Internal polling conducted in late 2025 showed that a significant majority of Canadians broadly supported Prime Minister Mark Carney's plan for a new oil pipeline to the Pacific Coast. These internal surveys, overseen by the Privy Council Office (PCO), appear to have guided the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) throughout negotiations with Alberta and British Columbia regarding the controversial energy project.
Twice in November 2025, the PCO included specific questions in its weekly polling to gauge public sentiment on new oil pipelines and other natural resource projects. One poll found that 67 per cent of 2,000 Canadians surveyed supported new or expanded oil pipelines. Crucially, a majority in every region of the country expressed support, including 64 per cent in British Columbia and 56 per cent in Quebec. Further polling later that month, which asked if the government's energy cooperation agreement with Alberta was a good decision, also showed majority approval.
These internal findings would have been available to the PMO when the Memorandum of Understanding with Alberta, paving the way for the pipeline agreement, was announced in late November 2025. While the government had this data suggesting public backing, opposition parties have raised concerns. The Conservatives have expressed interest in alternative routes, while the NDP and Bloc Quebecois have criticized the plan for its potential environmental impact and use of taxpayer funds.
The data suggests the Carney government was aware of broad public support for pipeline development, despite ongoing political and environmental debates surrounding such projects in Canada.
