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Why Big Oil Wants to Splinter Canada

Nora Loreto on the politics of Alberta separatism.

Jeet Heer

Today 5:00 am

An oil tanker is loaded at the Westridge Marine Terminal at the end point of the Trans Mountain Pipeline System in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada, on Tuesday, March 24, 2026. (James MacDonald / Bloomberg via Getty Images)

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Why Big Oil Wants to Splinter Canada w/ Nora Loreto / The Time of Monsters with Jeet Heer
byThe Nation Magazine

The issue of Canada’s national unity is heading towards the ballot box as Alberta is having a referendum on the issue of separatism. I spoke with Canadian journalist Nora Loreto about the background to this dispute, the backing the referendum is receiving from right-wing US political actors such as Steve Bannon and lobbyists connected to the oil industry. The discussion also takes up the role of Prime Minister Mark Carney, who is using the crisis to push a neoliberal agenda. For more commentary by Nora, you can go to the podcast Sandy and Nora Talk Politics, which is found here.

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The issue of Canada’s national unity is heading toward the ballot box as Alberta is having a referendum on the issue of separatism. I spoke with Canadian journalist Nora Loreta about the background to this dispute, the backing the referendum is receiving from right-wing US political actors such as Steve Bannon and lobbyists connected to the oil industry. The discussion also takes up the role of Prime Minister Mark Carney, who is using the crisis to push a neoliberal agenda. For more commentary by Nora, you can go to the podcast Nora and Sandy Talk Politics, which is found here.

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Jeet HeerTwitterJeet Heer is a national affairs correspondent for The Nation and host of the weekly Nation podcast, The Time of Monsters. He also pens the monthly column “Morbid Symptoms.” The author of In Love with Art: Francoise Mouly’s Adventures in Comics with Art Spiegelman (2013) and Sweet Lechery: Reviews, Essays and Profiles (2014), Heer has written for numerous publications, including The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, The American Prospect, The GuardianThe New Republic, and The Boston Globe.


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