Unfortunately, the “Canadian dream” is for some reason to get a pension in the government rather than build a business that pays you through retirement.

This isn’t how it should be.

Let’s fall in love with capitalism again because it’s the private sector that pays for everything. Over 65 per cent of all taxes in Canada are paid by the top 20 per cent of earners.

If you love this country and want this country to thrive with all the social benefits and safety nets, the best thing you can do is create wealth and income in the private sector.

The private sector funds the public-sector salaries and pensions, hospitals and schools. The private sector funds the food programs, the social justice programs, the rebates, the senior programs, the government backed scholarships, the subsidized housing and all the endless programs Canadians use every day. Every hospital bed, every teacher’s salary, every pension check. It’s the private sector that foots the bill through innovation, and jobs that actually create economic value that the system rewards with financial gain.

In any economic system (especially one like ours) real, sustainable value comes from producing goods and services that people voluntarily pay for, from innovating solutions to problems, from taking risks to build something that generates revenue and employs people.

That’s where wealth (and taxes) originate.

The public sector is essential for redistribution, infrastructure, safety nets, and collective goods, but it doesn’t create net new wealth for the provinces or country at large.

Capitalism rewards value creation with profit, which incentivizes more of it. When we glorify secure government jobs and defined-benefit pensions as the ultimate goal, we subtly discourage the very risk-taking and innovation that keep the whole system funded and growing.

Canada actually punches above its weight in early-stage entrepreneurial activity compared to most G7 peers (often ranking at or near the top in recent Global Entrepreneurship Monitor reports), yet too many still see the “safe” path as the aspirational one.

We need more builders. More creators. More innovators. More entrepreneurs. If we want to keep the good stuff like universal healthcare, strong social programs, a high quality of life then we have to keep celebrating and enabling the people who create the value that pays for it all.

Ross Simmonds is the founder and CEO of Foundation, a B2B growth marketing firm based in Nova Scotia.