It's not really surprising, small population and huge, resource rich landmass. It's like complaining that, outside of Oil, Saudi Arabia doesn't have any international relevant big companies.

Why discount those industries? If you eliminate legs and arms, I have essentially no limbs. But I get by...

I can't speak for OP, but I suggest that they're highlighting the fact that instead of a broad base of large companies in a variety of industries, Canada's big company wealth is highlighted in a narrow set of verticals.

This means that corporate investment might be more slanted towards that areas, and it also means a narrower set of potential customers for a given application.

I know what you mean, and I'm sure that's what the OP intended, but these "verticals" are energy, minerals and money. Literally everyone needs these things, which is the definition of a horizontal market.

Anyway, as a Canadian computer scientist I'd be very happy to see knowledge industry grow here.

I think the point is to draw attention to the nature of Canada's economy, not to discount it entirely.

Hmmm. Try applying that analysis elsewhere: Scandinavian countries, for example, and tell me what you find. Are they doomed too?

Firstly, Canada has a huge branch-plant economy in agriculture, manufacturing and services, which has grown over the past 70 years. Ownership != economic output. It does change the pattern of investment, of course -- less disruptive entrepreneurs and more incremental improvements.

Secondly, the world is not made of software alone. Facebook is utterly irrelevant to the world economy. The world is still sadly not made of electrons, it is made of stuff, and that stuff powered (mostly) by hydro or carbon, and run by humans that need fresh water. Those industries you discount are massively important and only getting more so globally. IF Canada doesn't provide a large chunk of the world's natural resources, others will, until we devolve into a Mad Max type future fighting over fuel or fix our renewable energy problem economically (whichever comes first). Thus, Alberta is likely the new global oil powerhouse for the next century. Saskatchewan has the largest deposit of Potash fertilizer on Earth (4+ trillion tonnes).

None of this precludes Canada from investing in tech entrepreneurship, but it does mean the incentives need to be higher than usual.

Will Canadian knowledge workers experience economic growth as individuals in the long term because of the natural resource industries? Will that growth be comparable to the US?

Many thousands of engineers are involved in the oil sands to make extraction cleaner and more economical. Similarly for mining potash at the extreme depths sometimes required. Or for natgas fracking. Those activities are going to have massive consequences to humanity.

For software developers, that doesn't help matters, but there remains a thriving software scene in certain Canadian centres (Vancouver, Toronto, Waterloo have thousands of startup each)- its just not made of behemoths.

OH but we have a metric crap ton of oil in Alberta! That should hold out for a few decades while we unscrew our economic situation.

Except a big portion of the oil is owned by foreign companies. So, it's not like we are ripping all the benefits either.

I think you mean reaping, as in collecting grains at harvest time, not ripping, as slang for passing out of your anuses. Though, the imagery of a nation being so flush with money that they are collectively farting cash is somewhat amusing.

Reaping* - sorry for the typo. Thanks for the joke. :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_tax_rates Taking into consideration only corporate tax rates, it really is kind of an oddity. (sort the chart by corporate tax rate)

Canada's corporate tax rate is that low because of the much more attractive neighbour downstairs. It's a shame, because it really doesn't keep people/businesses from leaving Canada anyway.