IN AN UNUSUALLY combative approach, Shopify executives started to openly reject aspects of the Liberal agenda late last year. Chief Operating Officer Kaz Nejatian, President Harley Finkelstein, and then vice president Daniel Debow all took to X with a barrage of posts criticizing federal spending, regulatory overreach, and what was depicted as Canada’s waning global competitiveness. “Canada’s entrepreneurs,” wrote Nejatian, “deserve better than what they are getting from their government.”

Taken together, the furious tagging, quoting, and reposting captured a frustrated tech class convinced that innovation and ambition were being stifled by bureaucracy. The tone was hostile, sometimes dismissive (“My god. Canada what are we doing,” Finkelstein shot back at then prime minister Justin Trudeau, who had announced new regulations on short-term rentals). But the men weren’t just venting. They called for Canada’s start-up culture to step up, urging entrepreneurs to build a new national vision from the ground up. The mood foreshadowed a post–US election moment that elevated private sector success over government expertise.