Between the elections of 1975 and 1979, Alberta?s wealth continued to grow by leaps and bounds. And a jealous eastern press portrayed Premier Peter Lougheed as a blue-eyed sheik. As historian David Leonard explains, Alberta?s biggest problem at the time centred on how to spend all this money:

And in 1976, they got together and discussed the matter of what to do with all this money. They couldn?t just hand it out to the people because that would just make inflation skyrocket.

So they decided upon an Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund: a fund that they would contribute to for reinvestment in long-term projects that would be set aside for a rainy day, that fabled rainy day that would eventually come before they thought it would. But at the time, with OPEC controlling the international prices in oil and gas, an expenditure of thirty-five dollars per barrel was coming into the provincial government by way of royalties. And they were putting it into the Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund at a rate of one billion dollars a year. So the feeling was that Alberta will never have a problem ever again.

As the cost of energy increased in eastern Canada, there rose a hue and cry that Alberta should cut its prices or share the wealth. The disagreement between Prime Minister Trudeau and Premier Lougheed escalated into an epic feud over provincial rights to resources. But events in 1979 gave Alberta a temporary reprieve.

And in 1979, the government of Pierre Elliot Trudeau was defeated in the spring by Joe Clark, an Albertan. And the feeling was that Alberta is very, very much out of kilter with the federal government, with federal affairs. And with Joe Clark?s election, it seemed to give the government of Peter Lougheed an ally in Ottawa. And when people went to the election on the 14th of March of 1979, we seemed to be getting back into the mainstream of things. And so the provincial government picked up fifty-seven percent of the popular vote and seventy-four of seventy-nine ridings. So Alberta was still very much on the bandwagon of Peter Lougheed.

But the tension between Alberta and Ottawa did not subside for long. Only a few months later, Clark was out; Trudeau was back in. And soon came Trudeau;s National Energy Policy.

On the Heritage Trail, I?m Cheryl Croucher.