Premier Danielle Smith wades into politically shark-infested waters.

This time it’s over Albertans paying more into Ottawa than the province gets from Ottawa.

That neat all-Canadian trick is called equalization.

For many Albertans, equalization is a swear word. They spit when they say it.

They think: Here we go again. Alberta getting milked by the likes of Quebec. It never ends. That’s where the votes are.

That’s why even former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper didn’t come anywhere near slaughtering this sacred cow.

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And in a vote in 2021 most Albertans casting a ballot wanted equalization payments punted from Canada’s Constitution.

Five years later, equalization is still alive and shovelling out the cash and many people are left wondering what their vote meant or was it just going through the motions.

Premier Smith says her ultimate goal is “every province should have a plan to stand on their own two feet and not rely on equalization at all.”

“Whether that’s a 5-year plan or a 10-year plan, it shouldn’t be much longer that, every single province should........

© Calgary Herald