Getting off the frack track: how anti-fracking campaigns succeeded in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia

Four years ago, if you had asked Stephanie Merrill of the Conservation Council of New Brunswick(CCNB) and Jennifer West of the Ecology Action Centre (EAC) in Nova Scotia the odds of success in their respective efforts to enact fracking bans in their provinces, they would have likely replied: pretty low. After all, they were going up against a powerful industry, lax government oversight, and a largely uninformed public.

Yet last fall, the provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick joined Quebec in halting the practice of hydraulic fracturing for shale gas.

How did this happen? Where did the eventual groundswell of public opposition to fracking come from? What were the key strategies of the anti-fracking campaigns?

To find out, we asked Merrill and West to share their respective stories and reflections. We hope that their experiences and lessons will be insightful to others in the freshwater community.