Southern Alberta Council on Public Affairs (SACPA)

Hailed as “a myth-destroying blockbuster book” by Ralph Nader, Gordon Laxer’s latest book, “After the Sands” outlines a vision and road map to transition Canada to a low- carbon society: a plan lacking within all of Canada’s major political parties. Despite its oil abundance, Canada is woefully unprepared for the next global oil supply crisis. Canada imports 40 percent of its oil, yet—unlike twenty-six of the other twenty-eight international energy agency members—has no strategic petroleum reserves to meet temporary shortages. Canadians use 27 to 39 percent more oil per capita than other sparsely populated, northern countries like Norway, Finland and Sweden. Speaker: Gordon Laxer, PhD Gordon Laxer is the founding director and former head of Parkland Institute at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. A political economist and professor emeritus at the University of Alberta, Laxer is a prominent public intellectual. He has been widely published in both newspapers and academic journals, and has autho