text: The only ‘joke’ is this article. A biased opinion piece, written specifically to bring out the crazies on both sides. Here’s another stat for you, vacancy rates in downtown Calgary are 30% and rising. Does that sound healthy to anyone? Calgary is the economic heart of Western Canada and the city with the 2nd most head offices in the country (behind Toronto). The frustration that Alberta has with a few provinces has little to do with transfer payments. The frustration is with the lack of understanding around the massive amount of taxes and jobs created country wide by exporting its oil & gas. Energy East is the biggest no-brainer infrastructure project in the country as it would end the import of foreign oil into our largest refineries in the east and eliminate our trade deficit overnight as our exports to the US would drop by a like amount. It would increase royalties and taxes as we would no longer sell our product at a discount to the US. But it will never happen, now that’s a joke!