[Coach]

I was invited to see Trudeau speak at the Calgary Petro Club last Friday. I was hoping to come away from it more assured of Trudeau but that was not the case. Bullet points that I can remember (after weeding through all the jargon and crap).

- Canada needs to gain back public trust from failing to meet agrred upon and promised environmental regulations.

- Need for a federally implemented carbon tax system. Some provinces already use them, but needs to evolve into a federal system, likened it to healthcare.

- Federal needs to look to provinces and municipalities for innovative ideas and implement them on a national level

- Has to include First Nations and all affected citizens when putting through projects like pipelines.

- Most important thing is getting Canada's resources to market effectively and safely.

All in all he said some good things, but again, only if you can read between the lines of all the crowd pandering. They opened it up to Q/A and he answered a few questions (including my own) but once the questions were asked, he went right back into speech-mode and didn't even look at the questioner. And again, would answer the question but do so while regurgitating lines from his written speech and being quite vague about somethings. my question was "You talked a lot about gaining public trust in Canada for getting things like pipelines put in and projects supported, but how are you going to gain 'public trust' in the US/internationally, as it's the US that is blocking Keystone, not us." He basically answered that we needed to show that we can self-regulate and make good on our promises to the international community before we can gain back trust in the Canadian government and oil companies globally. Which is fine, but again he took like 3 minutes to say that. Cut the crap!

Look, I understand the need for politicians to try and appeal to a wide range of people, but when you're in a room of a couple hundred people, mostly well-versed in O&G, speak to us like adults who know what you're talking about, not like a crowd of thousands of people that you are trying to rile up. As someone who is looking for a reason to give Trudeau a chance other than "better than the cons!", it left a lot t be desired. I didn't come away knowing anything new about him, and he gave no reason for anyone conservative, or even a fence sitter, to go to his side. You're in a room full of mostly conservatives, you might as well swing for the fences, tell us what you really think and what your plans are, and you might bring some people to your side. Worst case scenario, you don't change anyone's mind.

I chatted with a buddy on the way out who is a conservative and he said that "you may disagree with Harper, but at least you know where he stands and can make an informed decision based on that." And I have to agree. I would be interested in talking to Trudeau face-to-face to see what he's really like, because you get no gauge on him at all when he's got a mic in his face. I have to say I left rather disappointed.