Canada has much to offer the world and plenty to counter its international detractors, says Gary Doer.
Doer, Canadian ambassador to the United States and former Manitoba premier, was at Red Deer College on Tuesday to talk about American and Canadian relations, with a focus on the Alberta oilsands and the controversial Keystone XL pipeline project.
Doer, named by Business magazine as one of the top 20 international leaders on climate change, marked the 21st guest speaker for RDC’s Perspectives: Canada in the World series, hosted by the Humanities and Social Sciences Department.
“Our first objective is greater energy efficiency . . . and as a second objective, greater energy renewability,” said Doer to a nearly full auditorium in the RDC Arts Centre.
Working together, Canada and the United States are that much closer to making these objectives a reality.
“At the White House we discuss an energy vision, one that Canada very much supports,” said Doer. “A vision that allows us as our long-term goal to use the resources and ideas and innovations that are here to reduce the dependency on Middle Eastern oil.”
The demand on energy — especially oil — is a serious situation across the globe, said Doer, as the middle-class populations increase in India and China.
That demand heightens the pressure on the supply of oil in countries that require a large amount of it, one of which is of course the United States, said Doer.
“Therefore it makes a lot of sense to look at Canada . . . to partner up and be part of an energy reliability system where the United States would not have to rely on oil from the Middle East or Venezuela.”
The issue of “ethical oil” is an important part of the debate, said Doer, in response to a question from the audience.
“We used to say, ‘Better to get your oil from Canada than from Gaddafi.’ ”
Canada is a reliable friend and neighbour to the United States, he added. It’s also a democracy.
Looking at the polls, about three to one Americans are in favour of the Keystone pipeline to run from Alberta to Texas, said Doer.
“We think the public will eventually be heard in the United States, the politics will end, and we’ll get approval for the Keystone pipeline as it should be approved,” he said.
For those who do protest the pipeline project in the United States, Doer said “you should know California thermal oil has higher emissions than oil coming from Alberta.”
The story has to get out about the “dramatic improvements” in the Alberta oilsands when it comes to sustainability efforts, said Doer.
Emissions have been reduced by 40 per cent per barrel, according to Doer. Too often he said he finds himself dealing with “frozen facts” in the United States, 10 or 20 years old.
“We have a gap between the economic benefits of oil development in Canada for the U.S. and a gap between what has been achieved by the oil industry and so we’ve got to keep working on it and improve our record on the sustainability side.”
Doer also touched on issues beyond North America, including the European debt crisis and unrest in Syria.
“Canada is a very strong voice on the world stage,” said Doer. “We have a good story to tell.”
rfrancoeur@www.reddeeradvocate.com