Most members of the COMPAS/FP CEO and business leader panel believe that Canada will lose its competitive position in the international economy in the years ahead and almost all share the CEO Council’s view that “Canada is a nation adrift.”

In a recent statement, the CEO Council provided diagnoses and prescriptions for Canada’s political and economic health. Respondents in the COMPAS/FP CEO/business leader poll embrace strongly most of the Council’s positions. Almost all agree that Canada lacks any vision or coherent strategy. The overwhelming majority want a kind of Sarbanes-Oxley revolution in government with laws requiring transparency in financial reporting and federal-provincial agreements as well as obliging ministers and deputy ministers to personally guarantee the accuracy of their reports. Like the CEO Council, most members of the COMPAS/FP business panel want an end to duplication and confusion of programs among federal and provincial governments.

Business leaders and CEOs diverge slightly from the CEO Council on two points. Respondents are concerned, but slightly less than the Council, that terrorism represents a serious direct threat to Canada and that federal public servants are experiencing a morale problem. The Council would need a successful outreach program to the extent that it wanted to bring business leaders as a whole up to the same intensity of concern as those on the Council.

These are some of the key findings from this week’s web poll of business leaders and CEOs, sponsored by BDO Dunwoody LLP and the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.

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