Lack of competition leads to lack of innovation. With few competitors in a small market, Canadian companies are being criticized for their lack of innovation and creativity. According to an article from The Globe and Mail, our companies don’t invest enough in R&D and low competition allows for weak companies to exist in markets. This is allowing for a gap in productivty to appear with Canada’s largest trading partner, the U.S. Canada’s labour productivity rate has been growing at a rate of 0.7 percent per year since 2000, compared with 2.7 percent from the States. What this means for us is that we need to find ways to stay competitive in a global market that is becoming fragile with potential European markets collapsing. With the emergence of new markets in Asia, Canada will need to find ways to capitalize on their development. Diversifying their trade would be a good first step; I believe Canada is too heavily reliant on the U.S for trade and that beginning new trade agreements with foreign countries would be beneficial. This may seem like a escape for our lack of productivity, but the fact is that if Canada wants to continue to be a player in the world market we will need to take down our barriers and be prepared to embrace new ideas.

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