But seriously, Alberta politics seem to be the maple-flavoured version of the politics of other petro-states. Prosperity and policy overly dependent on the ability to sell oil to places with more robust economies.
Oil prices high? Yay for everyone, health care, education, etc. are all well funded. The government is doing such a good job. Oil prices drop? Oh those pesky federal Liberals are ruining it! The truth being that (as mentioned in the article) direct oil royalties are something like a third of the provincial budget. In addition, nearly everything else that could be taxed is based on the industries that sell oil. The article mentions the healthy amount collected in corporate taxes, and how those healthy profits were tied to the high price of oil last year.
To be fair, this is a problem for all resource-rich economies.