A rally for Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain Pipeline at the Sheraton Hotel in Red Deer saw hundreds of Albertans come out and show their support for the embattled pipeline project.
Set during the United Conservative Party’s first policy conference, organizers of the rally labelled their protest a non-partisan event for those who would like to see Albertan oil and gas products make their way to international markets through Trans Mountain or other projects such as Energy East.
“Everyone is out here because we all support Canada’s energy and we also support pipelines,” Haley Wile, pipeline supporter, said. “We realize the importance of pipelines is prosperity for the whole country.”
Wile reinforced that the rally was not an anti-Trudeau Liberal or anti-Notley NDP event, simply a showing of support for the oil and gas industry in Canada.
“It has been approved by our Prime Minister and he champions the project as well as our Premier,” she said. “We really appreciate their support and their confidence. We are out here to say thank you and that is a great project.
“There is always lots that can be done. I appreciate what they have done so far and they are very confident. So are we. This project will get built, we are excited about it and Canada is excited about it.”
Wile said the ultimate goal is to ensure the completion of Trans Mountain.
“I hope the pipeline gets built,” she said. “It is plain and simple and hopefully we can remove some of the red tape to get more projects going. We need to get out pipelines to water, there is no question about it. We would like to get Energy East going as well — there is a lot of great projects we could be doing. We need to make Canadians prosperous across the board.”
Support for the event was strong, with horns from passing vehicles going off throughout the the entire event.
“If they have the opportunity to drive by and give a honk, they feel like they are part of something really important,” Wile said.
Richard Sigurdson was a citizen who chose to attend the rally in Red Deer in support of pipelines.
“I am a part of protest because in reality, we need to get our oil moving to international markets,” he said. “Not having the pipeline doesn’t slow down oil or help the environment — all it does is increase the amount of oil coming into our country from other markets. We want to see these pipelines happen to help Canada be strong.”
Wile said Rally 4 Resources will continue to hold events in support of pipelines.
“Most of events are on Facebook so follow us — Rally 4 Resources. Regular people want to be part of something, they want to have their voices herd and this is a great outlet for it,” she said.