Power Struggle
Improving the energy dialogue in Canada (and beyond) through honest, non-partisan, and fact- based conversations.
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Power Struggle
Canada Unleashed: The Sleeping Energy Giant
The energy conversation is polarizing. But the reality is multidimensional. Get the full story with host Stewart Muir.
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This started from amusing, really, just looking at the global map and realizing hold on, you know, canada is absolutely enormous. It's a G7 nation and yet why do we not hear about Canada when we talk about global superpowers? And then, as you dig deeper, you realize OK, so Canada's second largest country by landmass has the longest coastline. Country by landmass has the longest coastline. And then when you look into what it has on the ground in terms of its mineral resources and then the energy resources in terms of oil and natural gas the more traditional raw materials for energy today you begin to build up this picture that you know there's an enormous economic potential here, very much the same geographic advantages that have underpinned America's economic emergence over the last 100 years Having a very strong coastline both on the Pacific coast and the Atlantic. Given everything we understand about the advantages that countries need to grow, why is Canada not doing better economically?
Stewart Muir:If you're enjoying Power Struggle, make sure to subscribe, share this episode and leave us a review. It helps us keep fact-based energy conversations going and gets these voices into more ears. Canada, as the host of the 2025 G7 Summit in Kananaskis, stands at a pivotal moment. The promise of Prime Minister Mark Carney turning Canada into an economic and energy superpower is bold, intriguing and perhaps challenging To explore whether Canada is truly ready to seize this ambitious goal today. I'm delighted to welcome our guest.
Stewart Muir:Tej Parikh is the Financial Times' economics editorial writer. He also writes the Sunday version of the Free Lunch newsletter, which I love to get in my email. It covers the global economic policy debate. Before joining the Financial Times, the FT, he was a director of economics at the Fitch Ratings Company and chief economist at the Institute of Directors, and he was previously an economist at the Bank of England. Tej has also written for numerous international outlets on issues covering global affairs and public policy, and he was once a journalist for the Cambodia Daily in Phnom Penh. Welcome, tej, thank you. Thank you for having me. Great to see you. You wrote a piece recently all about Canada. It was just so informative and, in a funny way, it made the topics you covered much more significant to readers in Canada because it came from an outside source. So, tej, what has Canada got that would make it a superpower, do you think, in terms of natural resources?
Tej Parikh:Yeah, well, I mean, this started from amusing, really, just looking at the global map and realizing, hold on, Canada is absolutely enormous.
Tej Parikh:Realising hold on, you know, canada is absolutely enormous.
Tej Parikh:It's a G7 nation and yet why do we not hear about Canada when we talk about global superpowers?
Tej Parikh:So then I thought initially this could form a very interesting column idea, just to explore.
Tej Parikh:And then as you dig deeper you realise, okay, so Canada is, you know, second largest country by landmass, has the longest coastline, and then when you look into what it has on the ground in terms of its mineral resources, the vast critical mineral resources it has, and then the energy resources in terms of oil and natural gas, which are kind of the more traditional raw materials for energy today, which are kind of the more traditional raw materials for energy today, you begin to build up this picture that you know there's an enormous economic potential here. And then you just throw in the fact that geographically, you have essentially very much the same geographic advantages that have underpinned America's economic emergence over the last 100 years, and that's, you know, having a very strong coastline both on the Pacific coast and the Atlantic. So all of these kind of advantages, I felt really played into this question. You know why is Canada not doing better economically than we might expect, given everything we understand about the advantages that countries need?
Stewart Muir:to grow. Well, you've hit on something important. I think that's what resonated and I believe I shared that in my social media. A lot of people were suddenly talking about it and you know your external position. But I think the fact that you covered so much ground in that you talked about the different metals and minerals, you talked about the potash that goes to the US and grows a lot of their food, and you had a wonderful map that I shared in LinkedIn and everyone was talking about that. Your colleagues did a great job at the FT. But then your newsletter piece was just full of relevant charts and graphs and in the YouTube version of this we'll share a few of the visuals so people can see. But I must say congrats on doing a really thorough piece. I've rarely seen that done. I was kind of envious because I hey, I like to tell the resource story. I was kind of envious because I hey, I like to tell the resource story. It's part of what I do in Canada here.
Tej Parikh:I was personally quite surprised by how viral that went in Canada and I think a lot of the conversations or the responses I got back from Canadians was it was actually quite split.
Tej Parikh:If I'm honest with you, there were a lot of people with a very similar view to you, being very optimistic that you know somebody from Europe has, you know, spotted all these advantages and is telling the story of the country and the potential of the country.
Tej Parikh:But I think obviously when you talk about natural resources, when you're talking about energy, there is obviously a tension there. Environmentalists in particular and those who are wanting to protect the indigenous rights of indigenous communities in Canada are obviously concerned. So there was a bit of a split response in the two and I think one thing that I wasn't trying to imply was that you know, look, here's a country with tons of resources that we just need to plunder. My kind of point was more that here's a country that has a number of resources that can provide a focal point for its development and its emergence, and let's not forget that the world is trying to make this transition to the green economy. So this doesn't have to be about being anti-environmental. It's about creating those supply chains and critical minerals that the Western world is currently, you know, short of.
Stewart Muir:I felt your piece struck exactly the right tone in that, because you weren't advocating, you were reporting, but I think it did come around to that. And one of the intriguing things and you've referenced this is the potential. I mean you argue that Canada, with this geography, its placement and resources, it could spark an economic boom. But why hasn't it? And I know the Financial Times is a companion publication to the Economist and the Economist recently wrote that if Canada was a US state, it would be Alabama in economic terms, which no one thinks is a compliment, although Alabama is a wonderful place. I mean, how do we go from Alabama to superpower? Are we over-optimistic?
Tej Parikh:So when you break it down and you look at why income per capita in Canada has perhaps not increased as fast as we might expect on the basis of those advantages, it really kind of breaks down to three components. I mean one is investment, so how much capital goes into the country. The second is labor, and not just the amount, the size of the workforce you have, but how well you utilize the workforce. And then the third component is something that economists like to call a total factor productivity, which is essentially your innovative ability and your ability to bring together capital and people.
Tej Parikh:And when you look at Canada as opposed to other large economies although this is a challenge for a lot of large economies is its ability to integrate all its resources together. So can different provinces trade effectively? Can workers move from one province to find a job in another? And when you begin to see that actually there are a lot of restrictions in Canada, not just because of its vast geography but because of regulation, that it actually can't combine its capital and labour as productively as it could you know these internal trade barriers in Canada it became quite a central piece of the analysis for me. And, you know, I think those are the three key reasons, really, why Canada hasn't really grown as fast as it could have.
Stewart Muir:Well, this is the time to be talking about these things. You know, in Canada it sometimes feels like there's a cringe that we have urban residents, especially that we've got all these great things that exist here. But wouldn't it be better if we were Silicon Valley or Switzerland and produced nice watches or something that was a little more glam? Yet I can't think of one thing that the world does anywhere that doesn't depend on material inputs of some kind or energy products. It could be hard to see, but they're there. Is there a mythology that the world sees about Canada that we should be uneasy about that we're these kind of lumberjack types hewers of wood and haulers of water, and that, yeah, we're kind of primitive as an economy and that's something to be ashamed of. Is that a real thing that is seen outside?
Tej Parikh:I don't think so. I don't think so. I mean in that way. If anything, what I would say with canada is I mean, most of the western worlds, you know us, europe included has kind of got into the function of doing these high-tech service industry. You know the sexier type of jobs at home and then importing raw materials from China or India or you know parts of Asia. Now, what we clearly know from the last five years of looking at geopolitics and economics is that being over-reliant on particular supply chains isn't the best thing, but also not having those competencies at home is also a difficulty. So if you don't have people who work in manufacturing or construction, you lose the ability to have an agile economy. So I think in Canada that diversity is its strength, if anything, and I think, given it has these vast raw material resources, there is a massive scope for it to become even more integrated into Western supply chains in particular and to become a supplier of these things.
Stewart Muir:I'm in Western Canada, here, tejan, we had a deal announced last week by one of the big midstream energy companies, a company called Enbridge, that they have done a deal with more than 30 First Nations for that that syndicate to purchase a large piece of a gas transportation network including pipelines, and that was, I'm going to say, one of, if not the most significant First Nations deal in oil and gas infrastructure. We've seen some big deals in hydro in Quebec and other in Ontario as well, but one of the biggest and this will empower a generation of uplift for the First Nations involved. In the view of those First Nations, they voluntarily came into this, so I mean that's a good news story. Is there something that we could be doing differently in Canada to get that story out? Is there a way to be more compelling about information we think is valid, about information we think is valid?
Tej Parikh:Well, I mean, I wouldn't be taking marketing advice from a Brit. We're not the best at marketing the UK, we're notoriously quite downbeat and I think, actually oddly, what I would say is, over the last you know, four to six months. You know it's a weird offshoot of Donald Trump's return to the White House, but you know, canada has been thrust into the spotlight. I also think the new Prime Minister, mark Carney, is a good leader on the world stage and I think that will also kind of raise Canada's stature and he seems to be talking about the right things in terms of these opportunities. You know, dovetailing quite well with some of the points I made actually in my article about what the opportunities Canada can do and the potential it has.
Tej Parikh:I think one of the things that is a bit of a crossover with the UK and perhaps other countries do this better is for the foreign direct investor who is thinking about setting up in another country. You know how easy is it for them to know what opportunities are available in Canada and go down to the province level and then also understand okay, if I did want to invest in a certain project in this province, what are the regulations, what are the tax requirements? What if I want to then sell into another province? You know these are the types of questions. I think it's the real the, the detail that kind of gets the invest.
Tej Parikh:The investors right now will know that Canada has all of this latent potential, they will know that there is resources there, they will know that there is talented workers in Canada.
Tej Parikh:But it's just the answers to what barriers there are to business and how they can be reduced, and I think that's the piece that Canada and its provinces can do a better job on, and it already is. I think what's been very positive and I think it's been picked up here is the discussion around internal trade barriers in Canada between provinces. Now, the reason why this is so prominent in the minds of European investors in particular is that the European Union is, you know, effectively it's an economic union, but it's split among 27 member states with various different regulations and been trying to find ways to harmonise and improve that for investors, and investors here constantly make this point that I don't have access to this huge market if everyone's got various different regulations, and I think that's the. That's the thing that I think canada would benefit from showing how it is a kind of a more unified country and showing how that it is a unified marketplace where investors and businesses can develop expansive supply chains.
Stewart Muir:If Europe can do it, canada should be able to, and it's been a big talking point in business and government circles lately to do that. So hopefully the resolve brought about by this current crisis will turn into something. Look, taj, our prime minister before Justin Trudeau was Stephen Harper, someone who was fond of calling Canada quote unquote an emerging energy superpower. I'm talking back 2006 to 2015, when he left office. At that time, there was a clear push to position energy as a national strength, and under the Trudeau government, that kind of lost its steam. We seemed to turn inward, things became more polarized, and then suddenly, in March 2025, I get this email on a Sunday from Tej Parikh, from you that put energy superpower back on the table. And then, a few weeks after that, we're having a federal election in Canada and there's Mark Carney talking about the energy superpower that Canada could be. You're going to be able to claim prescience in this, I think. Why do you think this phrase disappeared and why do you think it's coming back?
Tej Parikh:Well, I mean, I think the association with crude oil is one factor here. I mean, so you can be rich in oil and natural gas. But obviously over the last 10, 15 years the global economy has been thinking about alternatives and that's, you know, in law in Europe and in the UK and in some states in the US, there's a concerted effort to shift to cleaner energy sources. And I think you know maybe people thought, ok, well, canada doesn't have that. But you know, in my digging you begin to see that Canada has vast access to the critical minerals that underpin a lot of renewable energy sources. And then you can go further than that.
Tej Parikh:I mean the access to uranium raw material as well in Canada, which again is coming back on the agenda, for well, it's trying to come back on the agenda. For European countries it remains a political challenge. But nuclear energy, and becoming a nuclear energy superpower as well, highlights that it's. You know this isn't just about having access to those, you know, old world energy sources. This is access to the type of energy sources that the world is looking for. So Canada is aligned to the renewable transition and I was quite surprised, actually, that in the last 10 to 15 years you haven't really heard Canada's name in that. With the US and Europe in particular, trying to diversify its supply chain from China, which dominates the green industry from right the way from the raw material to processing refining stages. I thought it was about time that Canada plays that up a bit more and the opportunities it has there.
Stewart Muir:Yeah, I think there's a lot of people in Canada who want to find out what we need to do, because there's a sense here that, hey, we've done all the right things. There were pressures because we're an open, democratic society. If you have a beef, you can air it. You can even pressure it into regulatory processes, legislation, regulation. You can freely speak what you believe to the public and voters can weigh arguments. All of that is completely open and free. We're one of the freest countries in the world, I think, by any measure, and is it that freedom itself which has caused us to accomplish this state, where now the world has forgotten about us because we have maybe handcuffed ourselves with some of the regulations we've got?
Tej Parikh:Sure, I mean, this is pretty much a narrative that happens around the world and it is a difficulty. But I think where the discussion needs to go is is there is an opportunity here. How can we take advantage of this opportunity in a way that is as sustainable and inclusive as possible? And people are answering these questions. You know, this isn't about just digging up Canada and exploiting its raw materials. It's about finding ways in which you can create economic compacts with indigenous communities. Create economic compacts with indigenous communities it's a way in which you can, you know, sustainably mine parts of the country and ensure that, as you are developing underground resources in canada, you are also developing local economies. So developing an industry means you develop jobs. You develop entire cluster industries that join to this.
Tej Parikh:This isn't just about creating more mining jobs.
Tej Parikh:Once you start developing factories and industries in certain areas and then other, you know, financial services, commercial roles, all of these things build up, and that's how I think the debate needs to be kind of pushed forward a little bit made here in the UK when, in the 1970s, a lot of the revenues that we were able to generate from oil in the North Sea didn't really go back in to the economy it wasn't saved in any way that could then essentially become a sustainable source of revenue.
Tej Parikh:And I think there are very clever ways in which Canada and all Canadians can see that actually these natural resources that the country has is actually an asset that everyone has a share in.
Tej Parikh:And you know, towards the end of the piece I did kind of raise this question of whether there are clever funding vehicles, whether it's a sovereign wealth fund or more interesting ways in which, you know, maybe pension funds or asset managers can get involved in supporting the financing, where everyone can have a stake in the success of Canada's raw materials and its natural resources.
Tej Parikh:And then I think, once you start developing finance around these industries, you can also find ways to make these industries even more sustainable and environmentally friendly. And part of the reason why we're stuck in this situation where we're saying actually we don't want to start mining a resource because it's too polluting or it's too dangerous, is because we haven't really undergone the process of actually working out. There are technologies to mitigate some of those risks, but if we don't really undergone the process of actually working out, there are technologies to mitigate some of those risks, but if we don't embark on this process we do not benefit from you know the economic advantages of it in the first place, and then, secondly, we don't actually develop the knowledge that comes from actually starting on that journey.
Tej Parikh:So I think that's the way I look at it.
Stewart Muir:You kind of referenced the Norwegian model, where they do have that. Is it a trillion dollar plus sovereign wealth fund, Exactly? Yeah, that has become a story. Everyone loves to hear about Norway's riches from oil and they're able to talk about the green programs. They've got very affordable electric vehicles, things like that. Very affordable electric vehicles, things like that. Do you think that would work for Canada? I?
Tej Parikh:mean it certainly has the resources.
Tej Parikh:I mean Norway is on perhaps a different level, but I think I mean one thing that was very interesting in looking at Canada is actually one of its advantages in terms of financial services is in pension asset management.
Tej Parikh:The UK and Europe in particular look to Canada, to how it manages its pension wealth effectively, and so there clearly is a crossover in Canada about how well it can channel its revenues from resources into lucrative and productive investments, but also, once Canada is able to generate revenue from its resources, and whether it kind of channels that towards a sovereign wealth fund. It then opens up these incredible questions around what industries, what infrastructure Canada wants to develop. At the same time and I think that's the point where you start to see everyone in Canada benefiting from these types of resource opportunities. I think that the problem is when you have a resource where a lot of people, particularly local economies, do not benefit from it, and then that creates animosity, it creates the politics. That basically means these economic opportunities will not be, will not have the support in the future, and I think that's why I think it is a good model for Canada, and it'd be interesting to see think tanks in Canada. Work up how this might work.
Stewart Muir:I noticed one comment under your post. Canada is basically a big California. It's too difficult to get things built here.
Tej Parikh:Fair assessment, yeah I mean, I did read in my research about permitting difficulties and various regulations and how that varies between different provinces. I think one of the most surprising things for anyone who is just new to canada is the paradox that it is, you know, one of the most underpopulated large countries and it has the largest land mass and yet it has a housing crisis and it has so much land to build houses on. A lot of advanced economies is going through this problem, but you would have think you would have thought a country with the land mass of of canada wouldn't have this problem, but it but it clearly does. And I it was quite surprising to see how um vocal and you know pointed a lot of the comments were on this. Um, you know, building has been a challenge. It's not just the regulation. A lot of advanced economies have actually also faced difficulties and just having the the construction knowledge and talent available to build in certain cases, and the know-how is also a difficulty as well as the regulations.
Stewart Muir:It's a paradox and in recent years the federal government, probably mindful of the first point that you made, the three factors for resource success you need people. People need to have skills to do those jobs. Recognizing that, I think, policymakers in Ottawa said bring the people. They increased fourfold or maybe more the number of new Canadians. There's been a surge, a flood of newcomers to Canada who've brought new perspectives and skills. It's become politicized. Some are saying well, did you bring the right people to Canada who have the skills we need right now to do these things? And it affected, I think, some of the electoral outcomes recently. But we've got all these people but we're not able to house them and it's not even clear whether we're able to employ them as well as they ought to be employed. We're bringing very highly educated people in a lot of cases to the country. How does this fit together into what we're talking about here, tej?
Tej Parikh:Yeah.
Tej Parikh:I mean this isn't just a challenge in Canada. I mean, you know, a lot of people did look to the Trudeau government and say, look, here's a good, good example of a country who is, you know, not only taking a responsible approach to taking in vulnerable communities, but also realizing that immigration is central to supporting economic growth. Now, the problem is for all of us who believe in immigration and the importance of having diversity and importance of boosting our labor forces, is that you can't win the argument unless the infrastructure and the public services also grows at the same rate. And in Canada, you know, this has inherently been part of the reason why house prices have boomed so much, but also the tensions in the politics isn't just down to what happens with, you know, house prices in the market, but it's also about access to public services. You know, if localities receive a lot of individuals, then we need to be able to map how individuals then have access to public services.
Tej Parikh:And I think a lot of countries really have difficulty with this. And it's those day-to-day things that then create the strains, or the political strains around immigration, particular because, as I said, the standard of living in Canada not accounting for the high, you know, rental costs or the high costs of actually kind of having shelter in Canada, but a lot of people want to live there. A lot of people want to live in Vancouver, a lot of people want to go to Toronto. They like the way Canadians live in the lifestyle, and so attracting the high-end workers is not a problem in terms of lower skilled workers. There are the skill sets there that every country needs, and if Canada wants to develop, particularly if it needs construction workers, if it needs people to work in the manufacturing sector or the sectors that are more kind of aligned to the natural resources and this is a key resource that Canada will need as well.
Tej Parikh:We know that it is underpopulated and you know labor is going to play a big, big part in supporting its growth. But the challenge and the challenge for any politician and policymaker is immigration can only be a success if you you you know also ensure that the infrastructure, both the public infrastructure, public service infrastructure, road, rail and housing also evolve at the same time. And I think you know there's a few things. When you look at Canada and dig into the data, you see how, particularly over the last five to 10 years, there's been a mismatch there and, unfortunately, when that mismatch arises, you have a political backlash and it becomes very difficult for the politics to then shift again. So it's about getting that right in the future.
Stewart Muir:Tej, a little earlier in your career you were an economist at the Bank of England and you arrived not long after Mark Carney departed from his role as governor. You arrived at the Financial Times a few years back, not long after the departure of Chrystia Freeland, who went on to become the finance minister, currently the transportation minister. I guess you have heard about some of these interesting Canadians. What do you make of Canadians from that kind of experience and other experience? What is the Canadian thing? The people and outlook.
Tej Parikh:I mean there is the kind of the typical characteristic Everyone knows Canadians as being incredibly kind and caring individuals.
Tej Parikh:I think with Mark Carney he did transform the Bank of England, I should say.
Tej Parikh:I mean, I was there around 2014 when he came in and he was known for his charisma and being a fresh, modern voice in the institution and don't forget, this is a 100 years plus old institution and he helped to kind of energize the place and bring about his own changes, not only from his experience in finance, but also just his kind of modernizing the way the institution thought about economics and financial markets I thought was quite notable in my time there. I actually bumped into Mark. The first time I bumped into him in the Bank of England office was actually when he was getting a tour of the gym actually, so that was the first time I bumped into him. I know he likes to keep in shape and keep fit, so that was a good old memory of mine. I think particularly Europeans and in the UK have a very positive view of Canadians and I think Mark Clarnie is going to be an incredibly strong voice and somebody who I think Brits generally have a strong view of.
Stewart Muir:As he moves into hosting the G7, he'll be possibly the newest elected leader of the countries on the stage there, but certainly not the least experienced, given all that's happened since the G7 last met. What do you think the dynamic is? How does that all unfold? And I don't mean just for Canada the bigger discussion but also how does Mark Carney fit into this, given the pretty incredible career he's had in finance?
Tej Parikh:Yeah, I mean he will be a highly respected voice in that. I mean, if you look at his career, you know, going from the financial crisis, from his from earlier parts of his career in 2008, 2009 he was also in the uk at a at a pretty tumultuous time for the uk economy, both in terms of politics, being finance, with experience of the politics and what's involved in getting the right stakeholders together to come to a solution. So I think he will play a strong part in that. We were looking at the campaign I suppose the campaigning period where there were concerns about whoever was leading Canada, how their relationships would be with Donald Trump, and I think you know from what we saw in the visit in the Oval Office whenever it was.
Tej Parikh:You know Mark clearly has built a rapport. I think it's important to build a rapport, obviously, with the US it's a major economy and in order to negotiate with Donald Trump and to ensure that the US is also it is a major stakeholder obviously in anything that the G7 does and its decisions. I think that relationship is crucial Because in order for the G7 to be a constructive body over the next three to four years or as long as the Trump term is in place. You're going to need somebody who can speak with Trump, negotiate with Trump, and therefore, I think you know Mark Carney is going to play an important role in that.
Stewart Muir:Where have you landed on what Trump is all about? I mean, is this a poker game? Is it a chess match? Is it a street fight? Is I mean? I think he likes making deals.
Tej Parikh:He likes negotiating and I think, from what we can understand from his tariff policy, he takes things to extremes and then he rows things back and he tries to gain concessions where he can. And I think he will take the same approach on most policy he has. I mean, he sees the world through a transactional lens. It's what can the other people offer me and how can we do a deal to ensure that I can gain that? And I think in some sense you know, yes, he is unpredictable, above and beyond that. But I think if you know that that's his framing, then I think it means that you know others just need to adjust to it and be pragmatic in it. And that is essentially what we have seen from the way the Canadian Prime Minister has been interacting with Donald Trump. You have to be pragmatic if you know what the threat could be.
Tej Parikh:Europeans are also going to learn that when they try to negotiate with Trump. So I mean a lot of optimism has somehow come out of the last couple of weeks, given that the US has unwound some parts of its tariff agenda. But I would kind of caution against that. You know, not only is Trump a negotiator, he does like to wield the uncertainty card. So you know, for the US as allies, for Canada, for Europe, it's just about trying to make sure you stay on the right side and trying to also integrate amongst yourselves. You know Canada should look to do trade deals with Europe and Europe. Obviously. We saw recently the UK and the EU doing a trade deal as well. These are opportunities to strengthen those ties.
Stewart Muir:I haven't brought up China here. China here, it could really consume a lot of time, but maybe just in terms of energy and natural resources and the transformation of the economy, the almost monopolization of the supply chain of a huge number of the elements and metals and manufactured products necessary for decarbonization. How is that unfolding in terms of power politics? And I'm sure it'll be on the agenda the G7. And also, where does Canada fit in? Is it critically important that Canada is a strong and recognized supplier of things that shouldn't maybe just come from one place in the world?
Tej Parikh:Yes, I mean China has been ahead of the West on critical minerals, you know it at least has a, you know, a few decades head start here.
Tej Parikh:China has been thinking about this for a long time and it's been nurturing not only its own internal resources but also its resources within other countries, whether that's in Africa or South America, and it's been developing those supply chains, countries, whether that's in Africa or South America, and has been developing those supply chains.
Tej Parikh:And over the last 20, 30 years, china's not only, as I said, developed a monopoly on the kind of the mining of resources, but also the technology in terms of processing and refining.
Tej Parikh:And if you just look at the critical minerals that the world needs in terms of the green transition, it's difficult to see a point where any other country has a foothold. Now we've seen what the dangers are from, not just from a geopolitical perspective, but supply chains can be at risk even without the geopolitics, as we saw during the pandemic. So Canada's role and the fact that Canada has deposits of these resources not only does it have the deposits, but also, when it can specialize in these um, in raw materials, it also has the expertise it can play a very important role in providing diversification in supply chains and particularly in for a lot of countries in the western bloc who want to try and reduce some of their supply chain dependencies or their risks that they associate with China, then it makes Canada an even more important player within that, particularly between the EU and Canada and UK and UK.
Stewart Muir:Tej, I know you're a big reader because I read your reviews in the Financial Times. I wish I had some of the books on my bookshelf that you've been reading lately Power and Progress, innovation for the Masses, any Happy Returns, the War Below Any book. You'd really recommend one of those, or maybe something else that you're reading right now that is a must read for 2025?.
Tej Parikh:Well, it's actually not one for 2025, but the Prisoners of Geography series is an excellent book because it kind of gets to what we discussed right at the start of the podcast, which is Canada's innate economic advantages and understanding how geography plays a key, determining role in your economic and even your societal progress. And so that's kind of where I initially got this inspiration to look at Canada, because I was taking a lot of the lessons from prisoners of geography to realise, ok, geography is a big part that explains how countries progress and develop. I mean, the UK is a tiny island and just off Europe, it had to develop this outwardness and openness to discovery and that's kind of how the country emerged. And then, if you look at Canada, that's where the question marks came. So you know why is it not even more kind of dominant than it is? So I would kind of say that's a good book to be reading.
Stewart Muir:Sounds like proper grounding. Now suppose the phone rang, tej, and Mark Carney your former colleague from the gym as well said I need to know how I'm going to make Canada a superpower and realize its potential. Loved your piece a few months ago, tej, but I need your advice. What should I do in the next couple of years to make Canada an energy superpower?
Tej Parikh:Yeah, well, I'm sure he's already got his own 10 point plan for this.
Tej Parikh:I mean, I think the first thing is he should build on the momentum that he has, the political momentum he has on reducing internal trade business in Canada. You then create the groundwork in order to start taking advantage of the mineral resources and the natural resources. So I think that's the first stage just creating a better business environment for Canada through those internal trade barriers and then, secondly, thinking about how Canada can start to share in the revenues from these industries. You know, once people start to well, canadians start to feel that everyone is benefiting from the natural resources in the country and there are avenues to recycle the revenues from those sectors into the country, whether that's through housing or developing infrastructure, improving public services. You then have this kind of reinforcement effect between the country and its natural resources and its assets and the development of peoples, and I think working on that will kind of provide the groundwork for Canada's emergence Sounds like solid advice and I hope he hears about it and takes it, because we do need to get things going.
Stewart Muir:That's the consensus of probably more than 80% of voters in Canada that there is that frustration. But look, tej Parikh, speaking to us from the Financial Times in London, really appreciate your time and your thoughts and the thoughtfulness that you've given to the subject of Canada. I've spent a little time in newsrooms in London. I know you can clear a meeting room if you say I've got a great story on Canada, but you've done it for us. You've got that story in the print and you've put so much passion into the storytelling and the graphics. I just love that piece and it's been an absolute pleasure to spend this time with you. So thank you very much. Thank you very much for having me, thanks for joining us on Power Struggle. Until next time, keep thinking about where Canada's headed. It's going to be quite a ride. Give us a like, share and talk about us. Thank you.
