This article appears in the 2026 BetaKit Most Ambitious issue. Read more stories of the Canadian tech innovators strengthening our autonomy, security, and prosperity here. . . . Nick Frosst thinks there are only a handful of countries in the world at the frontier of the AI race. The United States. China. France, where Mistral…
Vass Bednar is currently the Managing Director of the Canadian SHIELD Institute and the former Executive Director of McMaster University’s Master of Public Policy Program. She is also the co-author of The Big Fix: How Companies Capture Markets and Harm Canadians This op-ed appears in the 2026 BetaKit Most Ambitious issue. Read more stories of…
A new report from the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) echoes what the Canadian startup ecosystem has been saying for years: Canada needs more venture capital investment if it wants to be both competitive and sovereign. Titled Canada’s Venture Capital Landscape 2026, BDC released the annual report Tuesday morning, analyzing market data to assess…
As the world evolves at a breakneck pace in the age of AI, Canadian tech leaders, politicians, and innovators have been left wondering what role Canada will play in that future. The 500 leaders from Canada’s innovation ecosystem who packed the Tiff Lightbox for BetaKit’s Most Ambitious Town Hall on Monday may not have gotten…
This article appears in the 2026 BetaKit Most Ambitious issue. Read more stories of the Canadian tech innovators strengthening our autonomy, security, and prosperity here. . . . The first rule of defence is knowing what you’re dealing with. The OODA loop, a military decision-making framework used by the Canadian Armed Forces, begins with observation. …
This essay opens the 2026 BetaKit Most Ambitious issue. Read more stories of bold ambition in Canadian tech here. Do you remember the moment you realized the world had changed? Was it “elbows up” or those “51st state” comments? The menacing promise of applied economic force? Perhaps it was the sharp increase in defence commitments…
A lot goes into a single basketball shot. Tiny, difficult-to-spot shifts in a player’s elbow or wrist placement can be the difference between a swish and an airball. A new lab in Toronto is using tech to get those measurements and analysis down to a science. Peripheral Labs has teamed up with the Quantum Sports…
Episode Description: Stephanie McKenzie has been swimming since she was a child. She came to Swim Sista Swim as an instructor and, as you’ll hear in her voice, is a vibrant and confident woman on all counts. Yet she still feels a twinge of doubt every time she walks into a public pool alone, still…
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM You know that moment when you look up from your phone, realize it’s well past midnight, and think, “not again”? You meant to be in bed an hour ago. It just didn’t happen. For roughly one in three American adults, that’s not the occasional slip. It’s the pattern. And…
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Since May 1, Amsterdam’s billboards and tram shelters no longer carry ads for burgers, petrol cars, or cheap flights. The Dutch capital is now the first in the world to ban public advertising for both meat and fossil fuel products. Where chicken nuggets and SUVs once competed for wall…
