When I came to Canada as a young immigrant, I had little more than a trade, a work ethic, and the belief that if you were willing to work hard, you could build something here.

I started my first business in a small rented space about the size of a garage. I bought a few used machines and put up a sign. There were no endless forms, no consultants, and no years-long permit approvals. If you wanted to start a business, you started one.

Canada was a country where builders could build.

That spirit is what made this country strong.

Today, that spirit is being suffocated.

Instead of encouraging entrepreneurship, our system now treats small business owners like a problem. The people who take risks, create jobs, and invest in their communities are buried under layers of permits, reporting requirements, and regulations that grow every year.

Meanwhile, the largest corporations have entire legal and compliance departments to navigate those rules.

Small businesses do not.

Small businesses are the true backbone of our economy. These are the people who mortgage their homes to start companies, hire local workers, train young people, and reinvest their earnings back into their communities.

They are not just employers. They are builders.

But when the cost of regulation becomes too high, many of these builders never start. Others give up before they grow. The result is an economy with fewer new businesses, fewer opportunities, and more concentration of power in the hands of a few large players.

We are already seeing the consequences. Startup formation is slowing. Expansion is becoming harder. Industries are consolidating. Canada is losing the competitive edge that once made it one of the best places in the world to build a company.

This is one of the reasons I helped launch the Canadian Economic Charter of Rights and Responsibilities — a grassroots alliance of Canada’s workers and entrepreneurs, focused on restoring economic freedom, strengthening small business, and ensuring that prosperity is shared more broadly across Canadian society.

VISIT THE CANADIAN ECONOMIC CHARTER!

One of its core ideas is simple: small enterprises should operate with maximum freedom so they can grow, innovate, and create jobs. Governments should not tax and regulate early-stage businesses to death before they even have a chance to succeed.

That means unchaining small business.

Under the principles of the Canadian Economic Charter, businesses with fewer than 300 employees should operate with minimal regulation and without business tax. Entrepreneurs should be free to grow their companies, hire workers, and reinvest earnings without being crushed by paperwork, compliance costs, and taxes.

At the same time, success should benefit everyone who helps create it.

When companies grow beyond 300 employees, they should begin sharing profits with their employees and managers. Workers help create the wealth of a company, and they have a moral right to share in the prosperity they help produce.

This principle is not theoretical. It is the approach I followed when building Magna into one of Canada’s great industrial success stories — a company that grew to more than 180,000 employees and over 400 factories in dozens of countries. By keeping operations entrepreneurial and sharing success with employees, we created a culture where people thought like partners rather than just workers.

When employees share in profits, they think like owners. Productivity rises. Innovation increases. Companies become stronger and more competitive.

This kind of system strengthens capitalism rather than weakening it. It spreads opportunity instead of concentrating it and helps narrow the growing gap between the financial elite and the working class.

Strong small businesses also create upward mobility. They allow ordinary people to build something of their own and create pathways for workers to become managers, partners, and entrepreneurs themselves.

Without a vibrant small business sector, economic freedom becomes a slogan rather than a reality.

Canada must decide what kind of economy it wants.

Do we want a country dominated by bureaucracies and concentrated corporate power? Or do we want a country where entrepreneurs can build, workers can prosper, and communities can grow?

For generations, Canada was the latter.

It can be again — but only if we restore the conditions that allow builders to build.

Whether you're a worker, a small business owner, or just someone who cares about the future of Canada's economy, click here to learn more about the Canadian Economic Charter and to join our fight for Canada's future.

VISIT THE CANADIAN ECONOMIC CHARTER!

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SPONSOR | Unelected Bureaucrats Are Strangling Canada’s Economy

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SPONSOR | Small Business Built Canada. Now, the Government Is Killing It.