As Canadians prepare to head to the polls, we are once again faced with a choice — not just of leaders, but of direction. What kind of country do we want to become? How will we meet the challenges ahead? And most importantly, how do we ensure that every community not only survives but thrives?
At a time when global politics is increasingly marked by division, short-term thinking, and zero-sum narratives, Canada has a different path available to us — one rooted in a quiet but powerful tradition: collaboration.
While the world often jokes about how “nice” Canadians are, our niceness isn’t just a national quirk — it’s our collaborative superpower. It’s what’s enabled us to listen deeply, work across differences, and build trust-based solutions to our most complex challenges. And right now, it’s the key to solving the defining problems of our time — housing, climate, inequality, and reconciliation.
That’s why we believe the next federal government must treat the social sector not as an afterthought, but as a core part of Canada’s innovation economy. Because innovation isn’t just about patents and products — it’s about solving problems at scale. And no one does that better than civil society organizations, Indigenous nations, community leaders and mission-driven entrepreneurs. These are the people already doing the hard work of systems change.
Take housing. Canada’s housing crisis has taught us that market-only solutions won’t cut it. The shift toward collaborative models — like CMHC’s Solutions Labs and the Housing Supply Challenge — hasn’t just funded new projects; it’s fundamentally changed how we approach affordable housing.
Policymakers, nonprofits, developers and people with lived experience are coming together to co-create solutions that are scalable, sustainable and rooted in community need.
The same is true for clean energy. Indigenous-led projects like Wataynikaneyap Power, the largest Indigenous infrastructure project in Canadian history, are transforming not just how we generate power, but who holds power. These initiatives are about more than sustainability — they’re about sovereignty, equity and local economic development.
Canada is also becoming a global leader in climate-focused social finance and cleantech. The Canada Growth Fund and impact investment vehicles are helping scale low-carbon solutions that will define the economy of the future. And let’s not forget: the term “cleantech” itself was coined by a Canadian.
But none of this progress happened in isolation. It happened because we worked together. Because we were willing to listen, to share power and to co-create across traditional boundaries.
This is what we call radical collaboration — the practice of not just working together, but transforming how we work together. It means:
- Building long-term relationships, not just one-off partnerships
- Creating space for discomfort and hard conversations
- Valuing many kinds of knowledge equally
- Designing solutions with communities, not for
This kind of collaboration is hard. It’s slow. It challenges egos and requires patience. But it’s also the only way we’ll achieve systems-level change. And Canada, with its deep traditions of cooperation and pluralism, is uniquely positioned to lead.
That leadership, however, requires the right infrastructure. We need national mechanisms that connect grassroots solutions to federal strategy. We need resource flows that are flexible, equitable and grounded in local realities. We need policy coherence across departments, so promising innovations don’t get stuck in silos.
And above all, we need to recognize that Canada’s most valuable asset isn’t just our land or economy — it’s our people. Our capacity to collaborate across difference is not a “nice-to-have.”
It’s a survival strategy. It always has been.
Indigenous communities understood this long before the word “innovation” became a buzzword.
Their teachings on food, medicine and stewardship made Canada possible. Our collective future depends on learning — and unlearning — what it really means to build relationships based on reciprocity and shared leadership.
As we look ahead to the election and beyond, we invite candidates and policymakers to embrace a bold, distinctly Canadian vision: one where social and environmental innovation are central to national prosperity.
Where communities have the autonomy and infrastructure to drive change. Where collaboration isn’t just a personality trait — it’s our national strategy.
Let’s make sure the next chapter of Canada’s innovation story includes all of us. And let’s be unapologetic about the power of being nice.
Sorry, not sorry.
Photo courtesy of DepositPhotos
