We became much more fixated on foreign companies and giving Silicon Valley all they need, or other international companies—you name it—around the world. When we were emerging with RIM, the orientation was to help grow Canadian companies. We felt it in Ottawa and felt it in Queen's Park, whereas the last era has been much more about giving the keys to foreign companies, and somehow some crumbs will fall off the table that benefit us. When you do that, you lose all the wealth effects. You lose all the security effects, and you're easy, vulnerable prey to strategic behaviour, which is what we're experiencing now.
I don't know what happened that we lost the plot about growing our own companies, growing our own country and growing our own economy. It's very tragic because it's avoidable, and it's fixable, but the most vulnerable and the young are the ones who are paying the highest price.
The nature of economic policies that we're dealing with now is not the same as it was 30 years ago. It's such a shame because Canada has tremendous potential, but the policy approaches have failed all the citizens, entrepreneurs and business people with that potential.