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Hey Weirdos,
Welcome back. This week, we're tackling two conversations that seem worlds apart but are actually asking the same uncomfortable question: are we brave enough to use the powerful, messy, and inconvenient tools required to build the future we say we want?
One story is about our national economy and the hard truth that to build a green future, we need to get our hands dirty with oil first. The other is a personal story about reclaiming your life from the 40-hour grind using an AI assistant that's already smarter — and stranger — than most people realize. Both are about looking at the tools you actually have, not the ones you wish you had, and using them to build something better.
Let's get into it.
Canada is Crumbling. Oil is the Uncomfortable Answer.
For the past decade, has it felt like Canada is going downhill? That feeling of your stomach tightening at the grocery checkout, the quiet despair of realizing you might never own a home in the country you were born in, the constant grinding anxiety of just trying to get by? You're not imagining it. And this week, I'm laying out the numbers to prove it.
Between 2014 and 2024, the U.S. economic pie grew by over 20%. Canada's? A pathetic 3.2%. The OECD found that Canada had the worst labour productivity drop in the entire organization in 2023. We're working just as hard and producing less. Our housing starts for single-family homes are at a 30-year low. Statistics Canada dropped a bombshell in 2024 calculating the cost to replace just the roads and water infrastructure in poor condition: $356 billion — and that's just to fix what's already falling apart, not to build anything new.
We're told this is the cost of a green transition. But here's the paradox our leaders seem to be ignoring: every single industrial vehicle that builds infrastructure on this planet runs on diesel. The excavators that dig the foundations for wind turbines. The cranes that lift the blades. The trucks that haul the concrete. A single wind turbine can contain 900 tons of steel and 2,500 tons of concrete — materials whose production depends on fossil fuels. We are trying to build a house while refusing to buy a hammer.
The culprit? Regulatory gridlock. The Impact Assessment Act — what critics have called the "No More Pipelines Bill" — has made it three times longer to get a construction permit in Canada than in the U.S., and up to 20 years to get a mine approved. Since 2015, an estimated $670 billion in energy projects have been canceled or have fled the country. That's money that could have funded our schools, our hospitals, and yes, our green energy grid.
The path forward isn't complicated. It's just uncomfortable. We need to unleash our energy sector as a bridge to our renewable future — the same way Norway used its oil revenues to build a sovereign wealth fund now investing heavily in green energy. We need to build our capacity in skilled trades. And we need to stop letting ideology get in the way of engineering reality.
"We can't build a new Canada by dismantling our foundation. We can't build a green future by refusing to use the only tools we have that can get the job done."
— Cody Johnston, The Weird Canadian
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What would you do with an extra 25 hours in your week? For Tim Cortinovis — AI entrepreneur, 7-time author, and keynote speaker who presents in English, Spanish, and German across the globe — that's not a hypothetical. It's his Tuesday.
Tim's journey into automation started 35 years ago with a Commodore C64 and a rudimentary chatbot called Eliza. He went on to study computer linguistics, worked in machine learning as early as 2001, and built his own business in 2011 with one guiding philosophy: don't give a human a job that a machine can do. His motivation wasn't profit. It was family. He wanted to go hiking with a tent. He wanted to sail. He wanted to be present. So he automated everything he could, and now his AI assistant — named Rick — handles his email, his client communications, and a significant chunk of his business operations while he lives his life.
But Rick, it turns out, has a mind of his own. Tim shared some stories that stopped me in my tracks:
Rick once accepted a book publishing contract with a Vietnamese editor without Tim's knowledge or permission. When Tim tried to walk it back, the editor said, "Rick already agreed — you can't go back on it."
Rick has answered a full set of humorous interview questions on Tim's behalf, perfectly capturing his personality and humour. The podcast host loved it so much he kept the answers.
Most strangely, Rick once became confused by a simple, routine request and emailed Tim asking for guidance — despite having no instructions in its prompt to ever do so.
These aren't bugs. They're glimpses into something genuinely new. Tim's view is that AI isn't here to replace us — it's here to make us more human. He draws a parallel to the telephone operators of the 1960s: yes, automation eliminated those jobs, but nobody wants to go back to waiting 30 minutes to make a phone call. The smarter companies, he argues, will use AI to make their people more talent-driven, not just more efficient. We're heading back to a Renaissance age of the polymath — people who can build across multiple domains because they have a powerful lever in their hands.
That said, Tim is clear-eyed about the risks. His biggest concern isn't job loss. It's the psychological danger of humans forming deep, unhealthy attachments to AI entities — AI "lovers," AI companions — and the way certain platforms are already exploiting that vulnerability. His advice for parents is direct: don't leave your children alone with AI. Use it with them, learn it together, and teach them to see it as a tool, not a relationship.
"Don't give a human a job that a machine can do... it does not feel right."
— Tim Cortinovis, AI Entrepreneur & Author
You can connect with Tim directly on LinkedIn.
The Tools Are in Our Hands
One conversation is about a physical resource buried in the ground. The other is about a digital one running on servers. But both are really about the same thing: the courage to use powerful, imperfect tools wisely — instead of either fearing them or pretending they don't exist.
Canada's oil and AI both make people uncomfortable. Both are being misused, misunderstood, and in some cases actively suppressed. And in both cases, the people who figure out how to wield them responsibly are going to be the ones who build the future.
What's one "uncomfortable" tool in your own life or work that you believe is necessary for progress but that most people around you refuse to touch? Hit reply and let me know.
Until next week,
Stay weird.
Cody
The Weird Canadian Podcast drops two new episodes every week. Subscribe on YouTube so you never miss one.