When it comes to managing an oil and gas economy, nobody does it better — or smarter — than Norway. Rather than squandering their oil and gas royalties, they saved and grew them into a sovereign wealth fund worth nearly $2 trillion. Despite producing plenty of oil and gas, they have been leaders in the adoption of clean energy (thanks, it should be said, to their massive endowment of hydroelectricity capacity) and electric vehicles. And now, they’re the first major oil and gas power to chart a clear path for its post-oil economy. “We are now beginning to write the final chapter in Norway’s oil history,” Norwegian Green Party official Ingrid Liland said in a statement, “and paving the way for all the new adventures that will make Norway progress.”

Canada should be following in these footsteps. It’s too late for us to build our own sovereign wealth fund, if only because we would never tolerate the sort of taxes Norwegians have paid — most notably a 25 per cent consumption tax — in order to do it. We also missed the boat on the sort of broad nationalization of the oil industry Norway undertook the moment it struck its first deposits. Our progress on electric vehicles has been stalled for the moment, due mostly to the pressure being applied by the Trump........

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