In addition to all the reasons spelled out above, we shouldn't try to replicate Silicon Valley, because Silicon Valley has the competitive advantage of being the first Silicon Valley.

Beyond that, though, the lessons we should take are around creating a context in which innovation can happen: multiple top-notch universities, leveraging big investments in R&D, which attract the highly skilled people, who spin off into entrepreneurial efforts. And all of this in places where people want to live.

While we can't duplicate California's climate, we can work to create this kind of environment in different places in Canada. But this means changing how we do our investments in R&D, to focus on given sectors in specific places (rather than just spreading them around everywhere).