The Globe and Mail reports in its Wednesday edition that Canada is a mining superpower. A triple-bylined item led by guest columnist John Turner says that more mining companies trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange and TSX Venture Exchange than on any other stock exchange globally and more mining companies are headquartered in Canada than in any other country. With this comes a wide and deep array of mining expertise and service providers, including financial, accounting, consulting, legal, technical and environmental. Over all, it is no exaggeration to say that much of the global mining industry runs one way or another through Canada. However, this dominance and the many economic benefits that flow from it are not guaranteed and have in fact been slipping, with Canada losing ground to Hong Kong and Australia, among others. We should not take our historic strengths in mining for granted. We should be fully leveraging them on every policy front reasonably available. This is particularly the case in the face of Canada's mounting productivity crisis. Our first priority should be to protect and play to our strengths. The alternative is to lose one of the few remaining sectors in which Canada punches well above its weight.