The Globe and Mail reports in its Tuesday edition that entrepreneurial behaviour creates economic growth and innovation, which enhances our capacity to tackle challenges such as an aging population and climate change. Guest columnist Scott Stirrett writes that Canada's insufficiently entrepreneurial culture poses an existential risk to our country. Countries rise and fall based on their economic vitality and entrepreneurial spirit. At the turn of the 20th century, Argentina was significantly wealthier per capita than Canada, and Singapore was substantially poorer. Now, 125 years later, Singapore is a marvel of innovation and Argentina is an economic basket case. While some data show that Canada's level of entrepreneurship is increasing, much more evidence suggests we are backsliding. Canada scores poorly in surveys that measure entrepreneurial values, especially the acceptance of competition and teaching children to be independent. A recent Financial Times of London list of the world's 100 leading companies included only one Canadian firm: Shopify. Without global champions, Canada will be a branch plant economy, in which all the profits flow out of the country. In short, we are losing ground in the cutthroat world economy.