The gov't was giving preferential tax treatment to resource extraction and deliberately dismantling the regulatory environment around them. Basically extending what the Alberta provincial gov't has done for decades out to the rest of the country.

A high dollar also favoured those industries against all others. Not sure if the feds could have done anything about the high dollar, but it certainly choked everywhere outside of the resource sector.

A low dollar combined with high investment in education makes Canada a good place to invest to get high skilled talent cheaper. Many American tech companies did this around 15 years ago, I worked for a couple -- marketing/sales HQ'd in the US, engineering talent in the GTA.