Pollster Angus Reid says 53 per cent of Canadians want the next federal government to proceed with and complete the Trans Mountain pipeline project, with only 24 per cent saying it should be stopped. 23 per cent don’t have a strong opinion one way or the other. The poll also found that Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau’s party is not the top choice of voters to steward the nations’ oil and gas sector. The Conservatives are seen as the best choicer by 36 per cent of those polled as compared to the 19 per cent who chose the Liberals. Four in ten Canadians say Trudeau’s government has not done enough to expand pipeline capacity, while three in ten hold the opposite view. One-quarter of those polled say the liberals struck the right balance. Quebec isn’t the block of opposition that many may suspect; 39 per cent of people polled in that province oppose the Trans Mountain expansion but 36 per cent support it.
Across Canada and across all age groups, 63 per cent of the people polled believe that renewable resources are a huge opportunity that Canada should be investing in now. Nationally, 52 per cent believe that such an investment should mostly or entirely be in renewables. Only 20 per cent felt that way about non-renewables. 28 per cent felt the investment should be close to evenly split between the two. In Saskatchewan and Manitoba, 27 per cent felt an investment like that should be in non-renewables, 41 per cent said invest in renewables and 32 per cent said to split it close to evenly.