New Pipeline Gains Support Across Canada
New Leger polling shows half the country backing an Alberta to BC pipeline as economic anxiety rises
With the Canadian economy remaining sluggish in recent years, Canadians are looking for any way to jump start growth, and new fossil fuel pipelines have re-entered the picture as a way to do just that.
After the memorandum of understanding was signed between Alberta and Ottawa to build a new oil pipeline from Northern Alberta to the BC coast, Canadians have been forced to grapple with the idea of a new national project that would ship fossil fuels to foreign markets.
New polling from Leger suggests that half of Canadians support the proposed pipeline project, with another 20 percent feeling ambivalent. Only 17 percent say they outright oppose construction of a new oil pipeline between Alberta and BC.
Opposition is highest in Quebec, which sits on the opposite end of the country from the proposed pipeline, with 27 percent of Quebecers opposing the project. The next highest level of opposition comes from British Columbia, where 23 percent oppose the project that would cross their own province, yet more than double that share of British Columbians, 50 percent, support it.
Support for the pipeline is not only divided by region but also along political lines.
