Can Canadians innovate?

Quick: name an innovative firm headquartered in Canada.

Maybe you came up with BlackBerry. A decade ago, you might have thought of Corel, which owned WordPerfect. Twenty years ago, Nortel might have come to mind.

And therein lies Canada's problem. There is often one innovative Canadian firm that captures global attention, but it can seem like the exception that proves the rule that Canadians are not naturally inventive. When the Boston Consulting Group asked CEOs to name the top 50 innovative firms in the world in 2015, not one was headquartered in Canada.