R&D divide
Why does Canada have a low level of innovation and consequent poor productivity (Wanted: Culture Of Innovation – Sept. 16) ?
Two examples from my experience as a patent attorney: First, a software developer just out of university designed an oil-well logging program that improved estimates of underground petroleum. Canadian chartered banks declined to provide loans; he had no collateral. Canadian venture capitalists shunned his youthful inexperience. On his first meeting with a U.S. bank, he was introduced to its software specialist, then to its petrochemical specialist, and at the end of the day the bank asked, “How much would you like to borrow?”
Second, a Canadian engineer invented a steel wire manufacturing process – not high-tech, within the capability of many companies. He wrote to 10 manufacturers in the U.S and 10 in Canada. Only one Canadian replied, saying “no thanks.” All 10 U.S. prospects replied; all but one said, “Let’s get started.”
Safety and security versus high returns at greater risk. This cultural divide in part explains why, in the recent financial meltdown, Canadians fared better than Americans. But it also explains why we Canadians are lacking in innovation.
Robert H. Barrigar, Victoria
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Kevin Lynch and Munir Sheikh perpetuate the myth of Canadian underperformance on corporate research and development. In fact, the data indicate that business investment in R&D in Ontario and Quebec (two-thirds of the country by population) is at or above the OECD average. The balance of the country appears to underperform due to its reliance on resource industries, which typically need to invest less to compete. Furthermore, the number of Canadian firms engaged in research jumped from 8,741 in 1997 to 22,314 in 2007. Canada does have an overall productivity problem, but other factors are at play, such as the historically low value of the Canadian dollar, which suppresses investment.
Ron Freedman, Toronto
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Not-so-secret secrets
“Canada’s top spy last year warned that the Chinese were trying to infiltrate Canadian politics. Western intelligence agencies consider Xinhua a tool of the Chinese state that collects information for Beijing” (Journalist In Dechert Affair Returns To China With An Uncertain Career Future – Sept. 16).
Parliament Hill in Ottawa had spies even throughout the Second World War when they had unsupervised access to government buildings. These accredited “journalists” in the Canadian Parliamentary Press Gallery included Pravda, Tass and Izvestia, among others, and today the Gallery includes among its “journalists,” Itar-Tass, the People’s Daily of China and, of course, Xinhua News Agency.
Canada may claim the top security in the world, such as the RCMP, CSIS, House of Commons Security, but with an open sieve such as the Parliamentary Press Gallery in the heart of the Parliament Buildings with access to government buildings, nothing is secure in Canada.
There is nothing Bob Dechert could tell Shi Rong that China doesn’t already know.
Robert G. Gauthier, Ottawa
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Chilly reception
What happens to the Ferris wheel when north winds start howling down the Don Valley (Ford Waterfront Vision Sinking –Sept. 16)? Will Toronto’s Ford mayors be handing out fleece blankets?
Brian Dedora, Toronto
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Moments in time
What is it with Sept. 15 and St. Thomas? Jumbo the Elephant gets train-whacked (A Moment In Time: Sept. 15, 1895) and dies on the same date – give or take a century or so – that 1,100 jobs get Ford-whacked and meet the same fate (When A Car Plant Goes Quiet). I wonder if a future editor will feature the assembly line’s demise as another sad Moment in Time.
Jennifer McCarthy, Kingston
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Dementia and divorce
