Canada’s Mining Moment & The Great EV Comeback

**Amber Mac** (0:02)
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**SPEAKER_2** (1:04)
The Amber Mac Show on Canada Talks, SiriusXM 167

**Jeff MacArthur** (1:10)
Welcome to The Amber Mac Show. I'm your co-host, Jeff MacArthur. Coming up on today's episode, Amber speaks with two leading experts about some of the most important issues of our time, economic sovereignty and climate resilience.
First up, as part of a brand new season of This is Mining the Podcast, here's a critical conversation about what it actually means when we say the words, Canada has what the world needs.

**Amber Mac** (1:37)
Canada has what the world needs. We have one of the strongest resource endowments on the planet, along with responsible mining expertise, stable institutions and deep capital markets. But having resources in the ground is not the same as having influence. The harder question is whether Canada can turn its advantages into new mines, processing facilities and infrastructure at the speed, scale and seriousness the moment demands. This season, we're going to pressure test that question.
My guest today is Heather Exner-Pirot, one of Canada's clearest voices on energy, natural resources, indigenous economic participation, critical minerals and national competitiveness. Heather is a senior fellow and director of Energy, Natural Resources and Environment at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, a national public policy think tank. She joins us to unpack why Canada may be entering a once-in-a-generation resource opportunity, what could prevent us from seizing it, and why simply doing well is not the same as being competitive. Welcome to the show, Heather.
Canada is in a nation-building moment. What changed and why now?

**Heather Exner-Pirot** (3:01)
Yeah. Well, there's a few things.
I think the most obvious one is Trump being elected president, and his provocations towards Canada, jokes about annexing us, 51st state that obviously provoked an emotional feeling in Canadians.
I think kicked us out of our complacency, got a new leader, got a new government, and promoted sovereignty and economic growth a bit more.
But that's the backdrop. On the mining side, in particular, there are a few things. One is that we've had these, I joke that we didn't just have a Black Swan event, we've had a flock of Black Swans. So first COVID, and then Russia invaded Ukraine, and then the Trump tariffs, and then the Strait of Hormuz closure. And that really put a lot of burden on supply chains, and also made countries really prioritize security, reliability, stability in supply chains. And obviously, that makes Canada look good. In addition, you just have what I think is a normal upswing of the commodity cycle. Most people on your listening window commodity cycles last about a generation. We've had five big global commodity cycles since 1900, and you usually have 10 or 15 years where you have an upswing, and you have more investment, and 10 or 15 years where you have a downswing, and where supply meets or exceeds demand and prices stabilize. And we obviously had the bust in 2014, and now it looks clear to me, the markets are saying that we're going into this upswing. That's always going to be an opportunity for Canada. We are a big resource exporter, and so you do see the money come back in, the TSX does well, all those kinds of things. And finally, just on top of all that, the last layer I would say is Chinese dominance again in critical minerals. This preceded Trump already in the late 2010s. We were starting to think about critical minerals a bit more strategically after Russia invaded Ukraine. It really went to the top of the priority list for governments. And so trying to regain for the Western states some kind of autonomy or some kind of redundancy in critical mineral supply chains, which China has not only come to monopolize, but also weaponize. And you've seen that with a series of export restrictions that's placed on a number of things. So all of that in combination presents really this golden opportunity for Canada as this mining nation into this cycle.