# Where’s the Growth? Right Here.
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## Article Content
Three weeks ago, on August 25, I wrote a lengthy piece about Canada's economic future. My argument was pretty simple: Stop obsessing over the storm. Look for the growth being created by it. I wrote that Canada was sitting at the intersection of several enormous structural shifts: AI was creating massive new demand for electricity, data centres and compute. Geopolitical fragmentation was forcing companies to rethink supply chains, resources and trading relationships. Infrastructure and defence were becoming strategic economic assets again. Global capital was increasingly searching for stable jurisdictions, reliable partners and investable infrastructure. And I suggested that Canada might find itself unusually well positioned for what comes next. Fast-forward three weeks. The first Canada Investment Summit is underway in Toronto. Investors from nearly 30 countries, managing more than $100 trillion in assets, have gathered to look at Canadian opportunities. The federal government says the summit has generated nearly $500 billion in investment and financing commitments, involving energy, critical minerals, infrastructure, AI, defence, technology and other strategic sectors. Bell is talking about a massive AI infrastructure build in Saskatchewan. Banks are committing hundreds of billions in financing. Pension funds and institutional investors are increasing allocations to Canadian assets. Infrastructure, energy, minerals, AI and global trade diversification are suddenly front and centre. In other words, much of what I was writing about three weeks ago is now the conversation everyone is having. And that gets to something important about what a futurist actually does. It isn't about magically predicting an event. I didn't "predict" the Canada Investment Summit. It had already been announced. Foresight is about recognizing the importance of a pattern before that pattern becomes conventional wisdom. It's about connecting dots that are visible, but not yet connected in most people's minds. It's noticing that AI isn't merely a software story. It's an electricity story. That geopolitical instability isn't merely a risk story. It's a supply-chain, infrastructure and capital-allocation story. That tariffs aren't simply a trade story. They can trigger an enormous restructuring of markets, investment and economic relationships. That uncertainty doesn't simply destroy opportunity. It relocates it. That was the argument I made during the financial crisis back in 2008 and 2009 with my Where's the Growth? research. While everyone was staring at the wreckage, I was asking what industries, technologies, markets and business models would grow because the world was changing. My conclusion then? Think growth. Think opportunity. Innovate for the future. Don't stagnate with the past. Seventeen years later, I found myself asking exactly the same question about Canada. Where's the growth? And three weeks ago, my answer was: Right here. There is an important reality check. Nearly $500 billion of announced commitments is not the same thing as $500 billion of completed projects. Projects still need approvals. Capital has to actually be deployed. Infrastructure has to get built. Productivity has to improve. Execution matters enormously. Interestingly, I made exactly that point in the original article: "A summit is not a result. A ranking is not a guarantee. A trillion-dollar ambition is not a trillion dollars invested." That part of the forecast matters just as much. Because futurists aren't supposed to be cheerleaders. We're supposed to identify the forces reshaping tomorrow, understand how they collide, separate structural change from short-term noise, and help people think about what those changes might mean before the implications become obvious to everyone else. Sometimes that process takes years. Sometimes decades. And occasionally, you get to watch it happen in three weeks. That's the fascinating part of foresight. By the time everybody agrees that a trend is important, the futurist should already be looking for the next one.

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Source: https://jimcarroll.com/2026/09/wheres-the-growth-right-here/