Late in the run-up to last year’s federal election, an open letter signed by 33 business leaders ran as a full-page advertisement in newspapers across the country. Representing industries that ranged from from banks and investment firms to mining and oil-and-gas companies, they demanded more support for pipelines, mines, and energy projects, and ended the letter with an endorsement of Conservative Party of Canada leader Pierre Poilievre.

The presence of one signatory, former fracking CEO Gwyn Morgan, brought a particularly powerful level of media and policy influence to this rarefied coalition of business elites.

Today, DeSmog is publishing an interactive map that reveals the fullest picture yet of Morgan’s political influence machine.

Since 2007, Morgan has used his foundation to channel over $9.5 million into a sprawling network of libertarian think tanks, right-wing media outlets, and conservative organizations, a detailed analysis of tax records reveals. They are all right-wing megaphones amplifying variants of a similar message: that governments need to cut taxes, slash red tape, and allow the fossil fuel industry to grow without restraint.

Experts contacted by DeSmog said that this machine has helped ensure that the interests of oil and gas executives stay at the centre of Canada’s political discourse, even as scientists warn with increasing urgency that the burning of fossil fuels is destabilizing the climate.

To use the map, hover your cursor over one of the circles. It will show in thick yellow lines the connections to other members of Morgan’s universe. Click on a name in the map to get more information about the person, company, or organization. Or click on the banner that says “Start Story” for a guided tour of Morgan’s influence machine.

It’s hard to ignore the parallels between Morgan and Charles Koch, the United States fossil fuel billionaire who, for decades, has been funding and supporting a constellation of right-wing think tanks and political advocacy groups pushing for free-market policies while maligning climate science, blocking regulations on climate-heating emissions, and advocating for continued dependence on fossil fuels.

“You could describe [Gwyn Morgan] as the Charles Koch of Canada,” said University of Victoria Sociology professor William Carroll, who co-directed the Corporate Mapping Project, a research initiative that focused on the fossil fuel industry’s influence in Canada. 

In the U.S., the expansive libertarian network funded and backed by Koch’s oil company has been referred to as the “Kochtopus,” owing to the vast reach of its various arms. Similarly, said Emilia Belliveau, Energy Transition Program Manager at the non-profit Environmental Defence Canada, Morgan’s network in Canada has been able “to sort of wrap their tentacles around all these different societal institutions.”

“That’s why addressing climate change has been so challenging,” she added.

Bankrolling the Global Ultra-Right

In another similarity to Charles Koch, who with his late brother David Koch made early investments in processing heavy crude from Canada, Morgan earned his fortune by pioneering unconventional methods of extracting hard-to-reach oil and gas in Alberta. He claims credit for overseeing the first fracking sites in North America.

Morgan helped establish the Alberta Energy Company (AEC) in the 1970s, then was the founding CEO of Encana Corp, now called Ovintiv, which formed in 2002 out of a merger between AEC and the PanCanadian Energy Corporation. Since retiring from Encana at the end of 2005, Morgan has given sizable grants to influential conservative groups through his charitable organization, the Gwyn Morgan and Patricia Trottier Foundation.

Tax records filed to the Canada Revenue Agency, and analyzed by DeSmog, show that from 2007-2024, the foundation has given over $9.5 million (approximately USD $6.9 million) to think tanks, advocacy groups, and media outlets that regularly promote oil and gas while downplaying the climate emergency.

In interviews, Morgan has described growing up as a young boy in Alberta who did farm chores for hours before going to school. He then became an engineer in the fossil fuel industry, at a time when he claims “people believed that Canada had a responsibility” to “supply the energy we all needed”.

Having played an important role in Canada’s fossil fuel industry over multiple decades, it is clear that Morgan is still dedicated to preserving the industry he helped build. Nevertheless, Morgan has called himself an environmentalist because he “even has a compostable toilet at his estate”, and has “hiked every trail in the rocky mountains.”

Morgan did not respond to detailed questions from DeSmog.

Funding Atlas Network Groups

Many of Morgan’s biggest donations have gone to Canadian think tanks affiliated with the Atlas Network, a global coalition of more than 500 free market organizations that has been called the “Johnny Appleseed of anti-regulation groups.” Atlas affiliates have been instrumental in spreading climate denial and obstructing policies to cut carbon emissions for decades.

Koch-linked foundations have donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Atlas Network, which also has a history of receiving at least $1 million in funding from ExxonMobil.

According to available tax records, Morgan’s foundation has given $700,000 since 2020 to Atlas Network partner Second Street, whose co-founder, Mark Milke, played a key role in former Alberta Premier Jason Kenney’s “Energy War Room,” an Alberta government corporation that fought against supposed “domestic and foreign-funded campaigns against Canada’s oil and gas industry.” Since 2019, Second Street has commissioned multiple public opinion polls on carbon pricing that emphasize personal costs to consumers rather than the benefits of shifting to a greener economy.

Morgan’s foundation has donated $1,015,000 to the Canadian Constitution Foundation (CCF) (another Atlas partner) between 2010 and 2024. In February 2022, CCF filed a legal challenge against the federal government’s use of the Emergencies Act to disband the Freedom Convoy that occupied Ottawa’s downtown for three weeks in January and February 2022. Recently, CCF intervened in a court ruling in support of the Ontario Conservative government’s legislation forcing Toronto to tear up certain bike lanes. 

Morgan has also donated $706,500 to Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF), a legal advocacy organization whose mission is to “defen[d] the constitutional freedoms of Canadians through litigation and education.” Morgan’s largest donation to JCCF of $550,000 was made in 2022 while JCCF launched into action supporting the Freedom Convoy. It continues representing convoy organizers and participants, as well as campaigning for “parental rights” and against Indigenous land acknowledgements, and opposing legislation to ban fossil fuel advertisements.

John Carpay, JCCF’s president and founder, was disbarred in 2021 for hiring a private investigator to surveil a Manitoba judge.

The Frontier Centre for Public Policy (FCPP), which has received $200,000 from Morgan’s foundation, has advocated against municipal bans on natural gas, calling it “the green extremists’ unjustified war on natural gas furnaces and stoves”, and has argued against Canada’s now scrapped electric vehicle mandate, stating “electric vehicles produce more pollution than the gas-powered cars they’re replacing.”

The Montreal Economic Institute (MEI), recipient of $150,000 from Morgan from 2009-2024, has called itself a “veritable training ground for dynamic public figures” such as Maxime Bernier, the leader of the far-right People’s Party of Canada. DeSmog reported on how the MEI has fought the federal government’s electric vehicle mandate. MEI has also advocated against the federal emissions cap on the oil and gas industry, and is now advocating in favour of building an LNG plant in Québec.

Morgan’s foundation has also given $1,500,000 to the Fraser Institute, a prominent Vancouver-based free-market think tank. Morgan himself was a board member as recently as 2023, according to the group’s 2024 annual report.

The largest donation of $1,000,000 came in 2007, then $500,000 in 2022. The group, which has previously received funding from ExxonMobil and the Koch Foundation, is a vocal supporter of fossil fuels and regularly promotes well known climate crisis deniers like Steve Koonin and Ross McKitrick. 

McKitrick was part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s “2025 Climate Working Group,” a handpicked team of scientists renowned for their climate denial, to author a report that was designed to help the Trump administration overturn federal climate regulations.

None of these Atlas partners responded to questions from DeSmog.

Funding Right-Wing Media

In addition to supporting think tanks, Morgan’s foundation also gives hundreds of thousands of dollars to far-right media. DeSmog revealed in 2024 that since 2019, Morgan had given the True North Centre for Public Policy, the parent group of the far-right website True North, $530,000. In total, True North has received $995,000 from the foundation between 2018 and 2024.

True North’s founder and editor-in-chief, Candice Malcolm, is well-connected to conservative Alberta politics. She previously worked as press secretary to Alberta premier Kenney in 2011 and as a special assistant and in strategic communications for the political party formerly led by current premier Danielle Smith from late 2010 until 2012.

True North contributors regularly repeat climate disinformation: They’ve called climate advocates “conspiracy theorists,” and claimed, erroneously, that arsonists were to blame for the wildfires that raged across the country in 2023, insisting that the disaster was “NOT climate change.” The site, which recently re-branded itself as Juno News, has decried “Carney’s ‘Green’ Agenda” and “Carney’s ‘Climate Cult.”

In a 2024 interview with Morgan, True North described him as “a legend in the Canadian oil and gas sector,” and in 2025 the site promoted Morgan’s endorsement of Poilievre, while not mentioning that it had received funding from Morgan’s foundation.

Morgan has also supported the climate denial group Energy Probe Research Foundation to the tune of $100,000. Energy Probe is led by Lawrence Solomon, who calls himself “one of Canada’s leading environmentalists” and has spread climate denial as a columnist with the Financial Post, Globe and Mail, and National Post.

Neither True North nor Energy Probe responded to DeSmog questions.

Backing the Conservative Movement

Morgan has played an important role in the broader political conservative movement. He has donated to the Conservative Party of Canada nearly 90 times since 2004, according to Elections Canada filings. He is also a strong supporter of the Manning Foundation for Democratic Education, the group behind the Canada Strong and Free Network (CSFN), with donations totalling $703,250 to date. The CSFN, formerly the Manning Centre, aims to support “conservative and libertarian activists and ideas in Canada” and is an Atlas Network member. It didn’t respond to DeSmog’s request for comment.

CSFN’s annual conference, which brings together conservative politicians, strategists, and journalists, was sponsored in 2025 by oil companies including Koch Inc., Imperial Oil, Tourmaline Oil, Suncor, Valero, and Cenovus. During the conference, representatives of Amazon and TC Energy, a pipeline construction company, discussed how to bring Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) from the United States to Canada.

Morgan’s financial support for the conservative movement links him to a network of advocacy groups operating on Facebook and other social media platforms, which post memes and other content promoting conservative politicians and policies.

This social media influence machine is coordinated in part through a group called Canada Strong and Proud, also known as Proud to Be Canadian, which doesn’t disclose its funders but implies that it’s run on behalf of “grassroots Canadians”. It didn’t respond to DeSmog questions.

During the 2025 election, according to federal third-party filings, Canada Strong and Proud dispersed funding to a wide network of conservative social media pages that published posts and advertisements criticizing Mark Carney and praising Pierre Poilievre. The pages — which include Proud To Be Canadian, Nova Scotia Proud, Quebec Proud, Newfoundland Strong, Saskatchewan Proud and West Coast Proud— have a combined following of 9.3 million on Facebook.

The network regularly promotes anti-Liberal and anti-woke content including posts expressing skepticism of low carbon technologies and in some cases spreading climate denial explicitly. For example, a recent post from Proud To Be Canadian argues that “global warming” is not a man-made phenomenon because 2026 has been a snowy year in Toronto.

Canada Strong and Proud’s third-party advertiser filings in 2025 were completed by Susan Burrows, the Chief Financial Officer for Modern Miracle Network (MMN). MMN is a pro-oil advocacy group founded by oil and gas CEO Michael Binnion, who happens to be the Board Chair for the CSFN. Binnion in 2018 reportedly urged fossil fuel companies to help fund parts of this social media network.

Several Canada Strong and Proud network pages are reportedly tied to Jeff Ballingal, who runs a public relations company called Mobilize Media, and helped establish the right wing social media publisher Canada Proud. His company has been hired by both former and current Conservative Party leaders Erin O’Toole and Pierre Poilievre.

Op-Eds, Ads, Influence

Morgan’s influence extends across the anti-climate ecosystem through his connections to mainstream legacy media. Carroll noted that Morgan could be “Charles Koch plus” because in addition to funding the anti-climate movement, “he’s having direct influence through his own intellectual production.” Morgan frequently writes opinion pieces for the National Post/Financial Post and Times Colonist, and is listed as a contributing writer for the Globe and Mail (although his last article was published in 2017). 

In his pieces, Morgan regularly denies the need for meaningful climate action. In a February 2025 opinion piece the Financial Post headlined “Build east-west pipelines? We were doing that, remember?”, he admonishes Liberal governments for cancelling past proposed pipelines in Canada. In 2019, Morgan downplayed the need for Canada to take climate action in the Times Colonist, writing “Canada’s contribution to global CO2 emissions is a minuscule 1.6 per cent”, while listing other countries that are signatories to the Paris Accord and were building coal-fired plants.

In 2023 in the Times Colonist he argued that climate policy is economically harmful and ultimately futile, stating “if all our gasoline and diesel-powered cars and trucks were taken off the road for one year, the total emissions avoided would offset China’s emissions for just 58 hours.” Morgan regularly promotes LNG as a climate solution, for instance in a 2024 opinion piece in the Calgary Herald he said “Canada’s rich endowment of natural gas offers us the chance to both reduce global emissions and also rescue a Canadian economy ravaged by the Liberal government.”

More recently, Morgan published an opinion piece in January 2026 in multiple outlets including the Financial Post called “We should learn from Germany’s mistakes” that admonishes Germany for having closed nuclear energy plants and quickly devolves into an anti-immigration tirade, warning of “demographic suicide” by immigration.

A Shadowy Network

It is difficult to gauge the direct impact of Morgan’s spending, including how it has affected policy and public opinion. That being said, some of the ideas championed by groups in his influence machine, including that climate policy needs to be weakened in order for fossil fuels to expand, are now at the mainstream of Canadian politics.

One of Carney’s first actions upon becoming Canadian prime minister last year was to cancel the consumer carbon tax. Last fall, the Liberal Party leader eliminated a cap on oil and gas emissions as part of a deal with Alberta encouraging a new oil pipeline to the west coast. 

Carney, once touted as a climate champion, has in the past year axed the electric vehicle mandate, cut significant funding for climate and environmental programs, and is giving considerable support to potential future fossil fuel projects.

It is clear to experts that climate policy has now taken a backseat to the financial interests of oil and gas executives. According to Belliveau, Morgan has helped advance this agenda using multiple tactics from the fossil fuel industry’s playbook.

“You have the sort of traditional funding of these oil advocacy groups that are pushing a deregulation agenda, and then you have the financial flows from those groups to the anti-climate movement mobilization and astro-turf groups,” she said.

However, “because his reputation is not widely known, like the Koch brothers are, he’s sort of able to still operate in more mainstream spaces without the same level of controversy,” she argued.