Proud of this lad, my son, who raced back from the UBC T-Birds rugby match against UVic Saturday afternoon to finish his campaign. Gracious, hardworking and articulate - he won the praise of so many. (Result: UBC men are through to the national championships, with a strong push from #4 in the back row.)

Congratulations to Emily Lowan on her victory in Saanich North and the Islands. Running for office takes enormous grit, and whatever the political differences, nobody can deny the sheer hustle and energy her campaign brought to the doorstep. Today is her day to celebrate. Her speech last night spoke directly to issues so many British Columbians are feeling deeply: crushing rents, long waits for family doctors, and the exhaustion of working multiple jobs just to stay afloat. Those anxieties are real, and they deserve real answers. Where her message runs off the rails, and was on the nose for many, is in the intellectual playbook she chose to summon at the podium. Invoking the late David Graeber - the anarchist anthropologist and chief theorist behind Occupy Wall Street - Lowan quoted his line that the world is an experiment that “we make and could just as easily make differently.” It sounds poetic in an election hall, but let’s remember what Graeber’s philosophy actually is. He wasn't arguing for better daycare funding or incremental transit tweaks. He was an uncompromising revolutionary who wrote: “Direct action is the open defiance of an illegitimate authority... it is an insistence on acting as if one is already free, and in doing so, exposing the violence at the heart of the state.” This isn't an abstract debate from Zuccotti Park fifteen years ago. Right here in British Columbia, we see this eco-anarchist doctrine (rejected by 90% of voters, btw) playing out in real time, where activist networks deploy blockades to obstruct First Nations who have chosen to pursue economic options, equity ownership, and major project partnerships in their own territories. That is the most glaring flaw at the heart of the anarchist critique. While invoking Indigenous rights as an abstract slogan, this mindset routinely overrides the actual, self-determined aspirations of Indigenous communities that are choosing economic independence and shared prosperity over perpetual reliance on government transfers. About one in ten B.C. voters backed the Greens this election. Yet I suspect very few of those well-meaning citizens have taken the time to truly examine what this strain of green thinking entails. It doesn't seek to refine our economic system. It seeks to dismantle it. At the same time, what British Columbia does not need is an equal and opposite reaction to Graeber-think. Retreating into our own ideological bunkers and answering dogma with hardline polarization is a guaranteed path to conflict, not reconciliation. You cannot fund community health centres, electrify transit grids, or pay nurses’ salaries with protest theory. Those services are underwritten by royalties, payroll taxes, and the tangible economic engine of B.C. - mining, forestry, energy, ports, and trade. Tomorrow when La Rose vs HMTK opens in a Vancouver courtroom, an object lesson will be on display of what happens when Graeber-styled thinking occurs in the wild, where the goal is for the tail to wag the dog. I’ll be watching it closely. I genuinely wish Emily the best as she steps into the Legislature. The transition from movement activist to accountable lawmaker is where ideology collides with balance sheets and physical reality. That’s a transition every British Columbian has a stake in seeing succeed.

Not long after starting @Resource_Works, I saw something special in Margareta Dovgal. She joined us and became a leading part of our success as we built a British Columbia and national voice for Canada’s natural resources. A decade later, tonight she’s the new MLA for Vancouver-Yaletown! We’ll miss her terribly. But seeing her dreams come true is a joy. BC is gaining an exceptional talent, and I couldn’t be prouder.

Chasing the fading light south from Terrace. Waves of blue mountain shadows beneath an October horizon, descending toward YVR.

Pleased to bag a few mentions in this thumbsucker. thenarwhal.ca/fossil-fuel-in…

Updating my BC LNG scorecard.

“What a great day for Canada…Canada’s building big again.” PM Mark Carney comments moments ago in Vancouver on today’s news - phase 2 of LNG Canada, which will become the second largest LNG facility in the world.

30 minutes away from big news.

By doubling the size of British Columbia’s first LNG export terminal, this news materially improves global energy security. While confirming that Canada’s energy superpower ambitions are no pipedream. lngcanada.ca/news/lng-canada…

I’ve been her boss for years at @Resource_Works. @Margare7a led the Indigenous partnerships work, built our COVID recovery coalition, took research to Parliament, and a lot more. Best of all, she’s mentored so many other young people along the way. A pillar. And very serious in the honourable duty of asking voters for their consideration.

So proud of what this young man has accomplished in such a short time.

A 90-day diesel export ban - floated, backed and seemingly denied before nap time at the White House. Since we're thinking about this anyway, here are some facts about the production, trade and use of Canadian diesel fuel.

Our @Resource_Works read on Canada's first Investment Summit prospectus: 167 projects, >US$450B, and every province and territory in the book.

Canada is ready to build - I’ve never seen this degree of alignment. In 2017 the proponent walked away from Pacific NorthWest LNG at Prince Rupert. Had project opened on original schedule in 2019, my conservative estimate is it would have shipped about C$93 billion of LNG by now. The tally passes C$100 billion in mid-January. Investors are undoubtedly chewing over these same facts. Hence the importance of getting it right this time. #InvestInCanada #CanadaEconomy #GetItDoneBC

Question of the day: can anyone think of a secure, dependable alternative source of fuels the world can’t do without?