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Today is Family Day in Alberta and here's to Don Getty, premier of this province from 1985 to 1992, who more than anyone else is responsible for giving us this excellent and much-needed February day off.

Falling world oil prices make strange bedfellows.

Those who, more than two years ago, loudly condemned then newly selected NDP leader Tom Mulcair's analysis that Canada suffered from "Dutch disease" now happily embrace the idea.

Among them is Finance Minister Joe Oliver.

He has tried to calm folks worried about a dropping dollar and sinking equity markets -- both linked to the current drop in fossil fuel prices -- by pointing out that the manufacturing sector, mostly in central Canada, should profit from the current turmoil.

Financial planners and fund managers throughout Canada are probably telling their clients the same thing.

The next installment in our special series of commentaries celebrating the 50th anniversary of Mel Watkins' classic article on staple theory, focuses our attention on the latest staple boom to remake Canada's economy: the bitumen sands of northern Alberta. The author is Gordon Laxer, founding Director of the Parkland Institute at the University of Alberta.

Let's call it Dutch Disease Redux with complications of Confederation.

Since Alberta's petroleum economy has almost unquestionably hurt Ontario's manufacturing base, it is axiomatic that Ontarians will soon demand a revised deal from Confederation.

This is a reality Albertans need to think about. Some may scoff and mutter that Central Canada deserves whatever it gets -- "Let the Eastern Bastards Freeze in the Dark," and all that. But the electoral reality is that Ontario probably has the votes to make a good start on fixing this problem if voters there start to perceive it has gotten out of hand.