Senator Pamela Wallin had plenty to say about the growth of the Saskatchewan economy during her keynote address Monday at the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Convention.
Wallin, the former longtime TV journalist who was appointed to the senate by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, spoke about the strength and diversification of the Saskatchewan economy and its growing importance on the world stage.
She admitted, though, that until recently a lot of people didn't know about Saskatchewan or even where it was.
"Let me tell you, they know where Saskatchewan is now," Wallin said, noting the province is America's largest energy supplier.
"Not OPEC, not Saudi Arabia, not Venezuela."
She recalled a meeting in New York that she helped set up between the then new Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall and business leaders from Wall Street. Wallin said the business leaders were "a little uncertain as to whether they wanted to spend another evening talking about a place they'd never heard of."
They came out, and ended up so impressed and interested in Saskatchewan Wallin had to implore them to go home around midnight, "So the premier could get some sleep," she recalled.
"They were so incredibly taken by the story and by the activity going on here. And it's still a story that not too many people know."
Wallin's speech touched on many familiar topics, including Canada's international reputation and the role of its troops in Afghanistan in building schools in the battle scarred region.
Wallin also defended the oil industry against critics of Canada's oil sands, who have accused Canada of producing and exporting environmentally unfriendly "dirty oil".
"When you think about the conditions in which oil is extracted from Iraq, and Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela, Canada's oil is clean. This is clean oil," she said.
Wallin also noted great strides are being made on the environmental front and that the environmental footprint these days is exceedingly small, and noted the people who extract energy from the ground "live here, too."
