Carpe Momentum: Why Canada’s future depends on its entrepreneurs

Editor's note: This article has been republished with permission from The Hill Times. Guy is executive director of the Hunter Hub for Entrepreneurial Thinking.

If there was ever a moment for Canada to act, it’s now.

Innovation, commercialization, procurement — these generational challenges have long resisted meaningful progress, despite successive efforts. It is imperative we address these persistent performance gaps.

A coherent prosperity agenda can get us there — one that, in the words of Robert Asselin, CEO of the U15, connects productive capacity to production capability to leverage the full potential of our economy. Foundational to this agenda are entrepreneurs — the builders, risk-takers, and changemakers who turn ideas into impact.

The 2023 BDC report highlighted a staggering decline in the number of entrepreneurs in Canada over the past generation. A recent study by the Leaders Fund further underscores this, revealing an increasing number of Canadian founders choosing to establish high-potential companies abroad.

Rebuilding our entrepreneurial base is central to any plan to build Canada’s strong future.

Culture

Last year, I wrote that Canada’s entrepreneurial mindset begins with its students. Cultivating that mindset requires us to ignite, inspire, empower and equip learners — from primary through post-secondary — with the skills, tools, and confidence to create meaningful change in the world around them. These are the changemakers who will drive social and economic prosperity for Canada, from within Canada.

In a recent conversation with The Hub’s Sean Speer, Shopify President Harley Finkelstein urged Canada to become a “founder nation,” beginning by “embedding entrepreneurship education in the school system from elementary grades forward.”

A needed call to action — one that builds the productive capacity our future demands.

At the University of Calgary, we’ve embraced that vision. The Hunter Hub for Entrepreneurial Thinking is leading efforts to embed entrepreneurial skills and confidence across disciplines, empowering students, researchers, and alumni to turn ideas into impact.

Conviction

A prosperity agenda must also address the fundamentals of discovering, creating, building, and scaling within Canada. This includes safeguarding intellectual property rights, fostering a culture of calculated risk-taking, celebrating entrepreneurial resilience, and strengthening early- and growth stage capital investment.

These measures ensure that entrepreneurs can build and scale their ventures with confidence, knowing they are supported by an enabling ecosystem. But conviction alone isn’t enough; entrepreneurs thrive in connected, collaborative communities.

Community

The entrepreneurial journey can be challenging and, at times, isolating. Nurturing entrepreneurial communities is essential to building a strong Canada.

Organizations like the Council of Canadian Innovators, StartUp Canada and NEXTCanada play a critical role in supporting entrepreneurial communities.

Celebrating entrepreneurial achievements, highlighted in Maclean’s September 2025 feature “New Nation Makers,” exemplify this effort. In the Innovators category, Sasha Ivanov, founder of Maple Scan and Hunter Hub alum, is recognized for designing an app that helps Canadians learn about a product’s Canadian ties and shop local. Fostering a sense of belonging and cultivating a vibrant entrepreneurial community strengthens the foundation of our prosperity agenda.

My role at the University of Calgary, “Canada’s Entrepreneurial University,” as part of the Hunter Hub for Entrepreneurial Thinking team fires my passion for this work.

Established in 2017 through a transformational $40-million gift from the Hunter Family Foundation, the Hub has enabled thousands of students, faculty, and alumni to pursue entrepreneurial journeys wherever they lead.

Calgary is emerging as a world-class entrepreneurship center. The city boasts North America’s fastest-growing tech sector, is in the top 50 emerging startup ecosystems globally, and is fourth in venture capital deals in Canada. UCalgary is the top university startup creator over the past six years. Calgary-based ventures nabbed top spots on Fastest Growing Companies lists (2024 Deloitte, 2025 The Globe and Mail). Even the City of Calgary has its own $60-million Opportunities Fund to fuel local prosperity.

At the Hunter Hub — the university’s entrepreneurial epicentre — our strength lies in our culture, our confidence, and our community — the very foundations of a prosperity agenda.

Most recently, the Hunter Hub hosted the Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers conference, welcoming more than 560 leaders from 200 institutions across 20 countries — only the second time in nearly 30 years the conference has been held in Canada.

Calgary has earned its place as a global center of entrepreneurial excellence. Canada has the talent, creativity, and resilience to lead the world. If we invest in this generation’s builders, from classrooms to companies, our prosperity agenda will not just imagine a better future, but build it. Carpe momentum.