Conservative Dan Albas has been elected to a third term in Ottawa, his second since the Central Okanagan-Similkameen-Nicola Conservative was formed in 2015.

Albas received close to 48% of the vote in the riding in this weeks election. The MP says in this parliament, he really wants to continue to talk about forestry. “My first words in the 42nd parliament was the need to get tariff free access for our softwood lumber to the United States. That’s so important and the government failed to deliver on that. That’s the last thing I raised in parliament. So my colleague Cathy McLeod and I, as well as other members of our BC caucus have been just striving on the issue of forestry.”

Albas says he hopes having a minority government will help make the Liberals more cooperative. “I hope that Mr. Trudeau certainly will treat the House of Commons with far more respect than he has in the past four years, instead of steemrolling parliamentary committees and blocking opposition motions to discuss important issues like forestry.” He says says the results indicate Canadians want a stronger opposition and his party will do that.

When it comes to the conversation around forestry, Albas says there are people here in this part of the province that need to feed their families and we need to support them. “I really hope that we can bring the federal government to the table. The province has been asking for that. 21 mayors of interior towns that are affected have spoken for the need for the federal government to be there, and that’s something we need to see changed. It shouldn’t just be where a certain industry like cars, or steel, or aluminium get all the attention.”