Turns out Pierre Trudeau may have been right.
A report by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives comparing the economic situations of Norway (budget surplus 2011 est $72 bil) and Canada (budget deficit 2011 $34 bil).
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/01/16/oil-industry-canada-norway_n_2491761.html
Norway's Government Pension Fund Global is worth $664 bil and growing, the largest sovereign type fund. By contrast, Canada's accumulated deficit is at about the same level and rising fast under the reckless stewardship of the Harper gov't.
Alberta's Heritage Fund is at about $16 bil. Which is about what it had hit in the '70s before the wealth was foolishly squandered on paying off municipal debt and keeping taxes as low as possible.
Norway owns 80 per cent of its petroleum production and retains about 85 per cent of its net revenues.
Basically, the problem is that Canada's oil wealth has been (mis)managed by ideological zealots. The past several years they have been of the frothing-at-the-mouth variety.
Prior to that, a mixed bag of apologetically liberal; progressive or less progressive conservatives, ranging from Trudeau to Mulroney to Peter Lougheed, of which only Trudeau had enough sense and courage to go ever-so-slightly against the corporate grain.
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