(Bloomberg) -- Alberta is poised to return to its conservative roots, electing United Conservative Party Leader Jason Kenney premier after he vowed to fight harder for the Canadian province’s beleaguered energy industry, exit polls showed.

Kenney was on track to defeat center-left incumbent Rachel Notley, 54, whose New Democratic Party snapped four decades of conservative rule in 2015, according to projections Tuesday from CTV Television.

Kenney’s election may herald big changes for Alberta’s energy industry, which produces more oil than most OPEC members and has the world’s third-largest petroleum resources. He’s vowed to get stalled pipelines built, scrap the province’s carbon tax, and create a “war room” to hit back at anti-oil-sands campaigners. He also pledged to cut corporate taxes and balance the province’s books in his first term.

Kenney, 50, a former Cabinet member under Prime Minister Stephen Harper, tapped into voter frustration over the failure to get pipelines completed, which has battered oil sands prices and sparked an exodus of capital by energy firms like Kinder Morgan Inc. Alberta, traditionally one of the richest provinces in Canada, now has among the highest jobless rates and one of the weakest economies in the country.

To contact the reporter on this story: Kevin Orland in Calgary at korland@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Scanlan at dscanlan@bloomberg.net, Carlos Caminada

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