Not that that's ever happened, but so it'd be good to get your comment on those two pieces.

Oh, for sure.

Absolutely.

Looking forward to digging into that.

Top box first.

So, yes, I was in and around as close as I could be to all the action in Toronto over the two days.

And, you know, going in, there were a lot of questions.

Okay.

Have you learned to separate what you actually want from what other people expect of you? When I think of that, I think of like the pressure people have to be stay at home moms or, you know, like you know like you probably could have chosen a life where that's an option for you I'm assuming I'm making some assumptions here and and I think that's a lot of pressure to and judgment from others to maybe go be a career driven person and like follow your path like how do you do that like like what like how do you fight that how do you ignore those things I don't know

I'm glad you asked that.

It was interesting for me.

The chapter on balance was one of my favorite to write.

There was a lot there and it was interesting.

I can't remember where I had it in the book initially, but I had a group of younger women review an early draft and I think almost every one of them said, can you please move the chapter on balance up to the beginning of the book? Because it's the area I'm most struggling with and concerned about worrying about this proverbial question, can you have a career and a family? Or if you have career ambitions, but have a family, does it really subsume those ambitions? And how do I think about all that and manage that? And, uh, so I delve deep into, um, the myth of having it all and my own journey through that and, and, uh, long, long road and some imperfect lessons, but some good stuff I figured out in terms of what.

what it is about balance and work-life integration we need to be looking at and figure out.

reading your book and i think we've i think it's too much to like talk in an hour about anyway but

Can you clarify that for us?

Yeah.

You know, I think it's interesting because we've heard definitely a lot from Greer in the media, but we haven't actually heard directly that much from the Commerce Secretary Lutnick, which in my view, a-and to my point about, you know, our negotiating team right through to our, our prime minister was on the same page and, um, in the same place.

We didn't have to really, you know, um, sequence anything.

But on the US side, they had to sequence things.

So the talks with, um, Ambassador Greer then had to, um, go kind of to other levels.

And we were always worried about, you know, it getting to the ultimate decision-maker, the Oval Office, and things potentially breaking down there.

Candace? Is there something that we need to be doing?

Um, do you think that your members i- in other parts of Canada would agree with that? Like, would, would, would chamber members in, in BC and Nova Scotia and Quebec agree that Alberta was getting a raw deal for years from Ottawa?

Well, I, I think there's a, there's a lot, and I always start every conversation, especially in Ottawa and, and central Canada, about the grievances and issues are a real thing.

Um, and they have a real impact.

Uh, you know, I'm from Saskatchewan, so I'll, I'll never tell Albertans how to think.

I'm, I'm smart enough [laughs] not to do that.

But I will say, um, it's a good thing to let Albertans know this isn't just about you because I think what is, um, super interesting about how Western alienation has changed over my lifetime from when I was a kid to when now I'm, I'm, I'm a grown-up, um, but, uh, it really is about this broader issue of a policy cost in our country that, that does affect all regions of the country.

So I hear a very, um, a very familiar frustration, whether you're in central Canada, north, or Atlantic Canada.

So Candace, what can we glean from that, uh, to better understand how business thinks about Canada, uh, in a global context?

From, from your vantage point, Candace, how do you see this, and, uh, what impact does it have on, on Canada?

Yeah, happy to, to chat about this.

It's so important.

I always start with, "Look," because not everybody I, I talk to and work with [chuckles] across the country understands or is from the West.

I happen to be.

So I always start with-How important the underlying grievances and issues, um, in the West are, and then cite how much momentum we've actually had in, in recent months, um, on getting some traction, uh, around some of the things that have been in the way, uh, you know, and that's some legislation, like an emissions cap or taking forever to get approvals because we have it so convoluted and it takes too long.

So the real concern I have is actually being, um, taken off kind of our game of, of having that momentum that we had underway working our plan.

Is this about diversification? Is this about resilience, or is it about kind of everything?