Canada has faced moments before when the country’s economic security could not safely be left entirely to market forces or foreign capital.
uncertain
security → face → forces
In those moments, governments built institutions capable of promoting and developing essential national interests and capabilities while allowing private enterprise to flourish around them.
asserted
enterprise → build → them
The Trump administration has demonstrated its determination to try to bend Canada to its will using all the tools of economic statecraft in the toolkit — tariffs, making market access contingent on aligning with U.S. policies and unbridled (even unhinged) threats, such as bans on imports of some Canadian products and attacks on major Canadian companies like Bombardier.
asserted
access → demonstrate → Bombardier
While much of the headline action is about traditional manufacturing sectors, Washington has unceasingly challenged Canadian policies governing digital services, data and technology.
asserted
Washington → challenge → services
In an economy increasingly built on intangible assets, national power will depend on three things: who controls the data, who sets the standards and who owns the intellectual property.
asserted
who → build → property
Canada is dangerously exposed on all three, since U.S. policy characterizes any Canadian initiative in this area as a trade irritant to be attacked.
asserted
policy → expose → irritant
This is not the first time Canada has confronted an environment in which its sovereign interests and capabilities in the essential infrastructure of the age were at stake.
asserted
interests → confront → stake
The bankruptcies of several private rail carriers in 1918 led to the creation of what would become the Canadian National Railway, a Crown corporation formed through the amalgamation of the bankrupt carriers to preserve essential services.
asserted
what → lead → services
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation was created in 1936, while Trans-Canada Air Lines, which later became Air Canada, was created in 1937 as a subsidiary of CN, which also operated the constitutionally required ferry service between Newfoundland and the Canadian mainland.
asserted
which → create → Newfoundland
The latter was spun off as Marine Atlantic in 1986, following the spin-off of Via Rail in 1978 to handle CN’s passenger business.
asserted
latter → spin → business
Today’s challenge lies not in transportation or basic communications infrastructure, but in the digital infrastructure that mediates an increasingly large share of Canadian communications, social intercourse, political discussion and commerce.
asserted
that → lie → communications
This digital infrastructure captures and controls the use of almost all of Canadians’ private data — every step that you take (Fitbit), every move that you make (Google geolocation), everything that you buy (Mastercard, etc.), everything that you “like” (Facebook), whose cellphone sleeps with your cellphone.
asserted
cellphone → capture → cellphone
We could go on.
uncertain
We → go → ?
Our digital economy is heavily reliant on foreign-controlled cloud platforms and software infrastructure.
asserted
economy → control → platforms
Even when Canadian data is stored in Canada, that does not mean the systems governing it are beyond the reach of foreign corporations or governments.
asserted
systems → store → corporations
Canada’s new AI strategy acknowledges that current cloud and AI infrastructure is largely foreign-owned and that a sovereign alternative is necessary.
asserted
alternative → acknowledge → ?
Ottawa, which ceded Canada’s independence on data policy in the original CUSMA negotiations, has at least started to notice.
asserted
which → cede → negotiations
The Canadian Sovereign AI Compute Strategy is investing billions in domestic compute capacity, including “public supercomputing infrastructure.”
asserted
Strategy → invest → infrastructure
Moreover, a modicum of sovereign compute contributes exactly zero to national sovereignty if the data used to train models, generate insights and create intellectual property remains governed through infrastructure that Canada does not control.
asserted
Canada → contribute → that
Canada therefore needs a sovereign digital spine, and our history tells us how this can be done: empower a Crown corporation to build it.
asserted
this → need → it
This will ensure that the spine is sovereign because a Crown corporation answers only to the Crown.
asserted
corporation → ensure → Crown
The good news is that Canada does not face any machinery of government issues in moving expeditiously on this file — it already has a Crown corporation with a legislative mandate squarely focused on providing the services that are bundled in that digital spine: Canada Post.
asserted
that → face → spine
Postal service is a constitutional responsibility of the federal government, and for generations Canada Post has provided secure communications across an enormous country, including to communities where purely commercial incentives would never have produced universal service.
asserted
incentives → provide → service
It already helps sustain the connective tissue of Canadian democracy.
asserted
It → help → democracy
In the digital age, Canada Post should be given a new public-purpose function to build and hold the foundational infrastructure through which Canadian public institutions, and eventually businesses and citizens, securely store and exchange data under Canadian governance, reflecting Canadian values and norms, and under Canadian law enacted by a democratically elected Canadian Parliament.
asserted
institutions → give → Parliament
Canada Post does not answer to Washington, to its lobbyists or those who populate Silicon Valley and fancy themselves to be philosopher kings.
asserted
themselves → answer → Valley
This proposal does not require Canada Post to become a software company, to build data centres itself or to employ thousands of programmers.
asserted
proposal → require → programmers
Canada Post would hold the infrastructure and contracting authority as a national public asset.
asserted
Post → hold → asset
Private firms would competitively supply cloud services, software, cybersecurity, AI tools and other technical capabilities.
asserted
firms → supply → services
An independent governance structure would establish rules governing access, interoperability, privacy and use.
asserted
structure → establish → access
Universities provide an everyday analogy.
asserted
Universities → provide → analogy
A university owns and governs its campus, but it does not manufacture the elevators, operate every coffee shop or perform every electrical repair itself.
asserted
it → own → repair
It establishes the rules and standards under which private providers operate.
asserted
providers → establish → which
Digital sovereignty should work similarly.
asserted
sovereignty → work → ?
For highly sensitive assets, with public health data being the obvious example, neither a technology company nor the government of the day should enjoy unfettered discretion over how citizens’ data is used.
asserted
data → enjoy → discretion
A multilayered governance model should place ultimate stewardship under transparent and democratically accountable principles.
asserted
model → place → principles
Provincial health data could provide an ideal first use case.
uncertain
data → provide → case
The data would not need to be centralized, nor would existing hospital systems need to be replaced.
asserted
systems → need → ?
Institutions could retain their systems while connecting through trusted standards governing secure, authorized exchange.
uncertain
Institutions → retain → exchange
That would allow Canada to test the model in one of the most demanding data environments before scaling it more broadly.
asserted
Canada → allow → it
…and 13 more, not listed.
The Aporia
