We are entering a new global arms race, not defined solely by weapons but by control over energy,
critical minerals and the
infrastructure required to power one of the most consequential technologies in human history:
artificial intelligence (AI).
The United States understands this dynamic and is undertaking deliberate efforts to ensure reliable inputs for industrial‑scale computing, electrification and national security in order to protect its leading position in this AI‑driven world. While you may disagree with the U.S. administration’s tactics, they are nonetheless actively securing transportation corridors such as the Suez Canal, exerting influence around the Strait of Hormuz and looking north to the Arctic. They are also working to lock in energy and resource access in the Americas through Venezuela and Cuba and in the north through Greenland. Canada, by contrast, sits on an extraordinary endowment of energy and critical minerals, yet has chosen a different path. Development has been constrained by layers of regulation and policy uncertainty, while carbon neutrality has become the organizing principle and focal point of economic policy. This approach has not meaningfully changed under Prime Minister
Mark Carney’s leadership and may, in fact, be reinforced. The tone has improved and the rhetoric is more reassuring but the underlying rules and regulatory barriers that deter capital remain largely intact. The outcome is fairly predictable. Investment will continue to flow elsewhere, supply chains will form without us and strategic relevance will erode quietly while we congratulate ourselves on intentions rather than outcomes.
