We've made it a habit to have the winner of the annual National Business Book Award on TVO.

But it looks as if this year, we were slightly ahead of the curve. Wish we could take credit for our brilliant forsight, but of course, it was just plain dumb luck. 

Gordon Pitts today won the award for his new book Stampede! The Rise of the West and Canada's New Power Elite.  We happened to have had Gordon on the program a couple of weeks ago talking about that very topic. 

In accepting his award today, Pitts describes the power shift from central Canada to The West as the most important in Canadian history. 

And he thinks the energy and financial clusters centered around Calgary to have the potential to transform not only Canada but also the world.

"We're being twisted around an energy economy," he says. And not just the oil sands. Pitts also sees great potential in The West for being world leaders in solar, wind power, and carbon capture and storage, or as he puts it, "the earth, wind, and fire of energy." 

But this mild mannered Globe and Mail reporter really had people's eyebrows raised when he issued a clarion call for a more national vision of Canada. 

"We have to escape the narrow regionalism of this country," he said.  "We all win when Alberta does well. And we all lose when Ontario falters. We have to stop thinking of the country as a bunch of regions."

You can watch Pitts' most recent appearance on The Agenda in the video player below: