A decade-long battle over a proposed pipeline is helping shape the Canadian national election even as a historic legal case may make or break the development. First Nations are playing a central role. First proposed in 2004, the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline was planned for a 731-mile (1,177km) stretch from the center of Alberta to the coast of British Columbia. The environmental battle has united a wide variety of citizens groups against the billions of dollars of investment by oil companies and millions in secret funding from the government.