For the first two-and-half days of the CERAweek energy conference in Houston, Canada didn't make many waves. If you played a drinking game and took a shot every time Canada was mentioned on the main ballroom stage, you'd have been still sober midway through the week.
But beginning with Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr late Wednesday afternoon, Canada's full-court press began. After speaking at a Canada-focused breakfast earlier in the week and meeting with more than a dozen regional executives and politicians, Carr took the main stage and talked up the Canadian vision of energy development to a decent-sized crowd.
Carr mentioned job creation and pipeline approval, pricing carbon and respecting First Nations communities.
Then the big gun came to town. Prime Minister Trudeau spoke to packed room of around 1,200 energy executives and other leaders on Thursday night and completely charmed them. They clapped when he spoke in French, when he mentioned pipeline approvals, even when he talked about putting a price on carbon – albeit less loudly on that last point.
Trudeau got multiple standing ovations. From an oil patch crowd. In Texas.
The moderator, oil patch scholar Daniel Yergin, declared the whole crowd of 60 nationalities to be symbolical Canadians for the night at the conclusion of a question-and-answer session Trudeau participated in following his speech.
Talking down a border tax
Trudeau's other goal was to remind the Americans in the audience that Canada is a key trade partner of Texas in particular and the U.S. in general. Texan exports to Canada were worth nearly $20 billion annually, imports from Canada about $15 billion.
Trudeau pointed out that amounts to 460,000 jobs. Good Texan jobs, as he put it.