[jleyank]

I would think Ontario is the centre of Canada as it has the most people and the financial centre. Google's AI says 38% of GDP. And the problem Alberta faces is who wants to separate, what do they want to do afterwards and what ground do they actually own (vs. treaties that predate Alberta).

When Alberta at least catches up to Quebec in practicing being independent (runs its own police, collects its own taxes, has its own pension system, maintains foreign services, ... They might decide the extra taxes to pay for such is less "fun". And they need a border to ship stuff through.

[8note]

alberta has the border to ship stuff through, the only one that actually matters, to the south

rounding errors east and west dont particularly matter

[cmrdporcupine]

North America's biggest oil pipeline -- Enbridge Mainline, which has a capacity of 3.2M barrels per day -- runs east through Sask, Manitoba, ducks down through Michigan, and then splits before coming back into Canada in Ontario in two places (including Line9 ~1km from my house.)

Ontario is one of Alberta's biggest customers.

Then there's westbound ... TMX capacity of 890,000 barrels a day, to BC ports (and then on to China).

vs southbound lines to the US

Keystone, 640,000 BPD

and Express 310,000

Please check your facts.