A notorious 1915 cartoon called the “Milch Cow” depicted farmers in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba working hard to feed a cow, while top-hatted bankers directed her milk into buckets labelled “Ottawa”, “Toronto” and “Montreal”.
Much of the current frustration is linked to an arcane but increasingly controversial financing system called “equalization”, whereby money collected by the federal government from all provinces is redistributed to those with the most need.
Many Albertans, believe that the policy is unfair; Downing characterizes the relationship as one of “expropriation”.
But the popular understanding of equalization in the province – that it is dragging down Alberta’s economy – is plain wrong, said Trevor Tombe, an economist at the University of Calgary.
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