Taken from CRN Magazine, September 2009 Edition

Ten years ago, the government of Canada set itself the goal of leading the Internet revolution by making this country the world’s “most connected nation”. With a legacy of telecommunications innovation, from telephone inventor Alexander Graham Bell through to the world-leading Anik A satellite, Canadian policymakers saw few obstacles to reaching this goal.  Under the banner of “Connecting Canadians”, the government launched six initiatives: Canada Online, Smart Communities, Canadian Content Online, Electronic Commerce, Canadian Governments Online and Connected Canada to the World.  Not to be outdone, provincial premiers and territorial leaders meeting in August 1999 acknowledged in their post-conference statement “the importance of the ongoing construction of th ‘information highway’ to Canada’s future development and to its global competitiveness is clear to all premiers and territorial leaders.  Today, according to the International Telecommunications Union, about 85% of Canadians use the Internet – almost 30 million people.  However, according to the World Economic Forum’s measurement of “technological readiness”, released in July, Canada only ranked 13th.