Join us for a conversation with Shane Gunster on Petro-Politics and the shifting terrain of Canadian National Identity. We will consider what narratives are produced and circulated in Canada’s petro‑public sphere. This session offers a clear look at how industry influence shapes public debate, and what it means for climate justice movements working to shift the story.
Speaker: Shane Gunster teaches in the School of Communication at SFU. His research focuses upon news media coverage and advocacy in the area of climate and energy politics.
Actions
- Shifting away from petronationalism and rejecting fossil fuel propaganda, moving towards the true values of Canadians beyond elites.
- Participants in a Value Cafe expressed this could be materialized through various forms of care, such as caring for the elderly, caring for the environment, concern for future generations, and caring for the disadvantaged.
- Values featured in the discussion in the Values cafe:
- Caring for the Elderly
- Caring for the Environment
- Concern for Future Generation
- Caring for the Disadvantaged
- Focusing on what your most important values are, and what the government should prioritize
- Creating the space to articulate the alternatives to official narratives
- Understand that national identity and patriotism are a form of coming and a form of being
- Creating access to a Canadian identity that works for reconciliation
- Left groups on Facebook improving the formatting of engagement
- Be cautious of ads that bolster the Canadian economy needs oil
Resource List
Books and Book Chapters:
- Lament for a Nation, George Grant
- Gunster, Neubauer, Bermingham and Massie, “Our Oil: Extractive populism in Canadian social media,” Regime of Obstruction: How Corporate Power Blocks Energy Democracy, Ed. Carroll (Athabasca University Press, 2021). https://www.aupress.ca/books/120293-regime-of-obstruction/
Journal Articles:
- Gunster, Shane, Darren Fleet, and Robert Neubauer. 2021. “Challenging Petro-Nationalism: Another Canada Is Possible?” Journal of Canadian Studies 55 (1): 57–87. https://doi.org/10.3138/jcs.2019-0033 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/350746148_Challenging_Petro-Nationalism_Another_Canada_Is_Possible
- Gunster, Shane. “Extractive populism and the future of Canada” CCPA Monitor 26.2 (July/Aug 2019), pp. 12-15. https://www.policyalternatives.ca/wp-content/uploads/attachments/CCPA%20Monitor%20Jul%20Aug%202019%20WEB.pdf
- Silas Xuereb, Exporting profits: Alberta oil and gas workers fall behind while American shareholders thrive, Alberta Federation of Labour (Oct 2025). https://www.taxfairness.ca/en/resources/reports/exporting-profits
- Drew Yewchuk, Shaun Fluker and Martin Olszynski, A made-in-Alberta failure: Unfunded oil and gas closure liability, University of Calgary School of Public Policy (October 2023). https://www.policyschool.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/EFL-49A-AB-ConvenOGLiabilityRegime.YewchukFluker.pdf
Reports:
- Gord Laxer, Posting as Canadian: How big foreign oil captures Canadian energy and climate policy, Council of Canadians (Dec 2021). Posing as Canadian: How big foreign oil captures canadian energy and climate policy
- Jim Stanford and Erin Weir, Counting the costs: Impacts of the 2022 oil price shock for Canadian consumers and workers, The Centre for Future Work (March 2025). COUNTING THE COSTS: Impacts of the 2022 Oil Price Shock for Canadian Consumers and Workers
- Canadian Values Conversations
Articles:
- PRESS RELEASE: New AFL report shows Alberta workers have been left behind in oil and gas boom
- Alberta’s oilpatch cut 10,000 jobs last year — even as production soared
- Here’s to a radical Canada Day!
- Federal Green Party Leader Elizabeth May arrested at anti-pipeline protest
- Ottawa mayor: ‘Situation is completely out of control’
- ‘I hope I make the country proud’: These Canadians turned their rage at Trump’s rhetoric into something positive
- Build Canada Now update: A two-track approach to seize Canada’s time-bound opportunity
- Mark Carney’s Shift From Climate-Change Warrior to Fossil-Fuel Cheerleader
- Tommy Douglas, Mouseland, circa 1930s
Canadian public opinion on oil and gas:
- Angus Reid Institute, “60% could support an Alberta-BC pipeline nationally, but sign-off in Canada’s westernmost province is no sure thing,” (Nov 27, 2025). https://angusreid.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/2025.11.27_Pipelines.pdf
- Positive Energy/Nik Nanos, “Importance of oil and gas to Canada’s current and future economy hits new high,” (Feb 3, 2025). https://www.uottawa.ca/research-innovation/positive-energy/publications/importance-oil-gas-canadas-current-future-economy-hits-new-high-majority-canadians-dont-want-align