By Richard Martin, Chief Strategist, Alcera Consulting Inc.
I. Purpose and Orientation
Canada stands at a moment of strategic reckoning. The world is fractured by geopolitical competition, supply chain insecurity, and escalating demands for energy, food, and minerals. Canada must adopt a clear, confident, and grounded economic doctrine. This is not a technocratic plan or a partisan program. It is a national doctrine, a coherent framework to guide policy, regulation, and public-private alignment across successive governments and changing global conditions.
The National Economic Doctrine affirms that Canada is a resource and energy superpower. Our economic vitality is anchored not in emulating manufacturing giants, but in responsibly developing, exporting, and financing our vast natural wealth: energy, agriculture, minerals, forests, fisheries, and the infrastructure that supports them.
II. Doctrine Architecture: “Loose and Tight”
Inspired by Tom Peters’ “loose and tight” principle, this doctrine combines strategic firmness with operational flexibility:
- Tight where sovereignty, security, and long-term national interest are at stake.
- Loose where execution depends on private initiative, provincial jurisdiction, and sectoral diversity.
This ensures coherence of purpose without paralyzing uniformity.
III. Strategic Pillars
- Resource and Energy Sovereignty
- Recognize Canada’s enduring comparative advantage in natural resource development.
- Promote environmentally responsible extraction and Indigenous partnership.
- Secure critical minerals, energy systems, and agricultural capacity as pillars of economic strength.
- Infrastructure as a Strategic Enabler
- Accelerate nation-building infrastructure: ports, pipelines, grid interties, and transport corridors.
- Focus federal investment on export-enabling and productivity-enhancing projects.
- Defence Industrial Capacity
- Maintain sovereign capability in defence, cybersecurity, aerospace, and shipbuilding.
- Leverage defence procurement to support industrial capacity with national security applications.
- Open Investment, Strategic Screening
- Welcome foreign direct investment (FDI), particularly in resource development and infrastructure.
- Implement clear national security screening for state-linked or coercive capital flows.
- Innovation in Support of Strategic Strengths
- Focus R&D, manufacturing, and AI investments on enhancing resource efficiency, logistics, and industrial productivity.
- Reject technology strategies that neglect Canada’s economic base.
- Federalism Discipline
- Respect constitutional division of powers. The federal government must not impose top-down solutions in areas of provincial jurisdiction (e.g., resources, labour, health).
- Recognize that interprovincial trade and labour mobility require provincial leadership. The federal role is facilitative, not coercive.
IV. Operational Principles
- Predictability: Transparent, rules-based permitting and regulatory environments.
- Simplicity: Minimize overlap, duplication, and institutional ambiguity.
- Partnership: Align federal, provincial, Indigenous, and private actors through incentives, not impositions.
- Discrimination: Strategic openness to global capital with vigilance against adversarial or extractive investment.
- Executional Freedom: Let firms innovate, provinces legislate, and projects adapt to circumstance.
V. Conclusion: The Path Forward
Canada’s national wealth depends on recognizing what we are: a vast, trusted, resource-rich democracy capable of shaping global supply, security, and stability. The National Economic Doctrine affirms this identity and offers a durable compass for economic policy, legal design, and global engagement.
The world is looking for reliability, resources, and responsible partnerships. Canada must answer that call—on our own terms, with clarity, confidence, and strategic realism.
About the Author
Richard Martin is the founder and president of Alcera Consulting Inc., a strategic advisory firm specializing in exploiting change (www.exploitingchange.com). Richard’s mission is to empower top-level leaders to exercise strategic foresight, navigate uncertainty, drive transformative change, and build individual and organizational resilience, ensuring market dominance and excellence in public governance. He is the author of Brilliant Manoeuvres: How to Use Military Wisdom to Win Business Battles. He is also the developer of Worldview Warfare and Strategic Epistemology, a groundbreaking methodology that focuses on understanding beliefs, values, and strategy in a world of conflict, competition, and cooperation.
© 2025 Richard Martin
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