Their economy produces more GDP per worker than any other. The economic pie they bake is bigger than ever. But the average Albertan’s standard of living is lower than a decade ago.
It wasn’t Ottawa that laid them off, cut their pay, froze the minimum wage, drove up electricity and insurance costs, and put their health care at risk. It was the enemy within.
Alberta’s oligarchs aren’t speaking for the province, they are speaking for themselves.
And the sooner the rest of the population can get past the phoney Alberta versus Canada narrative, the sooner they’ll start toward a genuine solution to their woes: namely, winning a fairer share of the abundant wealth they already produce.
Norway’s is literally the single largest investor in the world now, and makes most of it’s money from it’s money. Alberta also has almost as many people.
The rest of Canada likes to scapegoat us as inbred racists, but the concentration of that is vastly exaggerated. The affliction we do struggle with is more like a kind of self-righteous entitlement. Dipping into our savings to fund whatever political goodies is one example.
If Alberta had kept a sales tax and a normal level of income taxation instead of relying on what it gets from the oil industry it would be self funded and its whole population could be unemployed and living off the interests on the government’s fund.
Surprisingly, that would have been the financially Conservative thing to do so you can be 100% sure that the Conservatives that were in power for 44 fucking years in a row wouldn’t have done that!