Good morning.

A poll out this week shows that there might be some momentum in Canada for a new oil pipeline, something that might make both Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith pretty happy.

Released this week, an Environics Research poll found that 73 per cent of Canadians support new oil pipelines. Perhaps most surprising, even in Quebec, where people have not exactly been gung-ho to see oil infrastructure run through their province, 59 per cent supported a pipeline to the West Coast, and 55 per cent to the East Coast.

Carney has indicated that if Canadians are willing to step up to support large infrastructure projects such as pipelines, it could help fulfill his pledge to make the country an energy superpower.

Smith, like every Alberta premier before her, has been pushing for more pipelines, arguing a lack of infrastructure to move oil to overseas markets is stifling the province, and hampering the entire country’s ability to reach maximum economic success.

While support from the rest of the country has not always been there, the game has changed in the last several months as U.S. President Donald Trump’s continued trade war still looms.

Smith has been beating the drum that Carney needs to scrap a host of energy policies, including a tanker ban off the West coast and the oil-and-gas emissions cap. She says it is laws such as these that have fuelled the separatist sentiment brewing in Alberta.

“They could solve this by having a mea culpa moment, like they did when they repealed the carbon tax,” Smith said last month.

“He’s demonstrated that he can change course when he sees something that’s incorrect. And so I’m very hopeful that we’ll be able to persuade him of that over the next three months.”

In another turn of good news for the province, a majority of respondents also favoured reducing barriers to natural-resource development. And most said the federal government’s changes to shorten the approval timelines for major projects will speed up the process and not hurt the country’s ability to protect the environment.

This week’s poll focused on three topics: whether the public is on board with the Prime Minister’s energy and infrastructure agenda, how that feeds into support for the oil sands and building new pipelines, and where that leaves Canada’s climate goals.

When respondents were asked which energy projects should be prioritized, one in six said conventional energy while one in four said clean energy, but half said both. This falls closer to what Carney has stated as his goal, which is to be an energy superpower in both areas.

Even among Albertans, hard-pressed usually to rally behind anything that might undermine the fossil-fuel sector, 55 per cent of respondents supported both conventional and clean energy development.

Quebec was the outlier on this question, where clean energy development was clearly favoured.

“We’re in a new landscape. People are recognizing we need to do something different,” said Sarah Roberton, senior vice-president of corporate and public affairs with Environics Research.

She said that bodes well for Carney’s plan for rapid infrastructure development.

Environics has also been tracking support for the oil sands, which this year has jumped to 62 per cent – a level not seen since 2012.

The results of the survey are based on a national online survey conducted June 11 to 23, with 2,072 adult Canadians. Online surveys with opt-in panels use non-probability samples and thus a margin of sampling error is not calculated.

This is the weekly Alberta newsletter written by Alberta Bureau Chief Mark Iype. If you’re reading this on the web, or it was forwarded to you from someone else, you can sign up for it and all Globe newsletters here.