Alberta can feel like two places at once: a province of mountains, parks, and big ambition, and a province carrying a new political tension that keeps showing up in national headlines.

I sit down with NDP MLA Lizette Tejada, Alberta’s shadow Minister for Immigration and Multiculturalism, to talk through what is actually happening beneath the noise and what it means for everyday life in 2026.

We unpack Alberta’s plan to add citizenship markers to government IDs and why it raises real concerns about privacy, stigma, and discrimination, especially for newcomers and racialize Albertans.

We also challenge the claim the Smith government is putting forward that a marker “streamlines services” when healthcare and education are already under strain, and when added red tape costs money without improving outcomes.

If you care about immigration policy, multiculturalism, civil liberties, or how governments quietly reshape everyday life, this part of the conversation will stick with you.

From there we move to the affordability crisis in Alberta: minimum wage stagnation, fast-rising rents, utilities after caps come off, and insurance increases that hit households month after month.

We connect those pressures to the rise in separatist rhetoric, and we talk about how to hold space for frustration without feeding grievance politics that creates uncertainty and threatens Alberta’s economic future inside Canadian confederation.

Quick heads up: this episode was recorded on March 6, 2026 so while the news may have changed the thoughts and ideas still remain relevant.

Make sure to subscribe, share the episode with a friend, and leave a review.

Success that burns you out isn’t success. In Part 2, we continue the conversation with strategist and execution architect Jen Phillips, founder of The New Ambition, to unpack what sustainable growth really looks like and why so many leaders get stuck in the hero habit. If you’ve ever felt like your business is thriving while you’re barely hanging on, you’ll hear a clear framework to regain control: define your success levers, set a true floor and ceiling for each, and run every decision through that lens so the wrong options fall away.

Jen shares hard-won lessons from two decades inside high-growth organizations where speed, office politics, and decision loops can stall progress. We talk about the rush of saving the day and why that dopamine hit keeps teams dependent and leaders trapped in every decision. You’ll learn how to shift from fixing problems yourself to building the system and the people who can solve them—raising enterprise value, reducing bottlenecks, and giving your team the space to be great.

We also explore autonomy of time, burnout recovery, and practical boundaries that restore executive function. From cutting nonessential commitments to reclaiming an hour by reducing doom scrolling, small moves create real change.

Jen’s advice is disarmingly simple and deeply human: step outside for fifteen minutes, reconnect with people in real life, and remember you’re not alone. The strength of your connections is the strength of your happiness—and your leadership.

Ready to trade heroics for clarity, ownership, and sustainable execution? Hit follow, share this conversation with a friend who needs it, and leave a quick review so more leaders can find the show. Your next step might be as small as a walk, and as big as redefining success on your terms.

Check out The New Ambition here: https://www.thenewambition.co/

This episode was recorded on January 16, 2026

A quiet truth is haunting workplaces right now: speed has become the strategy, and the human cost keeps climbing.

In this episode, we sit down with Jen Phillips—former SVP of Global Marketing Operations at Salesforce and founder of The New Ambition—to unpack how the global race to AI, power dynamics in tech, and political instability are reshaping the very fabric of work.

Jen takes us inside the operational engine room of modern tech organizations, where decisions are made at breakneck pace and incentives around data centres, energy, and talent create relentless pressure to move faster and ship more. In this environment, velocity is rewarded—while the human cost of burnout, attrition, and the erosion of female talent pipelines is treated as acceptable collateral damage. This conversation reveals how the race to build first is transforming not just technology, but the people expected to sustain it.

She also breaks down the data behind the disappearing pipeline for women in tech—higher layoff rates, fewer promotions, and a narrowing path to leadership—and explains why this is not a talent problem, but a systems failure.

Jen shares the personal moment that forced a reset and ultimately led her to found The New Ambition, a company dedicated to helping high-performing teams regain momentum—restoring focus, driving execution, and getting the right work across the finish line without burning people out.

This episode is about power, pace, and the cost of progress when women are left behind.

Listen, reflect, and share this with someone who needs permission to redefine what success really means. If it resonates, follow the show, leave a review, and tell us: what would you change first—pace, power, or policy?

Check out The New Ambition here: https://www.thenewambition.co/

Quick heads up! This episode was recorded on January 16, 2026