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It is the province that, for much of this current century, has been the main driver of the national economy, in the process sharing billions of dollars, along with jobs, with less prosperous regions.

So why, asks Rex Murphy, have so few Canadians come to the defence of Alberta?

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In an opinion piece posted Wednesday on CBC.ca, the venerable commentator penned a scathing indictment of those who take some relief from Calgary’s fall from enviable prosperity.

He pointed out there seems to be an attitude sweeping the country that Calgary — the centre of the so-called Alberta Advantage — had it so good, for so long, that it “could take a little knockdown”; that the province that produces oil, abandoned by a country that “uses and chooses to delightfully use” oil, deserves its current misfortune.

Murphy’s words came a day after B.C.’s throne speech, which took several swipes at Alberta — a move called unprecedented by leading political watchers — on yet another day when more Calgarians and Albertans were added to the unemployment rolls.