From Bricklin to Defense: Canada's Strategic Industrial Pivot

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  Politics and Government on Fri, Oct 30th, 2026 by Forbes
      Locale: CANADA

The Specter of the Bricklin Era

To understand the apprehension surrounding Canada's current industrial bets, one must look back at the cautionary tale of the Bricklin car. In the 1970s, the government of Nova Scotia heavily subsidized the production of the Bricklin SV–1, a safety-focused sports car. The project was envisioned as a catalyst for regional industrialization, promising jobs and a new manufacturing ecosystem. Instead, it became a textbook example of industrial policy failure. The venture collapsed under the weight of mismanagement and a lack of market viability, leaving taxpayers to foot the bill for a product that failed to compete globally.

The Bricklin failure instilled a long-standing hesitation within Canadian policy circles regarding direct government intervention in industrial development. For decades, the prevailing wisdom was to avoid the "Bricklin trap" by letting market forces dictate industrial growth, focusing instead on the export of raw materials and the integration of the automotive sector via the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) and its predecessors.

The Strategic Shift Toward Defense

Fast forward to 2026, and the calculus has changed. The current push toward a domestic defense industrial base is not merely an economic play, but a national security imperative. In an era characterized by shifting global alliances and the volatility of international supply chains, Canada has recognized that relying solely on "off-the-shelf" purchases from allies—primarily the United States—creates a strategic vulnerability.

Canada's new industrial bet focuses on building sovereign capabilities in critical areas such as artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, cybersecurity, and advanced munitions. Unlike the Bricklin era, which attempted to create a consumer product from scratch, the defense pivot is designed to integrate Canada into the high-tech military-industrial complex. By fostering a domestic ecosystem of small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) and partnering with global primes, Ottawa aims to ensure that its defense spending translates into long-term domestic expertise and high-paying jobs.

Risks and Rewards of the New Industrial Policy

The primary challenge facing this new strategy is the tension between strategic autonomy and economic efficiency. The risk remains that the government may once again overinvest in projects that lack a sustainable commercial path beyond government contracts. If Canada creates a "defense bubble" where companies rely exclusively on state procurement without the ability to export their technology, it risks creating a modernized version of the Bricklin failure—expensive, subsidized industries that cannot survive without perpetual government lifelines.

However, the rewards of a successful pivot are substantial. A robust defense industrial base provides a "dual-use" benefit; technologies developed for military application often spin off into commercial sectors, driving innovation in aerospace, telecommunications, and materials science. Furthermore, by demonstrating a tangible industrial contribution to NATO and other security frameworks, Canada strengthens its diplomatic leverage and ensures that its security needs are met with priority.

Conclusion

Canada's move toward a defense-centric industrial policy marks the end of an era of economic passivity. While the ghosts of past failures like the Bricklin car serve as a warning, the current geopolitical reality leaves Canada with few alternatives. The success of this bet will depend not on the amount of capital deployed, but on the government's ability to foster genuine innovation that is competitive on a global scale, rather than merely sheltered by national procurement policies.