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I love the Olympics. Summer, Winter, all of it.
Suddenly, sports that most of the country typically ignore become matters of national interest and pride.
When our daughter was little, we carefully managed screen time, negotiating minutes with a toddler like Carney negotiates trade with a toddler president.
Those rules went out the window during the Games.
Success in sports has a lot in common with success in business. We’ve covered What sport can teach high-growth leaders, and research shows that collegiate athletes outperform their non-athlete peers in the labour market.
At the Olympic level, those parallels are amplified, with funding models, institutional support, and long-term strategy.
That’s the backdrop for two stories this week that, together, feel like a fork in the road for the Canadian economy in 2026.
In Canada’s productivity problem may be self-inflicted,but it’s also fixable, Jennifer Kervin reports that easing regulatory barriers could lift GDP by 6.5 to 10%. That’s roughly $7,500 per person in higher living standards, driven by reforms in energy, transport, and professional services that influence every other industry.
Jennifer Friesen’s AI is setting rules Canadian companies didn’t write explains how companies are racing to deploy AI to address labour shortages and cyber risk. AI is becoming core infrastructure, woven into daily operations. Adoption is accelerating inside teams, often ahead of formal governance. Shadow AI is expanding as employees move quickly to solve problems. By 2029, half of Canadian CEOs could face replacement if they can’t show they understand and control automated decision-making.
Together, the stories sketch an economy making big moves without always aligning the strategy.
A country at training camp
Kervin’s reporting focuses on architecture. Regulatory friction in foundational sectors shapes the pace and cost structure of everything built on top.
Energy, transport, and professional services are the economy's training facilities. When they operate efficiently, performance improves across the board.
Friesen’s reporting captures what’s happening inside firms right now. AI is moving from pilot projects into core workflows. Teams are solving immediate problems with powerful tools. Governance is evolving in parallel, sometimes slightly behind the pace of adoption.
One story highlights structural headroom. The other highlights operational acceleration.
The throughline is preparation.
Olympic medals reflect decisions made years before competition. Economic performance follows the same pattern. Systems, incentives, oversight. Those elements determine whether growth compounds or stalls.
2026 feels like a moment when those choices become visible. Who knows? Maybe the forthcoming federal AI strategy will wow us all.
What this means in practice
A potential 10% GDP lift signals untapped capacity embedded in regulatory reform.
Foundational sectors act as force multipliers across the economy.
AI has shifted into essential infrastructure inside Canadian firms.
Rapid deployment creates a need for leadership accountability for automated decisions.
Governance now functions as competitive infrastructure.
Reform and acceleration are both underway. How they align will determine whether we’re collecting medals or watching from the stands.
Watercooler links
Some light reading for the commerical breaks in the Olympic coverage.
European regulators are pressing TikTok to redesign features they argue encourage compulsive use, pushing policy deeper into product architecture and signalling that interface design itself now sits under regulatory scrutiny.
New research finds popular AI systems can provide unreliable medical guidance, illustrating how quickly consumer trust can outpace validation and how responsibility shifts as these tools become embedded in daily decision-making. Chalk one up for the humans.
European policymakers are weighing whether to advance a central bank digital currency, a move that would reshape monetary infrastructure and redefine how public money interacts with private fintech systems.
OpenAI is experimenting with advertising inside ChatGPT, introducing new incentive structures into a platform that already influences how millions of people search, write, and make decisions. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman? Not amused when Anthropic responds with ads of its own.
From the Digital Journal Insight Forum
The Insight Forum is Digital Journal's thought leadership platform, offering experts a dedicated space to share their perspectives with our audience across Canada, the U.S. and abroad. Members publish monthly articles showcasing industry insights and what they’re learning and seeing in their space.
Human-centred leadership will separate the leaders from those who fall behind - On leadership models evolving alongside embedded AI systems.
Why ‘AI inbreeding’ is your new big problem - On the growing risks of AI systems training on AI-generated content.
Subsurface modelling has become the confidence infrastructure of CCS projects worldwide - On how advanced modelling underpins investment and risk management in carbon capture projects.
Final shots
Watching Italy rack up more medals than I would have predicted at their home Games, it’s hard not to think about the choices behind that outcome.
Canada has lived that story before. Own the Podium ahead of Vancouver 2010 was a deliberate bet on strategic investment, focused resources, and building a system around performance. The medal count reflected that alignment for years.
It worked because strategy, funding, and execution pulled in the same direction.
The open question now is whether regulatory reform and technological adoption can line up that way too.
Have a great weekend and Go Canada Go.
- David