rest of the world zagged. If we don't change our approaches, we'll be doing Einstein's definition of insanity, doing the same thing over again.