Powering Canada: Can Energy Ambition Overcome Regulatory Reality?

Prime Minister Mark Carney's office announced it will hold the first Canada Investment Summit in September.

In this episode of The Swing, Pendulum examines whether Canada can turn its vast energy wealth into a competitive advantage in an increasingly power-hungry world.

Host Heather Bakken is joined by industry leaders Lorena Patterson, President and CEO of Water Power Canada; Leah Lawrence, Corporate Director and President of Clean Energy Capitalists; and Cam McAlpine, Principal at Pendulum.

Canada is simultaneously one of the most resource-rich and one of the most regulatory-constrained countries in the developed world. Slow permitting, fragmented federal-provincial governance, and complex consultation processes are creating uncertainty that deters investment, even as global demand for energy surges.

This conversation takes electrification beyond the grid to a broader human and economic story where more of life is being powered, monitored, stored, and optimized through electricity that includes everything from phones, watches, rings, and cloud-based memory to organizations, industrial equipment, and critical infrastructure that are increasingly monitored in real time.

Unlocking Canada’s energy potential requires more than policy tweaks. In the race for AI data centers and industrial reshoring, it demands political will, coordinated governance, and a shift in how Canadians understand energy as a foundation of economic sovereignty and national strategy that can unleash future prosperity and security.

Check out Lorena's opinion piece in the Financial Post for more insights on large-scale hydroelectricity: Canada’s hydro power problem is all the barriers blocking it | Financial Post

Special thanks to our audio engineer, Paul MacInnis, aka "the guy",