At a conference hosted by Canadian tech giant Shopify in 2018 , Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took a moment to marvel at the unlikely success of two men who started out as snowboarders.
Trudeau, the former snowboarding instructor, was sharing the stage with Shopify founder Tobias Lütke, whose multi-billion dollar company had its beginnings as an online snowboard shop.
As they chuckled at their humble beginnings, the two snowboarders agreed that Canada had all the raw materials for a vibrant, entrepreneurial economy if it could only just get out of its own way and, Trudeau said, show “ a little more swagger .”
