Politics & Power Quote by Jim Balsillie

Balsillie’s line is the corporate equivalent of whistling past the graveyard: a breezy insistence that the cash register still rings, even as the room fills with shouting. “Noise” is the tell. He’s not disputing the substance of criticism or bad press; he’s demoting it to interference, a market-side distraction that shouldn’t be mistaken for demand-side collapse. It’s a classic executive move: reframe narrative risk as mere media static, then anchor everyone back to the only metric that supposedly matters-buying.

The repetition and intensifiers (“still definitely,” “really, really”) do more than emphasize confidence. They betray anxiety. When a CEO (or ex-CEO) piles certainty on certainty, it often signals an audience that needs persuading: analysts spooked by a sliding stock, carriers considering alternatives, enterprise clients hedging, employees watching morale leak out through layoffs and product delays. The international flex is especially strategic. If North America is where the narrative is being written-by U.S. press, rivals, and Wall Street-then “internationally” becomes a counter-stage, proof that the story isn’t over because other markets haven’t agreed to end it.

Contextually, this reads like the BlackBerry era when momentum was shifting to Apple and Android and the conversation turned from sales to relevance. Balsillie is trying to win the only fight he can win in that moment: not “Are we cool?” but “Are we moving units?” The subtext is a plea for time, framed as certainty: keep believing, keep shipping, keep the ecosystem intact long enough for the next pivot to arrive.