Good morning. Today, we’re taking a closer look at Canada’s shifting position in the business of energy exports, which is explored in a new series that is zooming in on the country’s most important nation-building resource projects – and the trade infrastructure needed to make them happen. The Think Big series is in focus today, along with Canada’s upstage at the Oscars.

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I’m Ryan MacDonald, energy and natural resources editor at The Globe and Mail.

There are two views of Canada’s liquefied natural gas journey. The first goes something like this: It’s been too long and arrived too late. The second is more nuanced and goes something like this: In a volatile world, Canada can be a reliable partner for energy supply to our closest allies and trading partners.

That second version is related to the first because, for Canada, it’s all about second chances. And it’s a take you’re hearing a lot lately from people such as Prime Minister Mark Carney because of the outbreak of a war with no clear end in the Middle East that is reshaping the way the world thinks about oil.

With this context in mind, The Globe’s Brent Jang, who has covered the LNG industry in Canada for the past decade, spoke with TC Energy Corp. CEO François Poirier about what the country needs to do now. TC has natural gas pipeline networks in Canada, the United States and Mexico. So, where is he putting his money?

“What I would say is that we want to allocate more capital in Canada,” Poirier said. “And I believe that there’s a risk mitigation that comes from diversification. And right now, the U.S. has become our largest business, and it’s also growing the fastest.”

Huh?

As Brent writes, TC’s CEO oversees billions in capital spending. So, if he’s not talking about the opportunities in Canada to invest, that’s a problem.

This story shows us that the road to Canada’s first cargo of LNG has been paved with optimism and failure. A decade ago, there were more than 20 competing plans to export LNG from British Columbia to Asia. A decade later, only one export terminal – LNG Canada in Kitimat – is up and running.

As we hinted in yesterday’s newsletter, Canada’s second chance is time-bound.

What I love about Brent’s story is that it traces a through line on Canadian energy from the flurry of pipeline construction in the 1950s to the talk of “nation-building” projects of today.

I think we need to talk more about that “golden age” of infrastructure of all kinds and what it takes to get big things done.

There is big political appetite to build major infrastructure in Canada in a bid to bolster the economy and diversify exports away from the U.S. The Prime Minister pledged last year to make Canada an energy superpower, and he has worked to reshape Ottawa’s relationship with the oil sector through an energy agreement with Alberta that included conditions for a new pipeline to the West Coast. Those negotiations are still under way.

On the LNG front, Carney included LNG Canada Phase 2, which would expand the LNG export facility at Kitimat on his list of the first five “major projects” his government would help fast-track. As the company that operates the Coastal GasLink pipeline, which transports natural gas from northeast B.C. to LNG Canada’s terminal, TC has a big part to play in that decision.

That’s why Brent’s story is kicking off our Think Big series.