I was very proud to be selected to deliver the first key note speech at Canada Connects last month. I delivered my personal views on how the Alberta Quebec relationship is important to the nation’s energy issues.
These issues come up over and over in my discussions. Many people have asked me for a copy of the speech. So I have now decided to publish it in French, English and the original bilingual version. I have also posted a youtube video which is a nearly complete version of my speech.
My speech is entitled “Les Coureurs des Bois – Canada’s First Entrepreneurs”. The subject of my speech is: can Canada become a resources super power without selling our soul or the environment? I am not sure if you immediately guessed it, but I come down on the side of ‘yes we can’.
Trickier is how do we do it?
I talk about the need for a renewed national narrative which I argue will best succeed if led by Alberta and Quebec together. “Key to that effort will be Alberta and Quebec, the two provinces in confederation who have many times been willing to go their own way.”
I also talk about the need to find the right role for environmentalists. “there needs to be a healthy tension between those who propose and those who oppose. Watch dogs need to be in the right role.”
I believe that “Albertans as Canada’s newest entrepreneurs standing on the shoulders whether they know or not of Canada’s first entrepreneurs½” “½can bring our capital and our world leading technology to Quebec in place of our transfer payments.”
And I conclude that in Canada we can “become real partners – to join all our national stories in a new national narrative – respected in the world – as a resource super power.”
I hope you like it and I would enjoy your comments.