The premier of Alberta is in the Maritimes and pleading for help.

Jason Kenney says Alberta needs nation-wide support for new pipelines to move the province's oil to market.

It's a message that got a mixed response Friday in the city where a major pipeline project was cancelled.  

His pro-pipeline tour brought Kenney to a business audience in Saint John, the city where Alberta oil was supposed to find tidewater, via Energy East.

Two years after that project was cancelled, the premier is still pleading for pipelines.

“Here's my appeal to Atlantic Canada, to all of Eastern Canada,” Kenney said. “If you want to continue to benefit from the resources that are developed in Alberta, then please help us develop those resources and get a fair price for them.”

It’s an appeal that resonates with Kenney's counterpart in New Brunswick.

“I, for one, appreciate the revenue that goes to Ottawa that allows us to have 30 per cent of our budget through transfer payments,” said New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs. “I would love to not be in that position.”

Others are far from convinced.

“Premier Higgs seems to be living in a dream world,” said pipeline opponent Ann McAllister. “The reason Energy East was first cancelled was economic.”

David Thompson, another pipeline opponent, says Canada needs to shift away from tar sands bitumen.

“We need to look at the energies of the future,” he said.

Kenney promised business leaders that his support for Energy East will not diminish in the days to come.

“I’ve always said we need multiple pipelines, not just one,” he said. “One pipeline doesn't give us the kind of certainty and diversity of markets that we need for Canadian energy, so I will continue to fight relentlessly for the dream of Energy East.”

Kenney says there is industry support for a pipeline to the Maritimes.

Many in the New Brunswick business community have yet to give up on Energy East.

“The dream is not dead,” said David Duplisea of the Greater Saint John Chamber of Commerce. “The situation has not changed.  Alberta's natural resources are still land locked and we have to get them to tidewater.”

Kenney says Albertans will be showing long-term support for Energy East, though that may be tested next week, after the federal government makes a final decision on whether the Trans-Mountain Pipeline to the West Coast can go ahead.

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Mike Cameron.