Hello Chestermere! I am writing you from Hyderabad, India this week as I am visiting some of my extended family. I am sitting here watching Canada from far away, and I must say that I have had some very interesting conversations with folks in this city.
The City of Hyderabad has approximately 10.8 million people (or 2.5 times Alberta’s population!) and is looked over by an 18M high Buddha, the highest monolithic Buddha in the world. Hyderabad has become a world- renowned technology centre, manufacturing hub, and integrated Special Economic Zone for the film industry yet it also has India’s second largest population of urban poor in 775 slums.
I am visiting 2 orphanages this week while I am here and will post the pictures on Facebook. One of the orphanages is directly responsible for pulling thousands of little girls off the streets and giving them a safe home, food and education. It is a game changer for these sweet little girls who have stories that would make you cry.
It is an amazing perspective to have as I watch our very own governments in Canada handcuff our ability to bring clean natural gas energy to countries like India with burgeoning middle classes. It is also even more incredible to talk to everyday folks about their impression of Canada, which is that we have a Prime Minister who has no clue how to engage with foreign officials or to create meaningful relationships with other countries.
They speak a great deal about the craziness surrounding his visit here, and how Prime Minister Modi did not meet with him. They speak a great deal about the inability of Canada to get its resources to India, a country that needs and wants our responsibly produced energy.
The air quality index in the area that I’m in right now sits around 161 which is listed as unhealthy and would result in saturation news coverage at home. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could bring our clean technology here, our clean products, especially our natural gas? Wouldn’t it be incredible if we could contribute in a positive way to reducing the pollution of country like India? That should be our goal along with our own prosperity and our desire to get to global markets to keep our incredible way of life in Canada.
It is shocking to me how Canada has allowed the enviro-activists to lead the conversation while forgetting all along that our contribution to world GHG’s is around 1.6%, and if our resources and technological expertise could reach countries like India, we could help make real and meaningful changes in world pollution. India wants our resources, and they are positioned to make vast changes in energy usage as they try to clean up their own country. The sheer shortsightedness of the leadership in our country shines a light on how ideology takes away from a great opportunity to do great things. In India, the water is polluted, the air is polluted, the earth is polluted and we could help change that. India has a shortage of its own natural resources, so many of the most impoverished people here burn wood and dung for fuel. The intense and toxic suspended particulates from this kind of pollution could be fixed if we were able to get our natural gas to India, and to the growing middle class. Power plants in India along with vehicles are the largest polluters and our resources could work wonders.
I would like to thank the folks with Rally4Resources and Canada Action for all the incredible work and phenomenal advocacy for our resource sector. I hope that people throughout Canada will learn to appreciate where our incredible wealth and privilege comes from and that they will back these motivated folks as they journey to Ottawa!
I would like to take a moment to thank all of the volunteers that have come forward to help with the upcoming campaign as we head into our election year. Everywhere I go I hear how our current NDP Government has failed Albertans. Please contact us at VoteLeela@gmail.com if you are interested in getting involved. It is a privilege to represent you and I will be working to earn your trust when the next election is called. As always we love to hear from you!
