Ontario, Rest Easy

So, you're up against it. Our biggest, most populous and influential province has now slipped into the ranks of a Confederal 'have not.'

Looks like you're poised to become a real drain on Canadian prosperity. Oh dear, whatever shall we do with the Trillium Blight?

Maybe it's time that the rest of us - or at least the most advantaged in the current circumstances - paid our dues. After all, which among us hasn't been on the equalization dole, in one form or another, over these past many decades? And who, alone, has stood there and freely shared its treasure with everyone else? That, I believe, would be Ontario - Scotland's very 'Revenge" against the British.

Please, Ontario, don't feel bad about this. Proud British Columbia, with all our natural advantages, was on the 'have not' list not all that long ago. Alberta, our national and notional engine of energy superpowerdom, has slipped beneath the storm-tossed waves of hubris. Saskatchewan, it's jawbones warped by decades tethered to the public teat is now doing okay. Newfoundland too.

You've stood by us all through this and now you're perfectly entitled to call in your markers. Let's see if we're as generous in giving as we expected others to be while we were taking.