March 26th, 2017

I had the great privilege to attend an event at Nipissing University talking about innovation in Canadian schools, with guest speaker Tom Jenkins, Chairman of Open Text. Considering my career began at Open Text as a “Cyber Gopher” (true story), while I was at university, it seems like life has come full circle.

Invented in Canada: book lauds Canada’s innovators

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/invented-in-canada-book-by-governor-general-entrepreneur-lauds-canadasinnovators/article34422999/

Did you know that Inuit ingenuity was behind the life jacket? Or that a Toronto mother invented a bouncy harness enjoyed by children all over the world? And the whoopee cushion? Yup, that impish idea came from a Canadian company.

In their new book, Ingenious: How Canadian Innovators Made the World Smarter, Smaller, Kinder, Safer, Healthier, Wealthier and Happier, Governor-General David Johnston and entrepreneur Tom Jenkins set out to educate a country of its illustrious innovation past with nearly 300 examples.

“We want that eight-year-old girl in Regina, who is thinking about starting a company, to be inspired by hearing a story of a similar young woman in New Brunswick doing something phenomenal,” Mr. Jenkins said.

In addition to the book (whose proceeds go to the Rideau Hall Foundation), Mr. Jenkins and Mr. Johnston have also worked with a team to set up an online database that catalogues more than 2,000 Canadian innovations, write a children’s book and co-ordinate a new curriculum module with teachers at Nippissing University to help motivate Canada’s future innovators.

“There is such a wealth of these stories,” Mr. Johnston said. “And people learn best by stories.”

 

 

Excerpted from Ingenious by David Johnston and Tom Jenkins. Copyright © 2017 David Johnston & Tom Jenkins. Published by Signal/McClelland & Stewart, a division of Penguin Random House Canada Limited. Reproduced by arrangement with the publisher. All rights reserved.