Share buybacks create growth in per share metricsYes Suncor is a growth stock.
As share count goes down per share metric go up. A company with 1,000 shares out that makes $1,000 earns $1.00 / share. A company with 900 shares out that makes the same $1,000 earns $1.11 / share. Buying back 10% of shares = 11% growth. Suncor’s is a growth stock because it’s per share metrics like profit go up as share float goes down. This is an increasing good thing because as share float goes down larger % of the float gets bought back so you get constantly increasing returns in a reverse compounding interest sort of way.
Its just growing in different ways. When you like a so called "growth" Stock like Netflix (which very predictably BTW isn't growing anymore) you like it because revenues are increasing and hopefully Earnings per share then increase. As earnings increase the stock becomes more valuable because it has more ability to give larger returns to shareholders. So you assign a stock like Netflix a 50 or 60 PE because the company will theoretically grow into its valuation over time (though usually most companies hit a wall at some point like Netflix just did).
Ultimately when a company gets its valuation stretched so much and then a liquidity crunch comes to the equity markets shareholders in such companies realize they only hold “imagination earnings” which they realize are inferior to real world earnings.