Reclaiming Canada: The Top 10 Resolutions for 2025

The holiday season is a time for reflection—a chance to step back, relax, and consider what’s truly important. As I reflected on 2024, I felt a sense of accomplishment. I launched my own business, spent more time with family, and did some amazing international travel. But one thought has consistently occupied my mind, "Oh, Canada WTF is happening here?!"

This country, the nation I represented proudly for 32 years as a public servant and diplomat, feels like it’s lost its way. Our streets are riddled with crisis, political leadership is failing us, and productivity is circling the drain. Add to that the unsettling fear I and many Jewish Canadians have felt while just trying to live normal lives, and it’s no wonder I’ve felt paralyzed at times. Maybe you’ve felt the same in your own overwhelming circumstances.

But paralysis isn’t my style. If I learned anything from years of international diplomacy, it’s that action always beats apathy. So here are my ten resolutions to reclaim Canada in 2025.

1. Embrace Artificial Intelligence—or Get Left Behind

Let’s talk AI. Canada helped birth this field. Our own Yoshua Bengio and Geoffrey Hinton are considered “the godfathers of AI” and U of T Professor Emeritus Hinton, just won the 2024 Nobel Prize for his pioneering work in deep learning. And yet, we’re sitting in third place behind the U.S. and U.K. in AI adoption. Come on, Canada! If we don’t embrace AI now, we’ll be eating digital dust. Here’s my challenge to every business leader out there: stop fearing AI and start figuring it out. Train your team to use AI to work smarter, not harder. And here’s a radical idea—if someone uses AI so effectively, they automate themselves out of a job, promote them. Let’s put the "intelligent" in Artificial Intelligence.

2. Streamline Government—Stop Faxing, Start Fixing

No offence to my former public service colleagues, but our government operates like it’s still 1995. Paper applications? Fax machines? Seriously? If we want Canadians to trust public institutions, we need to show them we’re capable of operating in the 21st century. Service Canada, an organization I helped establish in 1999 was supposed to revolutionize how citizens interact with government. Instead, it’s like a half-built bridge: useful, but nowhere near its potential. Let’s finish the job. Let’s use AI to streamline processes, be brave in reducing red tape, and tell our political leaders to stop spending on more programs. We have enough bureaucracy for a lifetime. We need to work it around the lives of Canadians.

3. Tear Down Provincial Trade Barriers

Did you know it’s easier to get a bottle of wine from Kelowna to Tokyo than it is to Winnipeg? That’s the absurd reality of interprovincial trade barriers in Canada. Removing provincial trade barriers would streamline the flow of goods, services, and labour between provinces, giving businesses access to larger markets, while reducing operational inefficiencies, and lower costs. According to former Deputy Prime Minister, Honourable A Anne McLellan, P.C., O.C.,A.O.E. , all it would take is one piece of paper with 13 signatures to inject billions of dollars into our economy. Come on Premiers, let’s stop tripping over county lines and start running toward national prosperity.

4. Stand up to Trump

We love you, American cousins, but we’re not your 51st state. If the Trump administration tries to slap tariffs on Canadian goods, we should remind them just how much they need us. From oil to electricity and from cars to maple syrup, we keep their wheels rolling, their lights on and their pancakes edible. And remember, we burned down the White House once before, in 1814. (Okay, technically it was British troops, but I’m claiming it for Team Canada.)

5. Reignite Innovation—Take Risks, Make Waves

I remember when Canada was the cool kid on the block, and together with some private sector colleagues we wrote the 2002 Canadian bestseller, Innovation Nation. Twenty years later, we would be hard-pressed to fill the pages with a sequel. Business leaders, it’s time to take risks. Where are all the big shots, now? The unicorns? Canadian companies need to invest in bold ideas. Fail fast, learn faster. And governments, give these risk-takers the tools they need—tax incentives, research funding, and get out of their way!

6. Fix Immigration—Don’t Fear It

Immigration isn’t just a policy; it’s our lifeline. Without it, our economy (and our country) would flatline. We are all immigrants in a country that has only existed for 157 years. Yes, the system is overwhelmed and yes it has become riddled with issues, but that’s no excuse to sideline immigration. Let’s pause, recalibrate, and innovate. A strong, streamlined immigration system can fuel our workforce and enrich our communities. Canada’s immigration system was once the envy of the world and our country and it can easily redeem it's title.

7. Unite Across Differences

Diversity is our strength, but unity is our superpower. From Indigenous reconciliation to immigrant integration to national unity, we need to build bridges, not walls. Programs that foster understanding and collaboration can transform Canada back into a model of harmony in an increasingly divided world. We can’t just swing open the door to immigration and then do little to engage new citizens. We also cannot tolerate those who break with Canadian values and the law. We need to get back to our world-renowned mosaic.

8. Bring Back "Peace, Order, and Good Government"

These words aren’t just part of our Constitution; they are part of who we are. Canada pioneered peacekeeping under Lester B. Pearson, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1957 for resolving the Suez Crisis. The blue helmets became synonymous with Canada’s commitment to global stability and conflict resolution. Yet, our contributions to global peacekeeping, peace-making, and peacebuilding have dwindled. Canada used to be the world’s mediator, the honest broker. It’s time to reclaim that role. Whether it’s through conflict resolution or as human rights champions, we have a unique opportunity to lead—not with might, but with moral authority.

9. Reclaim Our Place on the World Stage

Canada has made significant contributions on the world stage, shaping global policies, promoting peace, and fostering international collaboration. Canada once led the charge on anti-landmine treaties and multilateralism. Where are we now? Watching from the sidelines. We don’t need to be a military superpower (though we could be if we really wanted to), but we do need to show up. Let’s get back into the game—whether it’s supporting the Abraham Accords or paying our fair share at NATO. The world needs more Canada, always.

10. Rediscover Canadian Pride

And finally......there was a time when the Canadian flag on a backpack was a universal symbol of respect and goodwill. That hasn’t changed. Even though many of us feel down and out, we are still ranked among the best countries in the world for quality of life, happiness, freedom, democracy, liveability, and so on, and so on. But pride isn’t just about rankings—it’s about swagger. Let’s own our Canadian identity and take it to the next level. Let's be more like Drake, and less like Dudley Do-Right!

So, Canada, let’s make 2025 the year we stop coasting and start climbing. It’s time to reclaim our pride and our excellence. The view from the top is worth it.