If you want to convince me that someone has failed, show me where they failed. A sneering nickname and a list of career moves will not do it.
I do not make a habit of reading David Thomas’s Crowsnest Headwaters commentary. Someone sent me his Sept. 29 piece, “Where’s Mikey?”, about Mike Young’s departure as Northback’s CEO and Brad Johnston taking over. What I read gave me plenty of reasons to question Thomas’s assessment and none to abandon my respect for either man.
Challenge the proposal. Question the science. Examine their decisions. But if you are going to put someone’s career on trial in print, bring more than contempt.
I have been on the receiving end of personal shots over my support for coal, too. They have not silenced me. If anything, they have strengthened my determination to speak about this community, its industries and its future.
Thomas describes Mike as having been “recycled from the career slag heap.”
Let us start there.
What does that phrase tell readers about Mike’s accomplishments? What does it establish about his leadership? What does it explain about Northback’s plans for water protection, reclamation or mine development?
Nothing.
It is an insult dressed up as a career assessment. It invites readers to dismiss a man through ridicule rather than examine his contribution.
Thomas characterizes Mike’s departures from executive positions as “three strikes in a row.” But counting departures does not establish failure. A serious assessment considers what happened between arrival and departure.
Rather than rely on Thomas’s characterization, I asked Mike for his CV and spoke with him about his career and departures. My assessment draws on that information, the company records I reviewed and my own experience with him while serving on council.
Thomas writes that Mike “was fired as CEO of Vimy Resources.”
Vimy’s own 2021 annual report says Mike decided to step down after seven years at the helm. Thomas’s description is inconsistent with that published account.
The report also credits Mike with substantial progress in advancing the Mulga Rock uranium project through environmental review, approvals and feasibility work. Mike told me that work positioned Vimy for a subsequent takeover at a substantial premium to its share price, delivering a significant return to shareholders.
Those accomplishments belong in any fair account of his tenure.
The annual report is publicly available. If you are going to pronounce judgment on someone’s career, reading the company’s account of that career would be a reasonable place to start.
Mike’s mining career spans more than 40 years. His CV includes leadership roles at BC Iron, Vimy Resources and Cassini Resources in Australia. He told me those roles delivered significant shareholder returns.
As for Frontier Energy, Mike told me that after about nine months, he recognized that his skills did not translate into the renewables space.
Readers can assess that explanation. Thomas’s strike count does not do the assessing for them.
Counting departures is easy. Establishing what they mean takes research.
In any event, I also judge Mike by the work I watched him do in Alberta.
While serving on municipal council, I found him smart, knowledgeable and willing to stand up for coal. He understood the industry and was passionate about its potential in this community. In my dealings with him, I never had reason to question his integrity.
He showed up. He explained the project. He answered my questions with science and facts. He brought knowledge and conviction to the discussion.
That is the Mike Young I know.
The council I served on spent substantial time discussing the project with him, visiting the site and asking questions. My confidence came from those dealings. Our unanimous votes in support of moving the project forward reflected the position council took after those opportunities to examine it.
My respect was earned through experience. It was not handed to him because he held a corporate title.
I would also remind Thomas that approximately 54 per cent of eligible voters participated in the November 2024 plebiscite, and nearly 72 per cent of participating voters supported the development and operation of the Grassy Mountain mine.
The vote was non-binding, but its message was unmistakable. In my view, it was a clear community mandate to move the project forward through the regulatory process.
That was a vote on the project, not a personal endorsement of Mike. My confidence in him rests on my own experience. The community’s support for the proposal rests on the result.
Thomas is entitled to disagree with both. Disagreement does not erase either.
I asked Mike directly about his Northback departure. He told me he was let go because he had completed the work he was brought in to do ahead of the company’s next submission to the Alberta Energy Regulator.
That is his account, and it deserves a place in the discussion. Calling his departure another strike does not establish that his work was a failure.
From what I observed, preparing Northback for that next stage required substantial work, knowledge and determination. In my assessment, he did that work well.
Mike also described the extensive outreach he undertook during his Listening Tour, speaking with people from Fort McMurray to Fort Macleod and beyond Lethbridge.
In the coverage I read, Corb Lund described Mike on CBC as “a nice guy,” while High River Mayor Craig Snodgrass acknowledged his professionalism and accessibility despite their fundamental disagreement over Grassy Mountain.
Those observations do not settle the debate over the mine. They do belong in a fair assessment of how Mike conducted himself.
His departure does not erase his contributions. Neither does Thomas’s choice of words.
Brad Johnston now takes over as Northback’s CEO after serving as its chief operating officer.
Thomas calls Brad’s former role at Cabin Ridge and its lawsuit the “most pertinent answer” to who he is.
That is a sweeping judgment to hang on the existence of a legal claim.
Seeking compensation does not, in itself, establish poor leadership or a defect in character. Thomas points to the lawsuit as though its existence answers the question of who Brad is. It does not. Disapproval is not evidence of a character failing.
The Kenney government rescinded Alberta’s 1976 Coal Policy in 2020, then reinstated it in 2021 and suspended coal exploration on Category 2 lands. Restrictions expanded in 2022 to suspend coal exploration and development on Category 3 and 4 lands as well, with exceptions for advanced projects.
Those reversals created significant policy and investment uncertainty.
Cabin Ridge sought compensation for losses it alleged resulted from those decisions, arguing that they amounted to a de facto expropriation of its coal rights.
That explains the basis of Cabin Ridge’s claim. It does not make the lawsuit a measure of Brad’s character.
Directors and officers have responsibilities to the companies they lead. Seeking compensation for investments they believe were harmed by government decisions can be consistent with those responsibilities.
Thomas can criticize the lawsuit. But using it as a defining mark against Brad requires an argument beyond pointing out that it exists.
Thomas reproduces Brad’s Northback biography, which outlines decades of mining and leadership experience. Yet he chooses the lawsuit as the most pertinent answer to who Brad is.
I disagree with that choice.
I also have a connection with Brad that goes back about 30 years. He worked for Lyle’s dad as a summer student. Brad later hired Lyle straight out of university to work at Fording’s Coal Mountain mine. Lyle’s career in the industry continues today with Elk Valley Resources.
Readers should know about that connection because it informs my opinion. In my experience, Brad is a stand-up individual whom I consider honest and trustworthy, with longstanding ties to the valley.
His career includes senior positions with Teck Coal, NYCO Minerals and Cabin Ridge, encompassing mine operations, transportation, logistics, marketing and business development.
He holds a mining engineering degree from the University of Alberta and attended advanced management training at the University of Chicago. His Northback biography outlines a 39-year career, including responsibility for the logistics chain serving six Teck mines and leadership of 350 people across three NYCO operating sites.
He has also chaired Neptune Bulk Terminals’ board and its environmental health and safety committee.
The Coal Association of Canada named Brad its 2026 Award of Distinction recipient, recognizing his leadership and contributions to Canada’s coal industry.
My confidence in Brad comes from the individual I have known and the experience he brings to this position. He deserves to be assessed on his leadership and decisions.
A lawsuit is part of his professional record. It is not the whole of it.
My respect for either man does not put Northback beyond scrutiny. The AER will assess the proposal and the expert evidence. I trust that process.
Environmental objections deserve examination. The company’s assurances deserve testing. Neither becomes more credible through repetition or ridicule.
If the evidence exposes a flaw, identify it and substantiate it. Calling someone a name does not strengthen the case.
Supporting coal does not mean accepting every assurance without question. It does mean expecting the discussion to take this community, its families and its future seriously.
I will continue to stand up for the industry that has shaped my family and this community, ask questions about its future and defend people whose work has earned my respect.
Coal is not a dirty word. I will not be embarrassed into treating it like one.
David, your commentary gave me no reason to think less of Mike’s contribution. The research it prompted only deepened my respect for him. Nor does pointing to Cabin Ridge’s lawsuit give me reason to dismiss Brad’s experience or character.
You offered a strike count. I have offered the reasons for my judgment. Readers can weigh both.
Attention is not persuasion. An insult does not become evidence because it appears in print.
If my turn comes next, with a commentary about what a horrible publisher I am, what a horrendous newspaper I run or how I am supposedly captive to the coal industry, understand this: I will not be reading it, and I will not care what personal insults it contains.
Substantive criticism deserves an answer. Another personal attack does not.
My concern is this community, its future and the nearly 72 per cent of participating voters who said yes to Grassy Mountain.
It will take more than an anti-Lisa article to rattle my chains.
If you want to challenge these men, make a case that stands up without the sneer. Do better, David.
Do better, David.