Anti-pipeline fervour not the legacy Stephen Harper had in mind:

MONTRÉAL — Two years ago student leader Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois rose to fame by becoming the face of Quebec’s so-called Maple Spring. He turned the episode that spelled the beginning of the end of premier Jean Charest’s tenure into a book titledTenir tête.

Last week, the book won the Governor General’s 2014 French-language non-fiction prize. On Sunday, Nadeau-Dubois revealed that he was giving his $25,000 prize to a citizens’ coalition devoted to blocking TransCanada’s Energy East pipeline.

He used the prime time television platform of the Radio-Canada talk show Tout le monde en parle to make his announcement. He said he hoped to lead by example. Since then donations to the anti-pipeline cause have been pouring in.

This is only one small measure of how quickly Central Canada’s public opinion is gelling against the plan to link the Alberta oilfields to the refineries of eastern Canada.

Once considered the pipeline bid most likely to succeed, TransCanada’s project is on the way to joining Enbridge’s Northern Gateway on the long shots list.

According to a poll on Friday two thirds of Quebecers oppose Energy East.