Article content

EDMONTON — Nearly two-thirds of Canadians believe that the lack of pipeline space to move oil constitutes a crisis in Canada, according to new polling from the Angus Reid Institute.

The research comes as Alberta is on the cusp of a provincial election and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s governing Liberals will face the electorate in October. There’s little doubt that, whether pipeline capacity constitutes an objective crisis or not, it’s top of mind for voters in many parts of the country, and especially in Alberta. On Monday, Brian Jean, the former leader of Alberta’s Wildrose party, who’s since been replaced by Jason Kenney, who formed a new party out of Alberta’s conservatives, wrote that “Canada is broken.”

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Majority of Canadians in all regions but Quebec believe lack of oil pipelines is a crisis: poll Back to video

“None of our political leaders understand the current anger of Albertans,” Jean wrote. “Albertans want a ‘Mad as hell’ Party, that isn’t going to take it anymore.”

All this conspires to make pipeline politics and the carbon tax two of the most contentious issues, in both the Alberta and federal election. In recent weeks, two truck convoys had been planning to drive from Alberta to Ottawa over several days in February to demonstrate support for pipeline construction. One of those, organized by Rally 4 Resources, has since been cancelled. The other, affiliated with Yellow Vests Canada, is still intending to go ahead.