Canada may not be a world heavy weight, but we have our pride. For such a small country, we’ve given the world quite a few highly inventive gifts: the telephone, insulin, basketball, zippers, the brains behind Saturday Night Live — you name it.

But it seems Ontario, in particular, is falling into bad habits and is becoming far more likely to emulate than to innovate. Why struggle when you can steal?
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And we don’t fool around: when it comes to being copycats, we go big, with some of the finest recent examples being in areas that actually matter — politics, commerce and leadership.

The way in Ontario is lead by Premier Dalton McGuinty, who recently decided to quit. Stuck with a minority government after the most recent election, but used to working with a majority, McGuinty kept running into headwinds. He was finally done in by the province’s public-sector teachers’ unions, who have taken offence to deficit-fighting wage freezes (after years of solid increases during a period of high unemployment). Faced with the emergencies of skimpy report cards and no football practice after school, McGuinty caved.

But he didn’t leave without having a tantrum of his own. Following the example of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, McGuinty prorogued the legislature, side-stepping much inconvenience, such as questions from the Opposition. At least he had the decency to step down; Harper has prorogued Parliament twice now, and still gets to tell us what to do.

But the retail sector, the single biggest driver of the provincial economy, is no slouch, either. On Nov. 23, the day following U.S. Thanksgiving this year, when consumers south of the border head out en masse on “Black Friday” to go shopping, Ontarians were invited to do the same. Never mind that it’s not a Canadian holiday and most people are at work. And most of the apparent deals carried nothing close to the deep discounts that U.S. stores offer. Toronto’s newspapers carried an unprecedented advertising blitz of “Black Friday” deals, replete with those über-innovative touches U.S. retailers are known for: opening early, door-crasher deals and coffee and doughnuts at the door.

Then, there’s leadership. Here again, copycatting is taking over. Rob Ford (who was removed as mayor of Toronto by an Ontario court late last month, although he was given the right to appeal) regularly took a cue from the constituency he calls his own, the common man. Like 58% of Chinese workers, 24% of Brits and 19% of Australians, (according to a recent survey from U.S. workplace consultants, Kronos Incorp.), Ford has skipped work to watch or attend a sporting event. The high-school football team that Ford coaches on a volunteer basis, the Don Bosco Eagles, have quite a few afternoon games. Ford rarely missed these, whether or not there was something important going on related to his job, such as a city council meeting or the libel trial in which he is a defendant.

It’s leadership through football, and who’s to say it doesn’t work? Torontonians have never been more watchful about what’s going on in their city, aware perhaps that a gravy train without a driver could end up making a big mess. Here’s to imitation. It’s the sincerest form of flattery. IE