Abstract
Ontario, Canada's economic and political heartland, has faced a manufacturing decline and significant public debt for the two last decades. The Alberta driven oil boom has pushed the Canadian center further to the West and challenged the traditional structure of the Canadian federation.
The article focuses on the causes of this shrinkage and questions whether this decline has been accentuated by the increased dependency of the Canadian economy on staples, or by other internal or external structural deficiencies. The author concludes by evaluating the implications of the collapse of the Laurentian centre on fiscal federalism.