Tom Goldsmith
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tomgoldsmith.bsky.social
Tom Goldsmith
@tomgoldsmith.bsky.social
610 followers 2.3K following 400 posts
I write about building a fairer and more inclusive society and innovation's role in doing that on the Deep Dives newsletter: https://orbitpolicy.substack.com/. Founder & Principal, Orbit Policy. Toronto via the UK.
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tomgoldsmith.bsky.social
Wow, the Budget explicitly uses the phrase "taking back control" in relation to immigration. After years as the Governor of the Bank of England during successive UK Conservative governments, Mark Carney seems intent on bringing that playbook here.
We are taking back control over the immigration system and putting Canada on a trajectory to bring immigration back to sustainable levels—allowing us to fulfill the promise of Canada to those who call it home. At the same time, Canada will continue its long tradition of welcoming those fleeing violence, persecution and displacement.
November 4, 2025 at 10:48 PM
tomgoldsmith.bsky.social
Now compare that to this chart from a recent Toronto Star article (www.thestar.com/business/tar...). Loblaws is 10x more profitable than the UK’s second most profitable grocery chain.

That is insane.

/3
Gross profit margins for Canada's three largest grocery chains
November 3, 2025 at 5:34 PM
tomgoldsmith.bsky.social
@julianhjessop.bsky.social includes a 2024 chart from a UK Competition and Markets Authority report showing grocery store operating margins. They hover around 3% for all of them. /2
Chart showing operating margins reported by the supermarkets and the discounters in the period from FY 2003/04 to FY 2023/24.
November 3, 2025 at 5:34 PM
tomgoldsmith.bsky.social
Ego thinking that they'll come off better than others. Plus I imagine they get an appearance fee.
No, it never does. I mean, these people somehow deluxe themselves into thinking it might but.... But it might work for us.
November 1, 2025 at 4:41 PM
tomgoldsmith.bsky.social
I'm continuing my deep dive into my recent report, this time looking at the myriad of complex challenges Canada faces. We cannot and should not attempt to understand our innovation policies and approaches without bringing them into this broader context.

open.substack.com/pub/orbitpol...
"These are major, even existential, challenges. How our governments respond to them, and whether innovation is pursued in ways that mitigate or exacerbate these challenges, will be crucial in shaping what life is like for Canadians in the coming years and decades. Reactive policy responses are insufficient to deal with this landscape." Tom Goldsmith. Understanding Canada's Challenges. Orbitpolicy.substack.com
October 22, 2025 at 5:41 PM
tomgoldsmith.bsky.social
NEW REPORT: I'm excited to say that the CSA Public Policy Centre have just published my latest report, “Building an Inclusive and Innovative Canada: Responsible Innovation for Shared Prosperity.”

www.csagroup.org/article/publ...
Cover of the CSA Public Policy Centre Report: "Building an Innovative and Inclusive Canada, Part 1: Responsible Innovation for Shared Prosperity"
October 16, 2025 at 3:07 PM
tomgoldsmith.bsky.social
Let's Go Blue Jays!
The Skydome field ahead of ALCS game 1. Let's fucking go Blue Jays!
October 12, 2025 at 11:31 PM
tomgoldsmith.bsky.social
This from @marietjeschaake.bsky.social's excellent book "The Tech Coup" remains an evergreen statement.
"Ultimately, the highest goal of democratic governments is not, and should not be, innovation. Rather, it is about making sure that various trade-offs, between innovation and safety, digitization and nondiscrimination, are managed in line with the rule of law. The goal is to prevent companies from moving fast and breaking things." - The Tech Coup by Marietje Schaake
October 2, 2025 at 2:49 PM
tomgoldsmith.bsky.social
I've spent two hours writing about trade and innovation in this current economic and political moment, and I blame it entirely on @dkmunro.bsky.social.

open.substack.com/pub/orbitpol...
Image of train cargo on tracks going through woods and a town. Superimposed is the text: "Trade and Innovation (in Real Places): Quick thoughts on trade policy and Dan Breznitz's ideas about innovation-focused economic development"
September 5, 2025 at 9:38 PM
tomgoldsmith.bsky.social
"Amid everything happening in the world and all the intersecting levels of crisis we face, it can be hard to know where we can make a difference. It's become clearer to me, though, that we — I — just need to start somewhere and that somewhere should be acting with other people." Tom Goldsmith: On Bill 33, Protest, and Political Engagement
August 29, 2025 at 12:44 AM
tomgoldsmith.bsky.social
"Instead of focusing on AI's strengths and weaknesses or questions of its impact on productivity, we need to focus more on issues of power."

Today, I explore how framing AI as inevitable constrains the space for debate about how AI impacts power to shape our economy and society.
A whiteboard with "AI?" written on it. Superimposed is the text "The 'Inevitability' of AI and The Impact on Worker Power: Part 1 on AI and Power"
August 6, 2025 at 4:01 PM
tomgoldsmith.bsky.social
Much needed time at a cottage. And breathe.

See you in a week.
A sunny view of a river with Lilly pads and Reed's.
July 27, 2025 at 10:34 PM
tomgoldsmith.bsky.social
Tackling affordability challenges requires public investment, not prioritizing private profit.

Tax cuts at this time are irresponsible and don’t serve the interests of Canadians.

www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...
In Canada, 6.5 million people don’t have access to a family doctor. Affordable housing is out of reach for so many. Young Canadians are struggling with university and college tuition. And income inequality in Canada is at the highest level ever recorded. It takes one of Canada’s richest CEOs less than two hours to make what the average worker earns in an entire year. In the face of this crisis, Prime Minister Mark Carney has cancelled a modest capital gains tax increase, introduced "middle class" tax cuts that offer the greatest payments to higher income earners and capitulated to Donald Trump by cancelling a long-awaited digital services tax. This will result in almost $52 billion of lost public investment over the next five years. In making these choices, we are missing critical chances for nation building. Instead of addressing the shortage in access to primary and acute health care, expanding universal pharmacare, bolstering public education and supporting our youngest citizens with early learning, we are funding tax cuts.
July 21, 2025 at 6:14 PM
tomgoldsmith.bsky.social
Today I explore the implications for Canada of the "Enshittification of US Power" that @himself.bsky.social & @abenewman.bsky.social have written about.

Canada is uniquely vulnerable & we need a genuine public conversation on the costs of extracting ourselves.
open.substack.com/pub/orbitpol...
An image of two red signs with white arrows pointing in opposite directions. The top arrow says "One Way." The bottom arrow says "Or Another." Superimposed above is the text "Friday Reading Roundup #12: The Enshittification of US Power & Canada's Dilemma"
July 18, 2025 at 3:57 PM
tomgoldsmith.bsky.social
Today's post explores @lenorepalladino.bsky.social's work on shareholder primacy and innovation in the Canadian context. We need to better understand why our economy is extractive rather than productive.

Palladino’s work offers a roadmap for beginning that work.

open.substack.com/pub/orbitpol...
An image of the book cover for Lenore Palladino's "Good Company: Economic Policy After Shareholder Primacy." Superimposed is the text: "Thinking about... Shareholder Primacy and Innovation: Exploring Lenore Palladino's work in the Canadian context"
July 16, 2025 at 8:16 PM
tomgoldsmith.bsky.social
Amid Carney's deep cuts to Canadian state capacity, this example from @marietjeschaake.bsky.social's excellent book is worth remembering. Resourcing regulators is an essential part of maintaining Canadian sovereignty, if that word is actually to mean anything.
"One of the major weaknesses of the GDPR is the lack of capacity to enforce the many cases that are brought before regulators. Take as an example the Irish Data Protection Commission, which is the most influential tech regulator in the EU because of the many tech giants headquartered in Ireland for favorable tax reasons. In 2019 the commission had a budget of 15.3 million euros ($17.1 million). On the other side, the major tech companies have multibillion-dollar budgets. The difference in legal firepower is overwhelming. Similarly, the Dutch Data Protection Authority (DDPA) has over ten thousand cases backlogged because it simply cannot handle the workload. The authority has also complained that it lacks the resources to assess the algorithmic processing of data. In 2023 the DDPA was appropriated one million euros to reduce its backlog, but that's only a drop in the bucket given the resources of the multi-billion-dollar companies they are up against. Laws are only as good as their enforcement capabilities, and the lack of enforcement resources for the GDPR may help explain why it has not achieved all of what lawmakers hoped it would." (Marietje Schaake, The Tech Coup)
July 10, 2025 at 11:34 PM
tomgoldsmith.bsky.social
The AI Con by @alexhanna.bsky.social and @emilymbender.bsky.social is worth reading for an informed, critical take on AI. As they argue:
"Artificial intelligence, if we’re being frank, is a con: a bill of goods you are being sold to line someone’s pockets. A few major well-placed players are poised to accumulate significant wealth by extracting value from other people’s creative work, personal data, or labor, and replacing quality services with artificial facsimiles. The language of p(doom) is a ruse to keep us focused on imaginary scenarios, filled with awe at modern robber barons’ allegedly potentially world-ending technology, and too distracted to see the daily harms being done in its name." (Emily M. Bender, Alex Hanna, The AI Con)
July 10, 2025 at 11:13 PM
tomgoldsmith.bsky.social
I'm reading @astra.bsky.social and @lhh.bsky.social's book Solidarity and they capture this well. /3
We believe a transformation of social structures and values is required, and we believe that such change is possible. We know from looking at social movements past that human beings have the agency and capacity to radically alter how we live. We can’t just sit back and hope that shifting demographics, evolving social attitudes, or technological breakthroughs will automatically set things right. We need to get organized if we want to see the world improve. From Solidarity by Leah Hunt-Hendrix and Astra Taylor
July 10, 2025 at 2:18 PM
tomgoldsmith.bsky.social
Being a democracy doesn't mean that the government isn't fascist in actions. Others with a strong pulse on US politics would point to Trump's actions as fascist e.g. @anneapplebaum.bsky.social or @timothysnyder.bsky.social. And in terms of those actions see Justice Jackson's dissent on Trump v Casa:
Stated simply, what it means to have a system of government that is bounded by law is that everyone is constrained by the law, no exceptions. And for that to actually happen, courts must have the power to order everyone (including the Executive) to follow the law—full stop. To conclude otherwise is to endorse the creation of a zone of lawlessness within which the Executive has the prerogative to take or leave the law as it wishes, and where individuals who would otherwise be entitled to the law’s protection become subject to the Executive’s whims instead. The majority cannot deny that our Constitution was designed to split the powers of a monarch between the governing branches to protect the People. Nor is it debatable that the role of the Judiciary in our constitutional scheme is to ensure fidelity to law. But these core values are strangely absent from today’s decision. Focusing on inapt comparisons to impotent English tribunals, the majority ignores the Judiciary’s foundational duty to uphold the Constitution and laws of the United States. The majority’s ruling thus not only diverges from first principles, it is also profoundly dangerous, since it gives the Executive the go-ahead to sometimes wield the kind of unchecked, arbitrary power the Founders crafted our Constitution to eradicate. The very institution our founding charter charges with the duty to ensure universal adherence to the law now requires judges to shrug and turn their backs to intermittent lawlessness. With deep disillusionment, I dissent.
July 9, 2025 at 8:34 PM
tomgoldsmith.bsky.social
"Canada also needs renewal, not retrenchment. Achieving that requires creativity and deep convictions about what a better Canada would look like. But so far, we’ve seen more 'Corporate Carney' than 'Visionary Carney.'"

Today's newsletter:
open.substack.com/pub/orbitpol...
An image of Mark Carney talking from behind a podium during the election campaign. Superimposed on the image is the text: “Corporate Carney” is following the wrong playbook We need a leader with creativity and deep convictions about what a better Canada would look like. But so far, we’ve seen more “Corporate Carney” than “Visionary Carney.”
July 9, 2025 at 4:11 PM
tomgoldsmith.bsky.social
"There’s nowhere else in the world where UNICEF has ever said that every single child needs mental-health support."

What the fuck are we doing? How is this happening, right now, and no one is doing anything meaningful to help these people? Where the fuck is our humanity?
How would you say your visit in June was different from your previous visits, if it was different? Yes, it was, even though I didn’t expect it to be. It was different for several reasons. One is the wounds I saw on children. There were burns on little girls and boys, fourth-degree burns I didn’t know existed. And shrapnel riddled through a body. Shrapnel is designed to go through cement, and what it does to a child’s body is horrific. On one previous trip, I saw a bus of children who spent two days trying to get from the north to the south after being held at Israeli checkpoints, and I walked in the bus, and all I could smell was children’s burning flesh. It doesn’t leave you. And one of the things that struck me this time was that I wasn’t just seeing these children—I was hearing them. There is such a horrendous lack of painkillers that when I’d be in a hospital—and hospitals are wall to wall with people with wounds of war—you’d hear the children and their screams. So I certainly noticed that as a person, parent, human.
July 7, 2025 at 9:10 PM
tomgoldsmith.bsky.social
Currently reading @marietjeschaake.bsky.social's The Tech Coup. Lots of important lessons and insights in there but this is one that I feel the federal government here in Canada needs to relearn urgently.
Text from the Tech Coup: Ultimately, the highest goal of democratic governments is not, and should not be, innovation. Rather, it is about making sure that various trade-offs, between innovation and safety, digitization and nondiscrimination, are managed in line with the rule of law. The goal is to prevent companies from moving fast and breaking things.
July 6, 2025 at 1:40 PM
tomgoldsmith.bsky.social
Well this is fun! Do check out my newsletter if you haven't already. I offer no hot takes, only rambling thoughts that desperately need a good editor 👍

orbitpolicy.substack.com
Screenshot from Substance saying "Tom Goldsmith is now #58 Rising in Business"
June 29, 2025 at 2:48 AM
tomgoldsmith.bsky.social
So reassuring...
Text from the Star article: "Coun. Gord Perks (Ward 4, Parkdale-High Park) said he has asked Magna if its AI was ever tested in the sort of complicated transportation environment like downtown Toronto, including any experience interacting with transit vehicles, bike lanes and construction zones or people wearing workers’ vests. “They said ‘no,’” Perks said. “Experience operating where there might be potholes or other interruptions on the road? They were unsure.” Perks also said he was told by Magna they were unsure if law enforcement agencies could get access to their video footage"
June 24, 2025 at 3:33 PM
tomgoldsmith.bsky.social
@vassb.bsky.social - this would be a very interesting one to recreate in Canada! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
"In a [more recent study](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.3982/ECTA18338), Salome Baslandze, Francesca Lotti, and I showed using Italian data that larger enterprises tend to innovate less and instead engage in activities that limit competition. One such activity is hiring local politicians. As businesses climb the ranks among the largest 20 players in their industry, they hire more politicians, while their patent production declines. This highlights what we call a leadership paradox, where leading companies plow resources into maintaining dominance rather than fostering innovation." (UFUK AKCIGIT, The Innovation Paradox)
June 3, 2025 at 10:52 PM