So what? The analogy didn't fit and I said that the description was inaccurate. Your attempt to trick me blew up in your face. It's looking like you only proved my point - thanks! LOL.

It didn't fit, but it nearly did. Surprisingly nearly, when you consider that one is an Arabian sheikhdom and the other a Canadian province.

Incidentally, that Arabian sheikhdom, with a population similar to Alberta's and a similar income per capita, has no income tax at all - none - and citizens receive free health care and even free water (remarkable for a desert).

Check the numbers out for yourself. Both Alberta and the UAE depend on oil for about the same proportion of their economies. Yet it might seem that the UAE is doing a better job, what with it's no taxes and free services. Presumably then it must be incredibly well governed and populated by unmatched entrepeneurs.

But that is not the case, as I am sure you'll agree. It is simply able to produce even more oil even more cheaply than Alberta.

Alberta is wealthy due to geological circumstance. All else is embellishment and detail.

Wrong yet again, instead of 33 % of GDP - like you tried to claim - the entire energy industry of Alberta (1999) makes up less that 21 % of the province's GDP.

Wrong yet again, the UAE has closer to half of Alberta's GDP/capita.

I'm willing to debate with you, but only if you are willing to do the research to get your facts straight, rather than deliberately misrepresent them in an effort to prove your views. You don't have any excuses since we went over this issue before.

Albertans are great business people! When you retire at the age of 40 - like I did. You can comment about the business savvy of others.

I don't quote statistics much because Disraeli was right: they are the prime cover for misrepresentation. That is especially true when internet statistics are thrown in. As a medical professional, I know that you know this as much as I do. In the case of oil and gas as a proportion of GDP, for example, you won't get the same result from two sources because it depends on how they are calculated. For example, some statistics will only include actual oil and gas revenues when they calculate oil and gas' proportion in the economy. Others will - more fairly - include many other things, like oil and gas related construction spending, oil and gas financing, and so forth. The same is true for the UAE.

You may be interested in this, http://www.finance.gov.ab.ca/aboutal.../2001_0314.pdf, as an example of statistical summary that supports my position. I can provide dozens of other internet examples. But I don't bother because economic statistics and the internet are a minefield unless they are properly interpreted.

When you get hold of statistics that compare apples with apples, and until very recently I had access to hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of them, you will see that the UAE and Alberta are economically almost identical, which is why I continue to cite it as an OPEC example.

My point is a simple one: Alberta is not the golden child of macroeconomic management. Its fortune is a product of geological circumstance. And that fortune has attracted more fortune. Just as the old saying goes, money makes money. People set up businesses in prosperous jurisdictions, you get a classic clustering effect and an upward spiral of growth. Fine. I just don't buy the continuously touted myth (in the Albertan media) of Albertan economic genius.

I am going to discontinue this public discussion for two reasons:

(1) we are not going to agree and it is becoming circular
(2) I suspect nobody else is interested

To say the alberta economy is entirely based on oil is obviously not true. There is also beef and er.......................tourism? Is there lots of wheat there too, or is that the other prarie provinces?

Oil is obvously an major factor in the alberta economy, and had it been found in manatoba instead, I suspect many of the calgary bound migrants would be heading to winepeg instead, and the cold winter would at least have the silver liing of no sales tax. However, Alberta would still have an economy, which is perhaps not true of the UAE.

Not that any of this is at all helpful to anyone considering moving to calgary and wondering about what life will be like.

Looking at the client base of the company I work for, oil & gas are here to stay in Calgary - they pay to keep me in a job.

I too have tons of family around GTA and never quite bonded with the area. My girlfriend had given me a strict list to satisfy before finding a place to settle. Calgary seems to fit most of the bill as its a sizable city with all the amenities (shopping for her!) and the economy is doing ok compared with other provinces. Once out of the city centre there is space and some attractive communities. As we would like to persue outdoor activities more there is the rather stunning hills nearby. The weather stats don't look bad. And flying there is becoming cheaper as competition hots up. Sounds ok to us and thats why our first visit is on Sunday, nothing beats on the ground research. Although just seen this weekend's weather forcast!!! yikes!

It's been like that right through August - rain & almost nightly thunderstorms. On the upside, everything looks green.

I knew i shouldn't have booked that horse trek on weds in K country ah well. where did i put my wooly jumper and kagool?!

Alberta is a significant producer of wheat.

Actually, I think that a discussion about Provincial Government policy with respect to business is important to all perspective immigrants because it affects things like long-term employment prospects, cost of living, cost of doing business etc. This is particularly important if someone is considering establishing a business in one of the prairie provinces.

The province of Saskatchewan - right next door to Alberta - produces about 20% of Canada's oil, and has huge oil (heavy oil) reserves along with Alberta, which produces roughly 60% of Canada's oil. There was a time when Saskatchewan had a larger population than Alberta, but today, Alberta has more than three times Saskatchewan's population. Tens of thousands of Canadians who grew up in Saskatchewan have left for Alberta over the last few decades. I personally know several businessmen in Calgary who left Saskatchewan because they were sick of that province's attitude and policies toward business. They moved to Alberta because the government there had policies that encouraged all kinds of businesses to grow - including theirs. The oil/gas and related industries were an extremely important part of this economic expansion, as were the petrochemical, forestry, financial, retail, real estate and tourism industries.

Yes, Alberta has a large and important oil/gas resource. However, that doesn't mean that Alberta's business friendly policies and the entrepreneurial culture of its people, weren't a critical part in that province's impressive economic expansion.

We moved to Calgary 3 years ago. Our main reasons for choosing this city over others on our list at the time (Vancouver/Toronto) were:
No PST
Good economy
Reasonable job prospects in our professions
Large open spaces
Mid size city with all amenities
House prices that weren't through the roof

Calgary has been very good to us in all respects. We've enjoyed the outdoor opportunities (well in summer at least - camping, etc), nearly always been in work (my partner contracts so there's sometimes a break between one contract and the next), have a much bigger house than in the UK, and have enjoyed the shopping, theatre, eating out that goes with living in a city.

Despite all this we don't feel 'settled' here and are looking at other places to move on to - probably the Atlantic Region. For us Calgary is too isolated (the open spaces become too open in some cases - driving for hours to get places), we are not great winter sports enthusiasts so tend to hibernate during winter, we find Calgary lacking in history and 'atmosphere' and we miss the sea.

I'm sure there are people settled in Calgary who will disagree - but it's just down to our preferences and what we are looking for in a place to call home. The best thing to do is try it!! - you won't know if it's what you're looking for until you do.

I just want to add that Calgary and Alberta also have a thriving building industry (so there are lots of jobs in all the construction trades) ...there are also active programs to diversify the economy to bring more industries into Alberta , and a significant number of head offices of major Canadaian companies are now located in Calgary.


Ray

Exactly Ray, Calgary has the 2nd highest number of head offices in Canada - and not just the head offices of oil companies. And unlike the oil producing Arab countries, whose oil industry was built by foreigners, the Canadian industry was largely built by Canadians.