What does tech want (need) from the next prime minister?

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Friends,

Canadians will go to the polls on April 28th. The choice is mostly between the Liberal Party’s Mark Carney and the Conservative Party’s Pierre Poilievre.

The country’s problems are quite obvious even if you put on rose-tinted glasses: living costs are up, productivity is low, wages & economic growth have flatlined, and our southern neighbour isn’t as friendly as before, causing major concerns for businesses and workers alike. And AI is somewhere around the corner with the potential to disrupt everything.

Needless to say, this election is a pretty important one for the country's future. I don’t know about past elections, but successful entrepreneurs in the country, especially in the technology space, are speaking up, too.

Build Canada, a non-partisan platform created by successful Canadian entrepreneurs, was launched earlier this year to propose policies around housing, transportation, public service, food, and more. As the platform itself states, “business as usual won’t cut it…”

The Council of Canadian Innovators (CCI) also put together an election primer focused on what innovators need from the next prime minister.

Both organizations stress the need for bold, strategic actions rather than incremental changes. They argue that without significant policy changes to reduce unnecessary taxation and eliminate regulatory hurdles, Canada's economic stagnation will persist.

Latest Deals

• NanoPrecise, an Edmonton, Canada-based provider of AI-powered predictive maintenance solutions, raised $38 million in Series C funding led by Export Development Canada (EDC) and joined by National Bank of Canada, Honeywell Venture Capital, BDC Capital, Standard Investments, iGlobe Partners, and existing investors.

• Uresta, a Moncton, Canada-based women’s health brand focused on bladder leaks, raised $3 million in funding from the Women’s Equity Lab, East Valley Ventures, NBIF and others.

• STEMCELL Technologies, a Vancouver-based biotech company, received a $50 million investment from the Canadian federal government.

• Styx Intelligence, a Toronto-based geospatial intelligence platform, raised $2.7 million in seed funding led by Vesalius Ventures, with participation from Draper Associates, CapitalX, and others.

• Vanedge Capital, a Vancouver-based venture fund, received a $10 million investment from InBC Investment Corp. to support early-stage hard tech companies in British Columbia.

News

• Flinks partners with Koxa to boost ERP-banking connectivity in Canada

• Trump announces 25% tariffs on vehicles imported to U.S., including from Canada and Carney pledges $2 billion for Canada's auto sector in trade war.

• Katherine Homuth, founder and CEO of Montréal-based textile manufacturer SRTX, has stepped down from her role.

• WestJet launches Wi-Fi service powered by Elon Musk’s Starlink

Resources

• Why vibe coding is the future

• The new way to build software (Inside Replit’s journey to making 2 million apps in 6 months)

About That

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