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Navdeep Bains, Canada's Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development, looks like a man of action.

He's striding up and down the stage, dressed in khakis and bright red Nike shoes, selling the government's innovation agenda, Ted Talk-style. "It's time to make Canada an innovation nation," the 39-year-old minister tells the audience at an event at a downtown Ottawa hotel this week.

Mr. Bains is talking up the launch of a national consultation on innovation, based on what the government is calling six broad "areas of action," including science, commercialization and expanding global companies.

These are noble goals. Canada can call itself an innovation nation, but evidence suggests it's a long way from there now. Distressingly, its record on key measures of innovation has been slipping relative to other developed nations on everything from patents to productivity and business spending on research-and-development.

Innovation is at the heart of the Liberal government's economic plan. The word was plastered all over the party election platform and its March budget.

It's still early days for the government, of course. But just saying Canada should be an innovation nation won't make it so. The government's innovation agenda is more of a catalogue of buzzwords than a strategy. A background document released this week by Mr. Bains' department talks up such things as "inclusive innovation," "super clusters," "clean growth," and "digital infrastructure."

Most Canadians wouldn't know a super cluster from a supernova or be able to tell the difference between inclusive and exclusive innovation. Ideas need be effectively communicated, and sold, to Canadians. The Liberals are on the case. We get it.

Innovation has become a giant machine that will magically fix all the country's problems. The Liberals see innovation as the solution to a growing list of the country's great economic challenges. Slow growth, climate change, income inequality? Load them into the innovatron. The same goes for the resource slump, the aging population, and technological change.

And toss in protectionism between provinces for good measure.

"I'm so glad the member opposite raised the issue of innovation," Mr. Bains told Conservative MP Blaine Calkins during question period in the House of Commons this week. "The Conservatives have been asking a lot of questions around the agreement on internal trade. We believe that both these issues were addressed [Tuesday] when we talked about our innovation agenda."

The trouble is that these are enormous problems that require hard work and significant policy shifts if governments have a hope of making a dent in Canada's economic performance. Are Ottawa and the provinces ready to write big cheques for ambitious new private-sector research projects? Is it prepared to pick winners and losers? Is it willing to use big government contracts to push innovation? Is it planning another overhaul of the country's R&D tax credit program? Is it willing to loosen foreign investment restrictions in protected domestic industries such as telecom? Is it ready to confront powerful interests to dismantle producer-run cartels in dairy and poultry?

No one knows the answers to these questions – not even Mr. Bains, one suspects.

Saying "innovation" is easy. But motivational speeches only go so far. Taking effective action is considerably more difficult.

Canada could learn something from Israel about commitment to innovation policies. The country bills itself as "startup nation." But it's a label that is reflected in a relentless, whole-of-government effort focused on turning good ideas and science into thriving companies and exportable products.

The country has a chief scientist, Avi Hasson, whose broad mandate includes doling out venture capital, sponsoring R&D, funding and managing collaborative research projects with other countries and directing innovation policy for the government, including R&D tax breaks.

Canada also does many of these things, sometimes well. But not in a focused, strategic and relentless way. It's often piecemeal, scattered among multiple levels of government, departments, colleges and universities and the private sector.

If a focused and result-oriented approach to innovation is where Mr. Bains is going, he should be applauded.

But it's way too early to declare the problem solved.

Mr. Bains will likely wear out the treads on his Nikes – and many more pairs of shoes – before he can declare Canada an innovation nation.

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