Canada’s Entrepreneurial Culture - Its Emergence in the Last Generation; the Special Value of Creative, Hardworking Individuals; and Entrepreneurs’ Biggest Obstacles

Canada’s culture is becoming appreciably more entrepreneurial, certainly more than a generation ago. That is a striking finding from a special, large-sample survey of business leaders conducted this month for Roynat. By a margin of almost 7:1, business respondents believe that Canada is more entrepreneurial rather than less compared to a generation ago. Among respondents with strong views, the margin is 15:1 with 32% saying “a lot more entrepreneurial” and 2%, “a lot less entrepreneurial,” as shown in table 1.

For entrepreneurs and other business leaders, the apparent transformation of Canadian culture is a significant achievement because work attitudes are seen as key to achievement. Asked to score the value for entrepreneurial activity of various features of society, respondents singled out “creative, hardworking individuals,” as shown in table 2. A strong majority considers such individuals as extremely vital—60% score their value a “7” on a 7-point scale. Free markets, low taxes, honest governments, and dynamic immigrants are all considered important, albeit less so.

As for the challenges facing businesses, the top two are finding capital and finding, training, and managing staff, as shown in table 3. At the bottom of list of challenges is finding and working with suppliers.

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