Pipeline Subsidies Harming Carney's Standing in Ontario

The Carney government’s plan to subsidize the new West Coast Pipeline and roll back environmental protections is harming its standing with voters in a dozen key ridings in Ontario, according to polling conducted for Environmental Defence Canada and released this week.

In the ridings where the survey was conducted, Liaison Strategies reported [pdf] that 63 to 80% of Liberal voters opposed fossil fuel subsidies, 50 to 59% said public funding for another oil pipeline would make them less likely to support their local MP, and 40 to 53% said they’d be less likely to vote Liberal if the federal government approves major projects before assessing their environmental impacts.

The ridings surveyed, all currently held by Liberal MPs, are:

• Beaches—East York (Tanveer Shahnawaz);

• Burlington North—Milton West (Adam van Koeverden);

• Carleton (Bruce Fanjoy);

• Etobicoke—Lakeshore (James Maloney);

• Hamilton Centre (Aslam Rana);

• Kingston and the Islands (Mark Gerretsen);

• Ottawa West—Nepean (Anita Vandenbeld);

• Peterborough (Emma Harrison);

• Scarborough—Woburn (Michael Coteau);

• Spadina—Harbourfront (Chi Nguyen);

• Taiaiako’n—Parkdale—High Park (Karim Bardeesy);

• Toronto—St. Paul’s (Leslie Church).

Across the 12 ridings, 55 to 72% of respondents said they were concerned about climate change, compared to 19 to 37% who said they were not, Liaison found, while 36 to 52% said they opposed oil and gas expansion and new pipelines. Opposition to federal subsidies for two new liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals in British Columbia ran from 57 to 65%.

The results put MPs “on notice that PM Carney’s pipeline plans are unpopular with many of the people who voted for this government,” Environmental Defence Canada Associate Director Julia Levin said in a release.

“Canadians don’t want to pay for another pipeline. They don’t want the government to greenlight a pipeline, or other megaprojects, before the impacts on nature and wildlife are understood,” she added. “The government was elected to represent voters, and those same voters are saying now that they do not support key elements of the government’s agenda.”