Nancy Southern has the skills and experience to help Alberta find its way forward

Tom Braid

Published

5 years ago

4 minute read

Nancy C. Southern is one of the heavy hitters tasked with helping us find our way forward from the economic downturn in the energy industry and the devastating impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic.

Southern is Chair & Chief Executive Officer of ATCO Ltd., as well as Chair of Canadian Utilities Limited (an ATCO company). Reporting to the Board of Directors, she has full responsibility for executing the strategic direction and ongoing operations.

She joined the ATCO Board of Directors in 1989, was named President & Chief Executive Officer of ATCO in 2003 and was appointed Chair in December 2012. She also serves on the boards of the majority of ATCO subsidiary companies. Ms. Southern is a founding director of AKITA Drilling Ltd., a director of Sentgraf Enterprises Ltd., and Executive Vice President of Spruce Meadows.

Born and raised in Calgary, Southern studied Economics and Commerce at the University of Calgary.

During her career, she has served many roles with some of the world’s most prestigious organizations. Southern is a member on the, Canadian Advisory Council for Promoting Women on Boards, C.D. Howe Institute, American Society of Corporate Executives, Canadian Member Trilateral Commission, Business Council of Canada, also on Canada’s Advanced Manufacturing Economic Strategy Table, University of Calgary School of Public Policy Advisory Council and the U.S. Business Council.

In addition to her business leadership, Southern has long played a leading role in advocating on social issues of global importance – most notably, the rights of Indigenous peoples and the role of women in business.

Honorary Chief of the Kainai (Blood Tribe of Alberta)

In 2012, she was made an Honorary Chief of the Kainai (Blood Tribe of Alberta), was given the name Aksistoowa’paakii, or Brave Woman. Southern is also a board member at the Pension Fund Society of Bank of Montreal, Rideau Hall Foundation and was indicted in the Canadian Business Hall of Fame 2017, received the Canadian Business Leader Award from the University of Alberta in 2018, was honoured as Distinguished Policy Fellow by the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy, named to the Fortune’s list of the “50 Most Powerful Women” outside of the U.S., 50 Most Important People in Canada in Maclean’s Magazine, Financial Post Magazine’s “The Power List” and to Alberta Venture’s Alberta’s Business Person of the Year for 2011.

Here are the members of the committee.

Jack Mintz, chair
Clive Beddoe – former chair, president and CEO, WestJet
Robert Blakely
Brent Belzberg – founder and senior managing partner, TorQuest Partners
Bob Dhillon – founder, president and CEO, Mainstreet Equity Corporation
Chris Fowler – president and CEO, Canadian Western Bank
Rt. Hon. Stephen Harper – Canada’s 22nd prime minister
Peter Kiss – owner and president, Morgan Construction and Environmental
Zainul Mawji – president, Telus Home Solutions
Nancy Southern – chair and CEO, ATCO Ltd.
Kevin Uebelein – CEO, AIMCo
Mac Van Wielingen – founder, ARC Financia

Dr. Jack M. Mintz heads up Alberta Economic Recovery Council

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Alberta

Premier Danielle Smith hints Alberta may begin ‘path’ toward greater autonomy after Mark Carney’s win

Published on April 30, 2025

Todayville

From LifeSiteNews

By Anthony Murdoch

Alberta’s premier said her government will be holding a special caucus meeting on Friday to discuss Alberta’s independence.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith hinted her province could soon consider taking serious steps toward greater autonomy from Canada in light of Mark Carney and the Liberal Party winning yesterday’s federal election.

In a statement posted to her social media channels today, Smith, who is head of Alberta’s governing United Conservative Party, warned that “In the weeks and months ahead, Albertans will have an opportunity to discuss our province’s future, assess various options for strengthening and protecting our province against future hostile acts from Ottawa, and to ultimately choose a path forward.”

“As Premier, I will facilitate and lead this discussion and process with the sincere hope of securing a prosperous future for our province within a united Canada that respects our province’s constitutional rights, facilitates rather than blocks the development and export of our abundant resources, and treats us as a valued and respected partner within confederation,” she noted.

While Smith stopped short of saying that Alberta would consider triggering a referendum on independence from Canada, she did say her government will be holding a “special caucus meeting this Friday to discuss this matter further.”

“I will have more to say after that meeting is concluded,” she noted.

Smith’s warning comes at the same time some pre-election polls have shown Alberta’s independence from Canada sentiment at just over 30 percent.

Monday’s election saw Liberal leader Mark Carney beat out Conservative rival Pierre Poilievre, who also lost his seat. The Conservatives managed to pick up over 20 new seats, however, and Poilievre has vowed to stay on as party leader, for now.

In Alberta, almost all of the seats save two at press time went to conservatives.

Carney, like former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau before him, said he is opposed to new pipeline projects that would allow Alberta oil and gas to be unleashed. Also, his green agenda, like Trudeau’s, is at odds with Alberta’s main economic driver, its oil and gas industry.

The Carney government has also pledged to mandate that all new cars and trucks by 2035 be electric, effectively banning the sale of new gasoline- or diesel-only powered vehicles after that year.

The reduction and eventual elimination of the use of so-called “fossil fuels” and a transition to unreliable “green” energy has also been pushed by the World Economic Forum (WEF) – the globalist group behind the socialist “Great Reset” agenda – an organization in which Trudeau and some of his cabinet are involved.

Smith: ‘I will not permit the status quo to continue’

In her statement, Smith noted that she invited Carney to “immediately commence working with our government to reset the relationship between Ottawa and Alberta with meaningful action rather than hollow rhetoric.”

She noted that a large majority of Albertans are “deeply frustrated that the same government that overtly attacked our provincial economy almost unabated for the past 10 years has been returned to government.”

Smith then promised that she would “not permit the status quo to continue.”

“Albertans are proud Canadians that want this nation to be strong, prosperous, and united, but we will no longer tolerate having our industries threatened and our resources landlocked by Ottawa,” she said.

Smith praised Poilievre for empowering “Albertans and our energy sector as a cornerstone of his campaign.”

Smith was against forced COVID jabs, and her United Conservative government has in recent months banned men from competing in women’s sports and passed a bill banning so-called “top and bottom” surgeries for minors as well as other extreme forms of transgender ideology.

Alberta

Hours after Liberal election win, Alberta Prosperity Project drumming up interest in referendum

Published on April 29, 2025

Todayville

News release from the Alberta Prosperity Project

Carney’s In. Now what?

You’ve been paying attention. You understand this is really bad. Worse than that, it’s dangerous. The country has somehow chosen several more years of a decade-long Trudeau Travesty…on steroids. Because this new Prime Minister has a three digit IQ, deep and questionable connections and a momentum to accelerate the further dis-integration of a nation we all once proudly belonged to. It’s untrue to say the country is dying. But it’s also not a stretch to say it’s on life support.

The era of Carney Carnage is here. While every province will experience it, there’s no secret he’s placed an extra big bulls-eye on Alberta.

It’s not personal, it’s financial.

His plan includes continuing to limit three of Alberta’s most prosperous sectors: energy, agriculture and, by extension, innovation. To acknowledge this requires we abandon our sense of romanticized national nostalgia. Nostalgia is a trap that prevents us from assessing the reality we exist in.

For instance, GDP is considered the financial heartbeat of a country. Over the past decade of Liberal Leadership, the national GDP has been an abysmal 1.1%. By relatable comparison, Mexico was 4%, the UK was 6%, Australia had 8% growth and the US was a whopping 19%.

That’s great information for an economist, but what does it mean to your pay cheque?

The everyday impact on the average Albertan —say, a teacher or mechanic— of 10 long years of 1% GDP means rent’s up at least 25%, a trip to the grocery store always stings, and driving an older car is the norm because an upgrade is out of reach. Does this sound like your reality?

We aren’t starving, but we’re not thriving, either.

Does this make sense for 4.5 million people living with the third most abundant energy deposits in the world? There’s an absurdity to the situation Albertans find themselves in. It’s akin to being chronically dehydrated while having a fresh water spring in the backyard.

The life you’ve invested for, the future you believed was ahead, isn’t happening.

If Alberta stays on this path.

So what can you, as an Albertan, do about it?

This Fall, we’ll be provided an opportunity. A life raft in the form of a referendum. It requires curiosity, imagination and courage to step into it, but the option will be there — a once in a lifetime shot at prosperity for you and your family: Alberta Sovereignty.

A successful bid means Albertans can finally paddle out of the perilous economic current that’s battered us for ten long years.

Alberta has the resources, talent and spirit of collaboration to create a prosperous future for our families and communities.
If you want your vote to finally mean something, if you feel you deserve more from your pay-cheque, grocery store visits and need greater control over your family’s future, register your intent to sign YES to sovereignty now.