Prominent Olds citizen Terry Cody says now that the United Conservative Party (UCP) has been elected to govern this province, he's hopeful that pipelines will be built and that the economy in the community and across Alberta will improve.
The UCP won the April 16 election, winning 63 of Alberta's 87 seats in the legislature. The NDP, which had governed for the first time in the province's history, was reduced to 24 seats.
Also, Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills UCP candidate Nathan Cooper was re-elected for a second straight term, garnering more than 78 per cent of the vote in the riding.
"I mean Nathan's been an excellent representative for us for the last four years and I think he's going to continue to do that for us. And now that they have taken the government seats, I think we're going to see a lot of good things happening in this constituency and in the province as a whole," Cody said.
Cody was asked if he believes Premier-designate Jason Kenney will be able to overcome opposition to pipelines from environmentalists and some indigenous bands as well as the B.C. government. It was noted that if they lose court cases against such projects, they tend to mount other ones.
"Well I think that there's some real strategies that can be done there. I think that there's a lot of people fed up across the country with the stalling tactics," Cody said.
"There's a lot of information coming out about foreign meddling in our environmental considerations and you know, you don't give up just because the fight is hard. And this is a tough fight.
"There is a lot of money trying to keep Alberta in second or third place and I think that we just have to persevere," he added.
