Economy: Increasingly, the future is being decided in emerging markets such as India and China, says expert

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Richard Woodbury
FOR the Telegraph-Journal

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HALIFAX - A futurist, trends and innovation expert says Canada needs to consider re-evaluating its economic dependence on the United States.

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Richard Woodbury/Special to the Telegraph-Journal

Jim Carroll says a lack of optimism is holding Canada back.

"I think the question I'm putting out there is do we want to continue that fundamental assumption in the future?" says Jim Carroll. "I think we may have to challenge that fundamental assumption in the future."

Carroll is a well-known speaker whose past clients include Microsoft, Nestle and The Walt Disney Company. He is represented by speaking agencies which also represent Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Bono.

Speaking at a luncheon in downtown Halifax, the focus of Carroll's speech was what Canada would look like in 2020.

But right now, Carroll says a lack of optimism is holding us back.

"You have to have a sense of optimism," he says.

"You have to have a sense of where your growth is occurring in the global market. You have to have a sense of where the growth is occurring locally. It's impossible to put a region's best face forward if you have a sense of doom and gloom and pessimism."

Carroll attributes this gloomy attitude partially on our changing role in the world.

"Obviously, there's been a sea change of the role of North America in the global economy," he says. "There's been a significant transition in terms of power and who's owning the future, who's driving the future. Increasingly, the future's being decided in China, India and elsewhere."

He says that despite this realization, we're still fixated on the U.S.

"We have this emergence of this big massive global economy, and yet our economic dependence is still wound up on this trading relationship which becomes more irritating by the day," says Carroll.

Carroll points to the troubles Canadian farmers are having getting their products exported to the U.S. as examples.

He says accepting the changing role of North America in the world economy will be necessary for us to prosper.

"I think it's accepting the rapid rate of change, accepting the fact that the world is becoming a far more complex place every moment, that there is a very fundamental shift in terms of power, in terms of increasingly our destiny is controlled not by us, but by forces beyond our capabilities. It's accepting that."

Carroll says Canada needs to adapt to the rapidly changing world.

"Do we really believe that in 10 years that our world is going to look anything like it does today?" he says. "It won't, because we know that change is accelerating, we know innovation is accelerating at a faster rate. We know that industries are changing faster."