I'm not sure that oil is Canada's only economic hard power, but it has to be our largest :
“To effectively use oil, Canada’s only economic hard power, Carney needs to get not just one, but two pipelines built,” said Adam Waterous, chief executive of Calgary’s Waterous Energy Fund, a major oil sands investor.
It's hard to imagine a more strategically important investment for Canada. Right now, virtually all of Canada's oil exports go to the US. That gives us zero leverage. We are price takers! To correct this, we need to diversify our customer base. And the only way we do that is by building pipelines to our coastlines and then selling to the rest of the world .
But beyond shoring up our economy, I'd argue that this is also the way we accelerate decarbonization. Here's the plan: We get rich, and then reinvest the profits into renewable energy, the world's largest sovereign wealth fund , and critical nation-building infrastructure like housing, transport, and education.
Oil and gas profits won't last forever. This is about building for that future.
Cover photo by Chris Liverani on Unsplash