Oct 19, 2026 · 19 min · 9 segments
Hub Headlines features audio versions of the best commentaries and analysis published daily in *The Hub*. Enjoy listening to original and provocative takes on the issues that matter while you are on…
state capitalism and economic interventionism are on the rise.
Normally, the remit of authoritarian states or leftist governments, economic intervention is becoming more common even amongst free market champions.
The most startling example is the Trump administration, ostensibly a conservative Republican government, and its frequent use of direct equity ownership, golden shares, and provisions for first right of refusal.
Laurentian capitalism, as the hub christened it, was frequently practiced by the Justin Trudeau liberals, from EV battery plants to clean manufacturing.
The Carney government, while a vast improvement on this front, is still spending less, investing more, from hydro dams and mining stakes to a new sovereign wealth fund.
Canada's most conservative and deregulated jurisdiction has produced the lowest taxes and the highest share of private sector employment in the country.
Yet it too is testing the boundary from owning resources to developing them.
This has manifested in its various royalty and kind programs, equity stakes in pipelines and refineries, and even the floating of a crown corporation to build and own natural gas pipelines, albeit later dismissed.
In a geopolitically turbulent era where supply chain disruption and scarcity are serious threats, where does justifiable market intervention end and where does inefficient distortion begin? The case of Alberta shed some light.
An era of state capitalism.
The pendulum shifts from greater to less economic interventionism across political eras.
Periods of nation building, war, economic crises, or industrial restructuring lend themselves to greater state intervention, whilst the excesses of such periods eventually lead to corrections.
Following a long era of market liberalization, freer trade, and fiscal restraint from the late 1980s to the early 2010s, the Western world is moving through a period of deglobalization and industrial intervention.
Geopolitical conditions have deteriorated, and supply chain security and raw material sufficiency have taken on more urgency from a focus on just-in-time to just-in-case.
Debt taken on to address the COVID-19 pandemic and advanced climate policy has exacerbated the situation, and inflation is again an issue.
Such a confluence of crises lends itself to state overreach, because anything can be justified by the imperative of greater security, from American tariffs and economic coercion to Chinese control of supply chains, from Russian provocations in Europe and the Arctic to Middle Eastern wars affecting energy supplies to the disruptive nature of AI and cyber attacks.
Because energy and resource sufficiency are at the heart of many contemporary security threats, states are intervening in their supply.
On critical minerals, states have variously taken active equity positions in mines, built up mineral stockpiles, and implemented export restrictions.
On energy, states are not only directing resources to offset the high costs of the current energy crisis, but making plans to insulate them from future ones, including new or bigger strategic reserves, refineries, pipelines, and alternate sources like nuclear and renewable energy.
state capitalism and economic interventionism are on the rise.
Normally, the remit of authoritarian states or leftist governments, economic intervention is becoming more common even amongst free market champions.
The most startling example is the Trump administration, ostensibly a conservative Republican government, and its frequent use of direct equity ownership, golden shares, and provisions for first right of refusal.
Laurentian capitalism, as the hub christened it, was frequently practiced by the Justin Trudeau liberals, from EV battery plants to clean manufacturing.
The Carney government, while a vast improvement on this front, is still spending less, investing more, from hydro dams and mining stakes to a new sovereign wealth fund.
Canada's most conservative and deregulated jurisdiction has produced the lowest taxes and the highest share of private sector employment in the country.
Yet it too is testing the boundary from owning resources to developing them.
This has manifested in its various royalty and kind programs, equity stakes in pipelines and refineries, and even the floating of a crown corporation to build and own natural gas pipelines, albeit later dismissed.
In a geopolitically turbulent era where supply chain disruption and scarcity are serious threats, where does justifiable market intervention end and where does inefficient distortion begin? The case of Alberta shed some light.
An era of state capitalism.
The pendulum shifts from greater to less economic interventionism across political eras.
Periods of nation building, war, economic crises, or industrial restructuring lend themselves to greater state intervention, whilst the excesses of such periods eventually lead to corrections.
Following a long era of market liberalization, freer trade, and fiscal restraint from the late 1980s to the early 2010s, the Western world is moving through a period of deglobalization and industrial intervention.
Geopolitical conditions have deteriorated, and supply chain security and raw material sufficiency have taken on more urgency from a focus on just-in-time to just-in-case.
Debt taken on to address the COVID-19 pandemic and advanced climate policy has exacerbated the situation, and inflation is again an issue.
Such a confluence of crises lends itself to state overreach, because anything can be justified by the imperative of greater security, from American tariffs and economic coercion to Chinese control of supply chains, from Russian provocations in Europe and the Arctic to Middle Eastern wars affecting energy supplies to the disruptive nature of AI and cyber attacks.
Because energy and resource sufficiency are at the heart of many contemporary security threats, states are intervening in their supply.
On critical minerals, states have variously taken active equity positions in mines, built up mineral stockpiles, and implemented export restrictions.
On energy, states are not only directing resources to offset the high costs of the current energy crisis, but making plans to insulate them from future ones, including new or bigger strategic reserves, refineries, pipelines, and alternate sources like nuclear and renewable energy.
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