Joe Oliver, Canada's former energy minister and champion of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, was appointed the country's new finance minister on Wednesday, signaling a stay-the-course approach to fiscal and economic policy.

As the minister responsible for natural resources since May 2011, Oliver has been the cabinet's biggest champion of TransCanada Corp.'s controversial proposal to build the Keystone XL pipeline to take Alberta oil sands crude to the U.S. Gulf Coast. He has clashed with environmentalists opposed to the project, at one point referring to them as "foreign radicals."