As a journalist in the ‘90s, John Stackhouse spent many years living overseas meeting and interviewing interesting people. Many of them were his fellow Canadians. He discovered that expats are keen to help their home country. When he returned, however, he found people were concerned over the number of people leaving the country—the perceived “brain drain.”
John says that’s the wrong way to think about it. Canada’s diaspora is not a brain drain, it’s brain circulation. As people wear their maple leaves around the world, they’re building networks of insight and goodwill for Canada. But Canada doesn’t seem ready to take advantage of that network. There’s no system for connecting with that network; no way for organizations here to ask their foreign compatriots what’s happening in their local market.
John recognizes the importance of networks and points out some prominent ones that are reshaping our society for the 21st Century. He says the global experience our expats are gaining will be critical in the coming decades. We just need a strategy for Canada’s “11th province” to join the Confederation.
Find John on LinkedIn @John Stackhouse and Twitter @StackhouseJohn.
Listen to John’s take on the pandemic on his podcast, RBC Disruptors.
Find John’s new book, Planet Canada, at Penguin Random House Canada.
Listen to our other podcasts at conferenceboard.ca/insights/podcasts.
You can find all of our research here: conferenceboard.ca/.