text: Source:  Look up Diefenbaker's National Oil Policy, 1961, which created a protected market for Alberta's oil industry.  All provinces from Ontario west paid above market-prices for Alberta oil for about 10 years to support development of Alberta's young oil sector.  
  
  Because Quebec and Atlantic Canada have easy access to oil by sea, they were exempted from the NOP and continued to buy oil in international markets.  The expense of an oil pipeline east was considered foolish.
  
  The spike in global oil prices in the early 70s then gave rise to the NEP, when government wanted to pay Alberta less than market prices to help even out the price shock.  But as we know, Alberta was suddenly all about free markets, and any attempt at a made-in-Canada oil policy pretty much ended with the epic NEP dust-up.