Mr Red, electric vehicles are on the market in Canada, but uptake is very limited because they don’t have the range for our distances and recharging is still very slow. So if we are all on an S curve, only a few of us who live in densely populated areas are anywhere near a convergence point.

Even old technologies like railways and telephones are challenged to make money in Canada without plenty of government help. Canada is not unique in this; Russia and large parts of Africa and South America are in similar situations.