Prime Minister Mark Carney has toured the globe to strengthen business links, but it is entrepreneurs who create jobs, prosperity and opportunities, writes Nik Nanos.Sammy Kogan/The Canadian Press
Nik Nanos is the chief data scientist at Nanos Research, a research associate professor at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs and the official pollster for The Globe and Mail and CTV News.
In the wake of trade tensions between Canada and the United States, Prime Minister Mark Carney has been crisscrossing the globe to build new partnership opportunities for Canadian businesses and entrepreneurs. There has, over the past year, been much talk about trade diversification and economic resilience to help overcome what has been a gut punch from our closest ally.
The big question is: Do we have the bold entrepreneurial ambition to remake and renew our economy?
New Nanos research for Shift Canada, a non-profit focused on advancing a culture of entrepreneurial courage, suggests Canadians understand the imperative to change, but we need to up our risk-taking culture. The reality is that it will be Canadian entrepreneurs, large and small, that will make or break the effort to strengthen the economy.
The good news is that there exists a strong public mandate for more ambition. Canadians overwhelmingly endorse ambition as necessary for the future. More than nine in 10 Canadians agree or somewhat agree that Canada must embrace ambition now to protect quality of life for future generations. We have a broad consensus for bold action.
This ambition is not framed in ideology but in sovereignty. Four in five Canadians (81.7 per cent) say Canada’s long‑term sovereignty depends on bold domestic ambition. This view is shared across regions, signalling that ambition is increasingly seen as strategic and defensive, not abstract or ideological.
The Shift Canada survey also reveals that Canadians see the biggest threats to prosperity as external, and American. In the research completed earlier this year, the top unprompted risks to creating prosperity in Canada were dependence on the United States (11.1 per cent), the negative impact of U.S. President Donald Trump (9.4 per cent) and unpredictable American policies (6.4 per cent).
Canadians are fired up. Are we up to the task?
The 2026 Shift Canada Bold Ambition Index is a composite score of individual mindset, Canada’s risk-taking culture and the entrepreneurial environment. The Index paints a sobering picture. Our instinct for ambition remains weak. In the Index, we score a tepid 51.5 out of a possible 100 points; any score below 50 is a failure. If our entrepreneurial efforts were a report card, it would be a D-minus. This score suggests that while Canadians recognize the need for bold action, the country is only marginally equipped to deliver it at scale.
It may very well be that the willingness to take risks and embrace innovation exists, but the system lags. The Index includes a number of subcomponents. For instance, “risk-taking culture” is the strongest pillar but still stands at an anemic 55.4 points out of 100 (another D), higher than “bold thinking” or “entrepreneurial environment.”
What is clear is that financial caution and economic unease is putting the brakes on boldness. A majority of Canadians (54.2 per cent) say they are more concerned than last year about putting finances at risk, with younger Canadians being more concerned than Canadians over the age of 55 years.
The economic unease is deterring risk-taking. A significant number of Canadians (45 per cent) are more concerned about taking risks when the economy is weak. According to the latest Bloomberg Nanos Canadian Confidence Index, the proportion of Canadians who believe the economy will get stronger in the next six months dropped from 27 to 15 per cent over the past four weeks. People are three-and-a-half times more likely (53 per cent) to think the economy will get weaker rather than stronger six months from now.
Between trade uncertainty, housing affordability stress and rising gas prices, today’s economic mood is dour. The economic fragility is clearly translating into individual caution, limiting follow-through on ambition and risk-taking.
There’s a gap between a government that wants more economic resilience and diversification, and a risk-averse country worried about the economy and surviving day to day. A number of things can possibly close this gap.
Canada needs to turn the aforementioned gut punch into a mobilization moment. The relationship with the U.S. has sharpened awareness about vulnerability and sovereignty. Having a trade deal with the U.S. is not mutually exclusive to growing the Canadian economy and having more trading partners. Treating our trade strategy like a diversified retirement portfolio can yield long-term dividends. Geography will always influence our economic destiny, but there is little downside to building mutually beneficial trade relationships outside of North America.
Entrepreneurs, big and small, need to be at the centre of this national economic mobilization. Government can call for action, but entrepreneurs are the ones who create jobs, prosperity and opportunities. The country’s ability to remake and renew the economy hinges on whether entrepreneurs act, not on rhetoric alone.
The Shift Canada research suggests that we need to build from the bottom up in two respects. First, we need an education system that nurtures a culture of innovation, entrepreneurial spirit and individual action. Second, the environment for businesses to operate in Canada needs to better encourage and reward innovation and risk-taking. These spur action today and prepare the future entrepreneurs we will need.
Canadians are clear-eyed about the risks and united on the need for ambition. The next step to is translate that consensus into the confidence and risk-taking needed to compete in a world where the rules are changing and a “hunger games” ethos is driving decisions.
The Prime Minister may be crisscrossing the globe working to open doors, but the research suggests we need a big shift, one that unleashes a renewed culture of entrepreneurial courage. Without that shift at home, it will be difficult to translate economic ambition into economic results.