Canada’s technology companies are already global. What they’re after now is harder to get: a position at the top of the pole.
That’s the signal from the 2026 Great Canadian CEO Survey, released this month by the Council of Canadian Innovators. The survey of 125 CEOs of Canadian-headquartered tech firms found that 39% identified building a customer base as their top strategic priority, well ahead of capital access (31%), regulation (16%), and talent (14%).
The stakes are highest in sectors structured around large buyers and system design: telecom (67%), manufacturing (60%), supply chain (58%), and cybersecurity (57%). In these spaces, early customers validate the technology and accelerate adoption across entire industries.
These companies are competing to shape markets, to get their IP embedded in global standards, to become infrastructure that other industries depend on.
“Canadian innovators are trying to secure powerful positions in global value chains so they can dictate the terms of competition,” says Patrick Searle, CEO of the Council of Canadian Innovators. “They are building the technologies and capabilities that global industries will depend on. The real question is whether Canada will put in the necessary policies to help our industries become part of dominant global technology infrastructures, not merely compete within it.”
CCI’s argument is that public policy is still solving yesterday’s problem. While Canadian tech companies are focused on leading new markets, government strategy remains oriented around accessing existing ones.
Their ask is specific. The group is calling on governments to use public procurement as an economic lever, act as a first customer, and play a deliberate role in standards-setting.
Canadian firms can help define the architectures that global markets are built on, not adapt to them after the fact.
Final shots
- The companies winning global markets in the next decade will be the ones whose technology becomes the standard others build around. Canada needs a policy framework that understands the difference.
- Public procurement as an economic strategy isn’t a new idea. Canada has been slow to use it that way. The CCI survey gives governments a clear mandate to start.
- For CIOs evaluating vendor relationships and build-versus-buy decisions, this matters. The Canadian companies trying to own their categories are the ones most likely to be around, and influential, in five years.
