Reckoning: The Political Economy of Canada

Riding the Tornado (1x3)

: 09, 1987

Boom and bust economic cycles are inevitable in countries that are dependent primarily on resource exports. Countries like Canada. And we've had our share: minerals, timber, wheat. Perhaps the most spectacular boom and bust experienced in Canada was that in Alberta oil during the seventies and early eighties. When the bust hit, with a drop in world oil prices, those business people who knew how to "ride a tornado" (as one Albertan described the experience) simply cut their losses and moved out and on. Many others were devastated, left with nowhere to go.