Our country already has a serious productivity problem. The last thing we can afford is to have a dangerously control-obsessed government causing us to be left out while everyone else races ahead in the embrace of technology.
I’ve often discussed Canada’s productivity crisis. It is likely the single biggest issue facing our nation, because it feeds into everything else. Without improving our productivity, our nation will become poorer, more divided, and more vulnerable.
While a key reason for our weak productivity is the unwillingness of many Canadian companies to embrace real free market competition, and the willingness of the government to prop up those who fail in the market, another cause is the fact that our federal government is so obsessed with centralizing power and control.
This centralizing addiction is wildly incompatible with the way the global economy is shifting. Countries that leave individuals and businesses alone – thus freeing them up to innovate and embrace new technologies – are the countries that will dominate economically.
Countries that are held back by central governments afraid of competition and afraid of new technologies will fall behind.
This is the nature of capitalism. It rewards those who embrace the future, while those who don’t will go into relative decline. It’s not for nothing that capitalism is by far the most successful economic system (there is no real debate on this). Those who oppose capitalism tend to be those who would simply rather not compete at all, and instead extract wealth by force from those who are more successful from them.
Capitalist societies also tend to be free societies, because the type of attitude needed to succeed in market competition is closely-linked to the type of attitude that questions authority, refuses to be controlled, and is willing try out new ideas.
It’s also no coincidence then that two of the most authoritarian states in the world – China & Russia – are both at the forefront of trying to weaken and displace the free capitalist nations of the West.
Russia and China’s regimes both recognize that true free market competition, alongside freedom of expression, are threats to highly centralized systems.
This is important for the West to realize. The fact that China and Russia feel so threatened by real competition and the free exchange of ideas should tell us that we should be expanding our embrace of technology, openness, and competition.
Unfortunately, in some areas, Canada appears to moving more in the direction of the centralized authoritarian states.
Bill C-11 and C-18 represent a clear attempt by the federal government to turn back the tide of expanded free expression and open communication. They are trying to ‘save’ legacy media outlets at the expense of the new outlets that have grown through platforms like Facebook & Google – platforms that massively democratized the exchange of ideas and made it possible for almost anyone to be a publisher/reporter.
Canada left out
Google recently announced that their Chatbot – Bard AI – will be available across the globe.
Well, almost across the globe.
China and Russia – as nations opposed to Google and opposed to free expression more broadly – are not part of the launch.
But guess who else is left out?
Canada.
“Google cuts out Canada from its AI chatbot launch as it’s navigating Canada’s “regulatory uncertainty”.
The AI chatbot will be launched in 230 countries & territories except Afghanistan, North Korea, Russia China & Canada.
Results of Liberal’s backwards redtape & #BillC18.”
Google cuts out Canada from its AI chatbot launch as it's navigating Canada's "regulatory uncertainty".
The AI chatbot will be launched in 230 countries & territories except Afghanistan, North Korea, Russia China & Canada.
Results of Liberal's backwards redtape & #BillC18. pic.twitter.com/0doXLuAOAn
— Kirk Lubimov (@KirkLubimov) July 14, 2023
This is deeply disappointing, yet sadly fitting. When it comes to attacking innovation and seeking to impose government control over tech platforms, Canada is in some pretty awful company, and the actions of the federal government have put us there.
The reality is that if C-18 isn’t repealed, and if the Canadian government doesn’t end its ignorant and fear-based opposition to successful technology companies, Canada will become even less productive, and we will be rapidly surpassed by those countries that are intelligent enough to embrace the future.
Spencer Fernando
