The time to diversify was the 70s, when the wealth first started coming in and before conventional oil dried up. The boom and bust thing happened all through the 80s. My dad was a machinist and spent much of the 80s and 90s unemployed, every time the price of oil dropped again.

Albertans seem to have a short memory, though. What is happening now is nothing new, but there's so much ridiculous finger pointing, as if somehow it's the rest of Canada's fault.

I'm glad I left the province 20 years ago. I miss aspects of Edmonton, and family, but the political atmosphere in the province is extremely frustrating.

When I stated something very similar to a friend from Alberta, he said very confidently that the province has a very well diversified economy. I can hardly believe that, but he's a highly intelligent individual and I didn't have the numbers to argue otherwise, so I let it stand without a further challenge. Since you seem to agree with my point of view on this, would you mind elaborating on how you would show that diversification was needed decades ago?

Agreed. If the Klein government had put a serious amount of effort into not being reliant upon one resource around... 2004 or so, this could have been alleviated. Now they're run by Jason Kenney, who is almost as far-right of a politician as it's possible to find anywhere in the confederation.

I’m sure Kenney will sort it out. More budget cuts for Alberta!