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Wall says he believes Young lost a lot of credibility by making the comments before a concert in Toronto on Sunday.

Young held a news conference during which he compared the landscape at a Fort McMurray industrial site to the devastation caused by the atomic bomb in Japan.

Wall says he disagrees with how Young is characterizing the industry, but adds it’s a free country and Young is welcome to speak his mind.

The premier acknowledges more needs to be done for the environment, but he also suggests that Canada’s record is better than any other oil-exporting country in the world.

Young is doing a four-city concert tour to raise money for an Alberta First Nation living downstream of the oil sands and is to perform Friday in Regina.

The debate comes as a new poll adds to evidence that a push by likes of Young and other celebrities, environmental groups and aboriginal activists opposed to big oil projects may be affecting public opinion.

According to a poll released Wednesday by Nanos Research Group, public support in Canada for TransCanada Corp.’s proposed Keystone XL pipeline is waning, a development that could embolden opponents of the project.

Canadian support for the $5.4 billion link between Alberta’s oil sands and U.S. Gulf Coast refineries has declined to 52% in December from 68% in April, while opposition has increased to 40% from 28%. The survey of 1,000 Canadians taken between Dec. 14 and Dec. 16 has a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points, according to the Ottawa-based agency.