Alberta's economy may be cooking with oil and gas, and Prime Minister Stephen Harper may call Calgary home, but a poll done for CBC News shows 60 per cent of Albertans don't think the rest of Canada gives the province the respect it deserves.

At the same time, says pollster Bruce Cameron, about 40 per cent of Albertans think the province's influence on the national scene has grown over the last year.

Harper's Conservatives were elected to a minority federal government in January, and with oil and gas revenues soaring, the province is debt-free and has a surplus of nearly $8 billion.

Alberta has amassed a surplus of nearly $8 billion. (CBC)
Alberta has amassed a surplus of nearly $8 billion. (CBC)

"I really think that Alberta believes that it has a strong role to play and is still seeing if that wealth can translate into real power," Cameron said.

The poll numbers aren't so clear-cut when it comes to what Albertans think about whether they should share the province's wealth, he added.

"About one in five believe that we should be contributing more. Almost double that think that we're already contributing too much. So overall, the results would indicate that Albertans are fine with the level of contribution that the province is making to the federation right now."

The poll results also suggest:

  • 58 per cent of Albertans believe health care is the most important issue facing the province, followed by education at 34 per cent.
  • 94 per cent expect the economy will continue to grow in 2006.
The Cameron Strategy Inc. telephone poll of 806 adults, conducted between March 30 and April 10, has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.8 per cent, 19 times out of 20.

'Lucky Alberta' attitude called irritating

The opinion survey may be capturing Albertans' annoyance that they don't always get the credit for their own prosperity, said Roger Gibbins of the Canada West Foundation.

"You often hear people outside the province talking about Alberta's wealth and defining it in terms of luck, saying, 'Anyone can be successful in Alberta, any government can be successful in Alberta.'

"I think what irritates Alberta is there's no recognition of the energy that's going into this, the entrepreneurial spirit, the tough times we've had in this province. That's where I think Albertans are looking for a greater respect."

Just last week, Premier Ralph Klein rejected calls to include Alberta's oil and gas revenues in any new formula to redistribute wealth between rich and poor provinces.

"We have to take leadership of this file. If we're simply passive about it, just sit back and surround ourselves with the wealth and let other Canadians chew this over and decide what to do, we're going to lose control of the issue," Gibbins said.

"There's a certain wariness in the province that our wealth will become a target for the rest of the country, and that wariness is understandable. It reflects history and will not go away."

'We're not the little brother in Confederation'

Just off a busy freeway near Okotoks, with the snow-capped Rocky Mountains as a backdrop and Calgary's tall office towers looming, stands a sign of the wariness Gibbins is talking about.

It's a large semi-trailer adorned with a sign proclaiming, "More Alberta, less Ottawa."

"I'm hoping to influence our fellow Albertans into realizing that we're not the little brother in Confederation, but we're an equal partner," said Roger Walker, who owns the field and is responsible for the sign.

For more than a century, the Walker family has called this part of southern Alberta home. During that time, the family has prospered, much like the province.

"We're the economic engine of the country," Walker said. "You know, the influence is moving west and the east doesn't like it."