Innovation-obsessed Ottawa tackling a problem that doesn’t exist

In the lead-up to the federal budget, Ottawa was desperately signalling its commitment to fostering innovation in Canada. As the bard might have said, indeed did say, how weary, stale, flat and unprofitable. As I remind people in my Globe column for the ROB, there is nothing magic or special about innovation as an economic activity. Like all such activities, we make ourselves better off when we specialise in those we do well and let others do the same. In areas where we possess comparative advantage, we innovate just fine. In the others, why this mania to innovate at home as opposed to just doing what everybody else does: free ride on their innovations? After all we are one of the world’s wealthiest economies and the obsession with our “poor” innovation performance has for decades gone hand in glove with rising prosperity.