How can a country at the top of the Northern Hemisphere not take the gift of natural resources seriously? Democracies that do leverage their resources to bolster the entire economy. They don’t bury their heads in the snow and dismiss their value.
Canada has pushed down its resource sector over the past decade in a really big way, but it didn’t start then. The beginnings were in the 1990s, when the powers that be decided that resources and making things were no longer cool.
It was believed the economy would continue to provide generational advancement by focusing on real estate, software, retail sales of cheap goods produced offshore and an ever-broadening package of low-paying service jobs.
By the 2000s, it became immoral to many to increase extractive industries and process raw materials. They were untroubled to have refining and manufacturing done in less developed countries, allowing us to say that it raised the living standards in underdeveloped countries and led emerging countries like China to become democracies. One was true, the other not.
Over the past couple of years, after realizing how poorly our economy was performing and owning up to the fact that the historical generational advancement had fallen off the table, we started to take natural resources seriously again, if for many reluctantly.
As the country is one year into making this necessary pivot, the NDP adopts Canada’s Green New Deal — a policy centred on no increase in oil and gas production or infrastructure.
Federal NDP leader Avi Lewis claims that oil and gas workers will not be thrown under the bus in his version of the transition away from fossil fuels, and that Canadians are calling for no increase in oil and gas production. Ironically, Canada’s Green New Deal directly contradicts the path taken by Norway, a social-democratic country that Canada’s left has long admired.
What are Canadians actually calling for?
Polls show Canadians prioritizing economic growth and favouring a balanced energy mix — renewables, hydro, nuclear, and, where it is locally abundant, natural gas. Sources: Global News (Dec 2025); MEI–Ipsos Poll (Dec 2025)
Polling also shows Canadians giving more priority to economic growth and favouring a balanced energy mix, with strong support for renewables alongside hydro, nuclear, and — where it is locally abundant — natural gas.
And what about the workers?
For thirty years, industrial workers have heard the same promises about “jobs of the future” — much like the Green New Deal for Canada offers today. A rapid, comprehensive transition off fossil fuels has never been achievable, and its scale and complexity have only grown.
China is a real-time experience of large-scale adoption of renewables.
Decouple is hosted by Dr. Chris Keefer, a practicing emergency physician in Toronto and contributor to the Breakthrough Institute, a not-for-profit that accepts human-caused climate change and takes a pragmatic, worker-focused approach to policy.
Dr. Keefer’s recent post, China’s Electrotech Stack Rests on a Coal Pile, makes a blunt point: China’s clean-tech supply chain is built on an energy system far stronger and more carbon-intensive than ours. His analysis shows that a transition on the scale the new NDP leader proposes is unlikely without revenues from expanding oil and gas and the infrastructure needed to support it.
Key points from Dr. Keefer’s analysis:
- China’s clean-tech supply chain runs on coal, including polysilicon, aluminum, batteries, and EV components.
- Heavy industry requires massive, firm power, not intermittent sources.
- Critical minerals and industrial materials depend on energy-intensive processes that cannot be scaled with variable renewables alone.
The long and the short of it is that as wind and solar scale up, firm power has to scale with them, even with batteries. California’s grid operator, CAISO, is still working through significant stability problems that come with a high reliance on renewable. If that’s true in a densely populated small land mass, it will be more challenging in Canada.
Federal NDP and the social democratic model
Canada’s old left once championed the social-democratic model of Norway and the other Nordic countries.
Among Arctic nations, Norway ranks second on the UN Human Development Index, while Canada sits at 16th, one place ahead of the United States — a meaningful gap in real-world outcomes. All Nordic countries rank ahead of Canada.
The Nordic countries have never veered away from their resource industries. They used the wealth those sectors generated to build modern manufacturing, finance, software, and applied-technology sectors. The results have been good, with productivity levels far above Canada’s.
Norway runs one of the greenest economies in the world, especially for an oil-and-gas producer. It balances environmental protection with economic development. It manages its small reserves carefully and isn’t capping production or infrastructure. It’s a pragmatic response to global demand.
So what is the best path for Canadian political parties? It looks a lot like the one we’re already on, but with the balance between environment and economy that Norway has. It provides a proven path to pay for the social programs Canadian social democrats fight for. If we could pay for them, all political parties would likely agree.
Getting back to the Green New Deal for Canada
This plan could cause many serious problems. An associated paper published by The Conversation is a supporting document to the plan, and it says this: “The harsh reality is that reduced consumption remains the only real course of action. Battery-powered cars, yes, but also smaller and fewer cars.”
Ratcheting up the fear about climate change, though most think it is real, didn’t convince working people they could afford what was being asked of them. Now, it appears the more radical left is rallying around an escalating fall in productivity and living standards.
Not sure how that will go. Not surprising. Humanity has shown strong resolve to do better, and there is no indication that the appetite for breakthrough technologies is receding.
It is no longer just about the rich countries. The entire world is now pulled into the transition — and under far more demanding circumstances. Who knows how far and how deep AI will go as a driver of demand and disruption? What new technological growth engines will emerge next? And how many electricity grids around the world will have to be upgraded, replaced, or built from scratch just to keep up?
Canada can’t transition the entire national economy overnight from a weakened position. It will take trillions of dollars, massive volumes of critical minerals, and strong public, private, and household balance sheets.
Canada needs its eyes wide open. Blurred vision won’t steer a car or an economy.
Jim Rushton is a 46-year veteran of BC’s resource and transportation sectors, with experience in union representation, economic development, and terminal management.