Maybe Canada’s greatest living speaker
Greatest Canadian living speaker – that’s certainly what Troy Lanigan, the President of the Canadian Taxpayer’s Federation, calls the Honorable Stockwell Day. He just spoke at the CEEA Midyear Update (Oilmen’s) and a sold-out room at the Petroleum Club was no evidence to the contrary.
For twenty-five minutes Stockwell gave the room a unique speech for the audience entirely without notes or script. He was asked to speak on what went wrong in Alberta after he left Provincial politics but instead talked about what went wrong for the oil & gas industry. So maybe he did talk about what went wrong in Alberta.
His message is that we have lost a lot of ground. He explained how the whole country can’t afford for us to lose this political ground to the ENGO’s. Then he talked about how the rest of the world is asking for Canada’s help and they are bewildered as to why Canadians are not there.
His speech could have easily been titled how oil & gas is a miracle for the human condition. He talked of the biggest urbanization the world has ever seen in China and how they are going green and need Canada’s oil & gas to do it. He talked about the freeing of the Indian economy and how they need Canadian oil & gas to bring prosperity to this giant country. Finally, he talked about Africa, the continent whose name is all too often synonymous with third world poverty and disease. A place where Canadian oil & gas can help, to name just one example, in order to eradicate water-borne diseases and allow a whole continent to shake off perpetual poverty.
Nobody does environmental stewardship like Canada or Canadians and the world needs our resources produced to the highest standard in the world.They need our clean tech.Canadian oil & gas makes the planet better.
Stockwell left industry leaders with three suggestions we could do in our everyday lives.
- Never miss a career day and the chance to tell teachers and children what we do and why we are proud of how we help our planet.
- Never let a disparaging remark about our industry go by without refute.
- Finally when asked what you do for a living – tell them you are eradicating water born disease in Africa, or you are ending First Nation’s poverty, or you are a leader in clean tech – and then explain how you do that.
It was inspiring to hear someone tell us how great what we do is and how it touches everyone lives. Why would we be afraid to say these things – we would only be telling the truth.