Gwyn Morgan is a retired business leader and was a director of five global corporationsPete Townshend’s lyrics — “Meet the new boss / Same as the old boss” — perfectly capture Canada’s new prime minister. Mark Carney was sold to Canadians as a fresh start after the Trudeau years. He now claims he’ll make Canada a “clean and conventional energy superpower.”But Canadians shouldn’t be fooled. Despite the warm optics of his recent meeting with the premiers, Carney remains just as ideologically wedded to net-zero emissions as his predecessor..Take the carbon tax. Ahead of April’s election, Carney axed the consumer carbon tax — a savvy move that lowered gas prices and helped polish his centrist credentials. But the tax didn’t disappear. It was merely shifted upstream, onto producers and manufacturers. These businesses will simply pass those costs on to consumers through higher prices — which most will blame on 'greedy corporations,' not Ottawa.This bait-and-switch is classic Carney. After all, he spent years in elite global roles where climate activism and finance blended seamlessly, as co-founder of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) and UN Special Envoy for Climate Action and Finance. Both roles were aimed at pushing financial institutions to abandon carbon-intensive sectors — especially oil and gas.Now, Carney offers vague promises of energy expansion while doubling down on Trudeau’s oil and gas emissions cap. That’s a contradiction in terms. Without lifting that cap, talk of pipelines is just political theatre.And make no mistake: real pipelines are what Canada needs — not symbolic ones. We’ve just endured a lost decade of sluggish growth propped up by immigration, shrinking per-capita GDP, and a doubling of the national debt. A true recovery requires reviving private-sector investment and building the energy infrastructure Trudeau spent years choking off..The stakes are enormous. Oil and natural gas extraction alone contributes $70 billion annually to our GDP. The broader sector supports $35 billion in royalties, 900,000 jobs, and nearly $140 billion in annual exports — around 20 per cent of Canada’s total trade balance.Yet Quebec still imports oil from places like Algeria and Nigeria because Ottawa refuses to support a pipeline connecting Western oil to Eastern refineries. Reviving the Energy East pipeline would not only fix that absurdity — it would open access to European markets.Carney hints at supporting such a project. But without removing the emissions cap, there simply won’t be enough production growth to make it viable. Pipeline CEOs aren’t ordering steel pipe just yet..Despite the talk, Carney still seems bound to the globalist green orthodoxy that drove Trudeau’s economic sabotage. While the U.S. pulls out of the Paris Accord and shelves EV mandates, Canada is now led by the man who helped build those systems.His internationalist career and lifestyle — complete with multiple citizenships and a spouse known for climate activism — are a world away from the concerns of ordinary Canadians.Even his preferred energy mix gives away the game. Canada already generates 82 per cent of its electricity from non-GHG-emitting sources like hydro and nuclear. But Carney seems fixated on expensive, intermittent wind and solar — options that are less reliable but more ideologically fashionable. To climate zealots, not all zero-emission energy is created equal.Even now, Canada has a chance to return to prosperity. We have world-class resources and talent. But no economy can thrive under a regime of uncertainty, regulatory paralysis, and hostility to its core industries. During the Trudeau years, some $500 billion in energy projects were blocked. That capital won’t return until Canada offers clarity and confidence in its direction.Some optimists say Carney is a pragmatist who might pivot to grow the economy. I remain sceptical. As a former CEO in the energy sector, I remember Justin’s father trying to dismantle our industry in the name of “progress.” Carney — with his polish and pedigree — may prove to be the most dangerous of them all.Gwyn Morgan is a retired business leader and was a director of five global corporations. A full-length version of this article was originally published in C2C Journal.
