Canada First: It’s Time Alberta Realized the Oil Isn’t Theirs — It’s Ours

A Real Estate Developer’s Take on Canada First Thinking

Let me tell you a little story.

Years ago, when I was just getting into the game — before the assemblies, before the podcasts, before the daily dose of municipal madness — I had a deal fall apart over a driveway. Yup, a single-lane driveway. One foot of shared gravel between two semi-detached houses. One guy thought it was his. The other guy knew it wasn’t. And both of them were willing to walk away from hundreds of thousands in profit to be “right.”

That’s what Canada feels like right now.

We are a country sitting on gold — black, sweet crude in Alberta, critical minerals in Ontario and Quebec, hydro in B.C., ports in the Maritimes, and some of the smartest, most educated people in the world. Yet, we act like a bunch of provinces in a dysfunctional group chat, too passive-aggressive to just say: “Hey, maybe we should be working together?”

So let’s get into it.

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Alberta — You’re Sitting On It, But It Ain’t Yours Alone

I know this is going to sting, but Alberta needs to hear it: the oil isn’t yours. It’s Canada’s. It’s just geographically inconveniently located under your cowboy boots and Stampede belt buckles. You didn’t create it, and you sure as hell can’t consume it all yourselves. You’re the storage locker. The basement suite. The tank on the property line.

And while we’re at it: this “we should secede” talk every time you don’t get your way? Come on. You’re the guy threatening to leave the poker game with the cards and the snacks. Sit down and ante up.

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Canada First Doesn’t Mean Alberta Last

We need a real Canada First economic strategy — not some flag-waving slogan that’s more hollow than a developer’s promise of “luxury” anything when the finishes are from a 2013 Home Depot flyer.

A Canada First policy would:

• Prioritize intra-Canadian free trade (yes, that’s still not a thing… go try and move beer across provincial borders — it’s like smuggling diamonds).

• Build cross-country infrastructure like pipelines and power grids, not just overpriced luxury transit to nowhere.

• Develop a national housing strategy that doesn't pit Vancouver against Halifax in a battle of unaffordability.

• And make sure our resources — oil, land, tech, labor — are used strategically for long-term national prosperity, not short-term regional gain.

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We’ve Been The World’s Doormat

We sell raw materials and buy back finished goods. We give away our tech talent and beg for foreign investment like we’re on Dragon’s Den. We apologize for our wealth, whisper about our potential, and let other countries dictate our priorities.

And worst of all — we’re nice about it.

Enough.

Nice doesn’t build infrastructure. Nice doesn’t negotiate free trade deals. Nice doesn’t stop foreign money from using our real estate as a bank account while our own citizens live in RVs and Airbnb basements.

We need bold.

We need ruthless competence.

We need a leader — not a manager — to take us into the prosperity we deserve.

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The Real Estate Angle: This Is Like Assembling a Country

As someone who spends their days assembling lots, communities, and cities one land deal at a time, I can tell you: nothing great gets built when everyone guards their parcel like Gollum with the One Ring. You need to zoom out. You need vision. You need to be willing to say, “Yeah, this piece benefits you more today — but the whole thing benefits all of us forever.”

That’s the conversation we need to have in this country.

So, Alberta — we love you. We need you. But you’re part of something bigger. Canada is not a federation of grudges. It’s a country. And it’s time we started acting like one.