Canadian efforts to extract social and economic benefit from innovation have not only been late but tepid. For too long, pundits and policy-makers considered innovation manna that falls from heaven without any strategy or government involvement. We have focused on attracting jobs and getting access to foreign technology rather than on building a Canadian innovation ecosystem where firms bring back the financial gains from worldwide sales, groom the next generation of investors and innovators, and address pressing social needs. No other country that has succeeded at innovation has followed Canada’s path.