For 50 years, the Business Council of Canada has worked alongside governments, communities and partners to strengthen Canada’s economic foundations, social fabric and democratic institutions. This anniversary marks an important milestone and an opportunity to reflect. What has leadership meant in Canada over the past half century? How have moments of crisis, growth and transformation shaped our national character? And, most importantly, what must leadership look like in the decades ahead? Through this Policy series, we invite a national conversation on Canadian leadership and the responsibility it carries for our shared future.

We open our Business Council of Canada series Lessons in Leadership: A Canadian Perspective with the 20^th Anniversary Ivey-Thomas d’Aquino Lecture on Leadership, delivered by BCC founder Thomas d’Aquino at the National Gallery of Canada on March 3, 2026. “The time for leadership at home in our Canada and on the world stage, is now,” Mr. d’Aquino said in his address. “Business leaders across Canada and the democratic world, step up, seize the moment, and deliver on the promise that lies before us.” Here’s Policy Contributing Writer Thomas d’Aquino with Business Leadership in a Time of Crisis: The 2026 Ivey Thomas d’Aquino Lecture on Leadership.

Business Council of Canada President and CEO Goldy Hyder has led the BCC since 2018. During that time, the economic landscape has changed drastically both domestically and globally — a distinction that matters less and less in the face of disruptions to both the longstanding geopolitical order and trade status quo. “In our current context, leadership requires more than merely managing institutions more efficiently or seeking to preserve continuity,” writes Mr. Hyder. “It requires recognition that circumstances have changed, and we must respond with decisiveness, courage and conviction.” Here’s BCC President and Policy Contributing Writer Goldy Hyder with Meeting the Leadership Moment: Conviction and Courage in Extraordinary Times.

How does artificial intelligence impact leadership? A renowned leader in business research and education, Ivey Business School Dean Julian Birkinshaw taught at London Business School for 25 years. For our series, Birkinshaw brings his expertise in innovation and digital transformation to the question of leadership and AI. “Leaders enable their employees to do their best work,” he writes, “and they can do it most effectively by blending their human qualities with the power of AI.” Here’s Julian Birkinshaw with Developing Future Leaders for an AI World.

We will continue posting pieces on leadership from Business Council of Canada voices regularly throughout this anniversary year.

Founded in 1976, the Business Council of Canada is a not-for-profit, non-partisan organization representing business whose companies employ 1.7 million Canadians. Through supply chain partnerships, service contracts and mentoring programs, Business Council members support many hundreds of thousands of small businesses and entrepreneurs in communities of all sizes, in every part of Canada.

Policy magazine serves as an independent, nonpartisan platform for insight and analysis on Canadian, U.S. and international politics and public policy, written by policy and political professionals.