>>I think transfer payments (in the absense of more sensible federal systems) are a good thing. Some provinces do not have much, and need help. That's what makes a country out of a disparate group of provinces. Unfortunately we have silly concepts here that mean certain resources belong to the province rather than the country. All resources, whether it be oil, water, gold, diamonds, bauxite, coal etc, should all belong to the Federal Government and the proceeds shared throughout the country. To me the idea that some provinces are wealthy and some are poor is about as stupid a way to run a country as any idiot could have devised.
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>[SNIP] "...All resources, whether it be oil, water, gold, diamonds, bauxite, coal etc, should all belong to the Federal Government" - you forgot Molston breweries - from what I've seen, every province has one :-)

Uh, uh. I didn't stipulate that 'gold' shouldn't include liquid gold. ;)