Sovereignty by Design
Embedding economic sovereignty into decision making
Sovereignty is about retaining control over the systems and platforms that shape our economy and our society. We want to ensure that the value created here benefits Canadians, instead of being extracted abroad. Too often, foreign ownership of critical infrastructure and technology limits our ability to set rules, safeguard resilience, and foster domestic innovation.
The Canadian Shield Institute for Public Policy created the Sovereignty Score as a practical framework to evaluate policy decisions through this lens.
The Sovereignty Score evaluation was first launched in October of 2025, and you can read the original methodology here. After scoring several policies, we updated the framework in March of 2026 to refine the criteria.
The goal has stayed the same: Identify the key factors that support Canadian sovereignty, and helping to ensure that each decision strengthens Canada’s long-term national resilience.