You know the backlash against data centres in Canada is catching fire when people in small, conservative municipalities like Olds, Alta., join the fight. People like Bek MacIntosh, who drove for three hours to speak her mind at a town hall meeting convened by the provincial government last week to discuss Alberta’s push to become a data centre hub.

I have no idea how MacIntosh votes, but the town of Olds is about as conservative as they come. This is a riding where Premier Danielle Smith’s United Conservative Party has won by a resounding margin since the party was formed, including the 2025 byelection where sitting MLA Tara Sawyer garnered 61 per cent of the vote.

Despite their support for Smith, most people in Olds are not onside with her plans to make Alberta a destination for AI data centres, at least not smack in the middle of their own backyard. Pushback from the community recently quashed plans by Synapse Real Estate to build a natural gas power plant in Olds to run an AI data centre. Residents in the agricultural community were concerned about noise and pollution, a potential drop in their property values and stress on local services.

Similar protests are playing out across Canada and the US for the same reasons.........

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