Canadians should never be punished by the government for getting to work and keeping their families warm.
Introducing our latest campaign: Energy Affordability Now

With change on the horizon, and the resistance to the federal Liberals' high-tax, de-growth agenda growing, now is the time to advocate for more affordable energy for hard-working, over-taxed Canadians, and to provide more of Canada's best-in-class oil and gas to the world.
Canadians have been ill-served when it comes to energy independence over a lost Liberal decade, and we must build up our capacity and our resilience to deal with tariff threats, and the needs of an evolving power grid.
There's no solving for Canada's cost of living crisis without growing Canada's resource economy, and restrictions on our energy sector have proven themselves to be just another tax on working families. Help the NCC advocate on your behalf, and on behalf of our Great Canadian energy producers and innovators.
Through the NCC's leading ads and advocacy efforts, we will continue to work each and every day to influence better policy on your behalf.
We are pleased to announce that prominent resource-sector advocate Geoff Russ has joined this campaign, and will be writing on these vitally important matters. Read his first column, below the jump.
Both Carney And Freeland A Threat To Canadian Energy And Affordability
By Geoff Russ, Special to the National Citizens Coalition
Between Mark Carney and Chrystia Freeland in the Liberal leadership race, there are no good options for Canadians struggling with the cost of living. The incoming hit of Donald Trump’s tariffs is going to make everyone hurt, and our national leadership will be unfit to weather the storm.
If Canadians have one good thing going for them right now, it is the energy sector. No matter what Ottawa’s bureaucrats and ideologues want our country to be, it cannot escape the fact that our greatest asset is natural resources.
Your standard of living relies on petroleum being pulled out of the ground and exported abroad. Canada is about three times as reliant on exports as the United States, and the lion’s share of those exports are petroleum-sourced commodities, including oil and natural gas.
In 2024, the Canadian trade deficit stood at $130 billion, meaning we purchase far more than we sell as a country.
Without petroleum and gas, that deficit would be $1 trillion. It would amount to $870 billion down the drain, with the loss felt by all Canadians who absorb that wealth into their everyday lives.
Until recent years, this country has been a happy and secure place for a thriving middle class. If energy disappeared, Canadians would not only be unable to heat their homes, but neither would they remain middle class for very long.
The sole major oil and gas project to become operational under Justin Trudeau was the Trans Mountain expansion (TMX), which finally began operations in May. When TMX started up, it contributed more to Canadian economic growth than all of British Columbia combined.
It also lowered gas prices across the Lower Mainland, from Delta to Chilliwack.
In times like these, when commuters, single-parent households, and young Canadians are barely getting by due to the inflated cost of mortgages, groceries, and taxes, relief at the pump matters. TMX proved that Canada is, at its heart, a country where the land allows its people to thrive.
What would Mark Carney and Chrystia Freeland do if either became the head of our government? They would do nothing different than Trudeau, whose government destroyed all the goodwill between Ottawa and the energy industry, which employs thousands of well-paid and trained blue-collar Canadians.
In fact, Carney and Freeland seem embarrassed by the important role played by the energy sector in our lives.
As the chair of Brookfield Asset Management, Carney oversaw investments in pipelines and other energy infrastructure in South America and the Middle-East, while supporting the cancellation of Canada’s Northern Gateway pipeline in 2016. Why should Canada be left on the sidelines?
The fact that Steven Guilbeault, architect of Bill C-69, better known as the “No More Pipelines” bill has endorsed Carney says enough.
In fact, were it not for the regulatory smothering of the Trudeau government, Canada might have two pipelines headed to the Pacific Coast with TMX and Northern Gateway, and another going to the Atlantic Coast with Energy East. Unfortunately, only TMX was completed and barely survived the whirlpool of red tape, cost overruns, and delays.
All Canadians who drive to work and drop their kids off at school appreciate lower gas prices, and TMX helped make that happen in BC, but imagine the savings for the middle class if there were two more such projects. Canadians can still have that, and when they do, the sky-high costs to fill up their cars will be nothing but a bad memory.
However, that is not on the table under this Liberal government, no matter who runs it.
Freeland was at the cabinet table every step of the way as it slow-walked and smothered the energy sector, levying carbon taxes, fees, and uncertainty. She and Carney are now trying to distance themselves from Trudeau’s carbon tax, but do not believe for a second that the costs it imposes on Canadian families and industry will disappear.
Promising to eliminate the carbon tax will be Carney and Freeland’s way of taking more money out of Canadian wallets and dumping them into failing de-growth schemes.
Both have their futures set with rich pensions and pathways to lucrative post-political careers. Neither will need to count every dollar during a long evening working out the family budget.
Canadians deserve a government that prioritizes their future, and not one that sees their well-being as expendable fodder for outdated net-zero fantasies.
Geoff Russ is a policy manager in the resource sector and contributor to several national publications across Canada, the United States, and Australia. Read his work in the National Post, the Spectator Australia, and Modern Age.