Canada Needs More Entrepreneurs

Fewer Canadians are starting businesses. Why? Dave and Amanda dig into the decline—from burnout and stress to regulation and risk aversion.

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I am really noticing a downturn in business formation in Canada.

I’m in a uniquely good spot to see that because I’m pitched so often, I’m called so often. Even before the Dragons Den days, I was always called by the university students. So many younger people now are saying no. I might go to the States to do it, but capital’s tough to come by. In Canada, I, I find that we are not really pro entrepreneur to some extent, relatively small population, highly regulated.

All of these different issues pop up, but it’s not just Canadian policy. People love to blame policy and blame the liberals. There’s a lot beyond that. A lot of young people don’t want to necessarily, and maybe they’re wise, work that 75 hour and a hundred hour week that it takes in the early years of forming a business, if you want to try to break through. All of these things are coming into play.

The other comment I hear a lot from people in their thirties and forties who’ve sold businesses is, I’m not gonna go back into it because I was too stressed managing all the employees. Love their employees, by the way. No dislike there at all, but just found it stressful. This is a lot of factors, but business formation is down.

Yeah. And of course that’s a change for Canada because although we have had weakness higher up the chain, um, in commercializing and in growing past certain levels, we’ve always had been pretty good at idea generation and startups.

Right.

So I’m curious to know what you make of it. I mean, as you were talking about it, I, you know, there are times when uncertainty keeps people on the sidelines, and we’ve seen that with business investment at an in existing businesses, both this time and in the first Trump administration.

There’s just enough uncertainty that businesses won’t invest, and it doesn’t, it doesn’t seem to take much, actually, for the confidence to shift enough and cash not to be deployed. Does that play out with entrepreneurs?