" It’s easy to pick apart Alberta economics, but you forget it was hardwork, entrepreneurship and low taxes that gave, and will once again give Alberta “the Alberta advantage”. 

Oh, and living on a great big pool of oil. 

Hard work. ;>

About as hard as adding up all those 'equalization payments'. While on a snipe hunt. I'm not sure; you do know that there is no such thing as an 'equalization payment', right? Albertans have historically been more than ready to be bribed with their own money. Using oil revenues to avoid paying taxes that all similar politico-economic entities assess themselves only serves to double down on the un-captured externalities of the energy extraction business. It means the businesses controlling the oil capital investment are the only winners, and most of them are American. Embarrassing, actually. The 'Alberta Price' accomplishes what transfer pricing is used for in the rest of the world, pay your taxes in the lowest taxation regime.