While Alberta is certainly punching quite a bit above its weight class in terms of economic contribution to the country, I'd still say you are over-emphasizing their economic importance in the bigger Canadian picture.
Alberta accounts for ~12% of the Canadian population while contributing ~15% of Canada's GDP.
BC is roughly on par, accounting for ~14% of the population as well as GDP contribution.
Ontario is in a similar boat -- ~38% for both population and GDP.
Quebec consistently underperforms -- it has ~23% of Canada's population while only accounting for ~20% of the GDP. And because of its (large) population size, they account for over 60% of the equalization payments from the federal gov.
Unsurprisingly, when I had "discussions" with Quebecois over social media about how QC sucks up the bulk of the equalization transfers and is basically the biggest economic leech of the country, they disagreed LOL~ A good number of "reasons" would come up, from how Quebec already have high taxes, to some Quebec healthcare arrangement that I am not familiar with,
Quebec Abatement among others, but I fail understand how those cited reasons would make them less of a leech to the rest of Canada.
As an aside, I wouldn't really put too much weight into the 2 charts that you've included in your post. One is a historic chart dating all the way back to 1961, so much of the data points there are no longer relevant. The other is a single year chart, so it is prone to the ebbs and flows of the economic situation in any given year.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JDął
I think you seriously underestimate the consequences of AB and then potentially SK and MB separating. They are the boiler room of the Canadian economy, unlike QC which leaches off the rest of the country and gets the vast majority of its equalization transfers from AB. That's why they wanted to leave but retain economic ties (which is bullshit). The people of Quebec have been sold the biggest lies by their politicians convincing them that its possible and a good idea. If AB left QC would go broke immediately, maritime provinces would be in big trouble, and the entire country would destabilize. Without Alberta powering the Fed holy shit would it get ugly fast, its not something that should be taken lightly. But this is the conversation we're now having as Canadians as a result of politics over the last eight years. We should all be zooming out and looking at that for what it is.
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