I’m a bit of a Fareed Zakaria nut. The editor of Newsweek International and host of CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS is, for my money, one of the world’s most important journalists. Two reasons: he brings a truly global perspective to his work and he presents a mix of legitimate thought leaders you won’t see anywhere else.

How many other U.S.-based journalists are reporting on Canada the way Zakaria did a couple of months ago at newsweek.com? “Canada has done more than survive this financial crisis,” he wrote. “The country is positively thriving in it.”

Zakaria reported that our banks are run more conservatively than their U.S. and European competitors, our tax code avoids rewarding over-consumption and we’ve produced a 12-year winning streak of budget surpluses. “So what accounts for the genius of the Canadians?” he asked. “Common sense.”

Zakaria is covering the global downturn far better than most. His April 4 Newsweek piece “Free at last: How to achieve genuine energy independence” is frank and informative. It also includes another reference to our home and native land.

“Energy independence sounds like such a great idea,” he wrote. “If only we could be free … of what, exactly? The single biggest energy exporter to the U.S. is Canada. And even the petrostates we don’t like have to sell us oil at whatever price the market sets. We buy lots from Hugo Chávez in Venezuela. He denounces us, we denounce him, but we happily do business together. After all, what else is he going to do with his oil, drink it?”

Zakaria goes on to say that calls for the U.S. to dramatically reduce its reliance on oil are unrealistic. “Given the demands for energy over the next few decades, oil is going to be a key part of the mix,” he wrote. “There is no quick energy fix.”

Of course, this debate has major implications for Canadian oil producers. Zakaria presents a compelling argument that will ease the nerves of anyone invested in Canadian energy producers, even if it does rattle environmentalists.

“We need an energy policy that understands that the world is going to require much more energy in the future,” wrote Zakaria. “The math is pretty simple. Today there are about 6.7 billion people on earth. By 2050 there will be more than 9 billion. To sustain these extra 2.3 billion people while still raising standards of living everywhere, we will need to consume about twice as much energy as we do today. So the debate about oil vs. natural gas vs. biofuels vs. alternative energy is wholly unrealistic. If we are going to sustain and support this kind of population and economic growth, we’ll need everything.”

By the way, if U.S. energy policy is a topic of interest, check out this fascinating debate between Zakaria and Newt Gingrich. Elsewhere, the National Post has this worthwhile piece on Martin King, of FirstEnergy Capital, who is predicting that oil prices will hold steady over the “next few months.”