Premier David Eby has been on the defensive since Alberta proposed a new pipeline project that would reach the shores of British Columbia. Support for new pipelines is broadly popular among Canadians, with polls finding a majority are in support of new developments.

An informal poll run by Kelowna-based news outlet Castanet found overwhelming support from its readers, with 81% supporting such developments.

But Premier Eby pumped the brakes on Alberta Premier Danielle Smith's proposal for a new pipeline, suggesting this could “upset the fragile consensus” among the provinces.

Premier Smith called Eby's efforts to block the project “un-Canadian” and “unconstitutional,” an assertion that was backed by Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe.

On Wednesday's Buffalo Roundtable livestream, hosts Sheila Gunn Reid and Lise Merle discussed the ongoing spat between Western Canada's premiers.

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Eby's comments are directed to a small number of “very privileged, unionized NDP supporters who lap up his garbage,” Lise said. “Scott Moe and Danielle Smith are having none of this.”

Provincial leaders publicly feuding like this is “very rare,” Lise added. “This is a spectacular meltdown by David Eby, and I think he's showing his true colours.”

“We want bad laws repealed so that we can have, once again, private sector investment,” Sheila said of Albertans' support for a new development. “Right now, it is a lot easier — I say it all the time — to pay off the local Christian kidnapping warlord in Nigeria or Algeria to get your energy project done than it is to deal with Mark Carney's insane regulatory regime.”

Comparing Canada to the U.S., where shale oil is located in southern Saskatchewan and North Dakota, Sheila pointed out that businesses are presented an option: “Mark Carney's Canada or North Dakota? Guess where they're going to drill in the same oil field; it's not Canada.”