Canada is facing real economic and trade uncertainty. But something else is happening too: a renewed sense of what might be possible. Drawing on Perry and Hutson’s five principles of hope, this Perspectives article looks at how possibility becomes agency, action and momentum, and why hope may be one of Canada’s most important strategic assets.

What becomes possible when a country begins to believe it can shape what comes next?

“Possibility isn’t destiny. But something important happens when people begin to believe a better future is possible.”

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A Wall Street Journal op-ed argues that Canada has little distinct identity beyond being different from the United States. But distinctiveness is not the same as exclusivity. What defines countries, like organizations, is the combination of strategic choices they make about who they are, what they value and how they behave. At a consequential moment for Canada, those choices are becoming increasingly clear.

What do the choices Canada is making now tell us about the country we are becoming?

“Identity is not simply something you inherit. It is something you express through choices, especially when circumstances change.”

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Canada has never been held together by geography, ethnicity, or religion alone. From Confederation onward, it has been an experiment in building a society around shared civic values, and that experiment requires coherence. When institutions, laws, and communities reinforce one another, trust grows. When they don't, the distance between our ideals and our lived experience becomes impossible to ignore.

What happens when a country stops living up to the story it tells about itself?

"Hope is not believing these gaps will close on their own. Hope is choosing to close them."

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