Alberta

I am so tired of hearing about how great Alberta is all the time. In this part of the country most political anything ends up coming to Alberta. Either the nurses make more in Alberta, or the taxes are lower in Alberta, or the roads are straighter in Alberta. You know I heard that people's shit-stink is CK-1 in Alberta. Now don't get me wrong, I don't hate Alberta, or anyone for Alberta (except football players from Alberta), but I hate how people in Saskatchewan automatically compare everything to Alberta. I've got news for people: Saskatchewan and Alberta are different. Different geographically, culturally and politically. Alberta has been the traditional base of the political right, and Saskatchewan the traditional base of the left. Alberta's got the mountains, we've got the boreal forest. Alberta culturally is like Texas, Saskatchewan is more culturally rooted in agrarian roots, more towards the growing of plants, although the 'oiler' is becoming more prominant. Instead of looking at the differences, people should be looking at Alberta for what it is: a province that has had perfect policy about it's big resource, although the long-term planning is lacking. They have embraced their Texan-ish culture and marketed it very well. They are however starting to be seen as ungrateful smug rich bastards. They do need to try and build bridges between themselves and the rest of Canada. The rest of the country needs to realise that Alberta has 10% of the population of Canada, stupid crazy amounts of oil and money, and that Alberta needs to be respected. Alberta really needs to step up and become the leader of Western Canada, and not just be concerned about Alberta first. If Alberta can help the West grow as a whole, the power and influence will continue to flow West, and eventually a power base will be between Vancouver-Edmonton-Calgary that could rival Southern Ontario and Quebec. Until then however, Western Alienation will persist, Parliament will continue to be Ontario based Liberals, dominating Alberta based Conservatives. Although I personally would love for the Liberals to get a majority for many mandates to come, I don't want the West to be forgotten in the shuffle. You know, I just had an idea...nah.