Why can't Canadian tech companies be just as profitable? The North American market is fairly unified; there are few obstacles to Canadian companies selling in the USA. What are they missing?
It's a bloody good question.
From Nortel to BlackBerry, Canada has great potential that sort of goes pschitte in the end. Not to mention the continuing progress of the gaming or film sectors -- or even quantum computing. Universities are strong (at least in my home province) and I'd prefer them to anything that I've seen in the US, France or Germany.
There may be a more economic than social explanation behind Canada's mediocre performance. Resource extraction is very profitable and maybe this extractive logic is transferred to other economic activities. Just throwing the idea out there.