While you’re sick and tired of the virus and all the political B.S. don’t let the bad guys off the hook on another gripe that was here long before the virus and will be here long after it.

The age-old tale, a tiresome yarn but oh-so-true. Alberta getting screwed over by Ottawa Liberals.

On Monday we get served up the latest kick in the butt from the nation’s capital by one Chrystia Freeland, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s sidekick who tells us she’s the daughter of an Alberta farmer.

The news is painted as a pretty picture, the definition of generosity.

But the devil is in the details and he’s easy to find.

The Alberta government bean counters crunch the numbers.

In the end, the Kenney government asked for $5.9 billion as we’ve been hit with the low oil price and COVID-19.

What the province expects to get now is in the neighbourhood of $1.25 billion.

How much were we stiffed by Trudeau? Around $4.6 billion, give or take.

It is the latest shot from the Trudeau clown show.

This time the Trudeau Liberals are actually clever, in a twisted kind of way.

They throw Alberta a bone. It’s not the steak. There’s not much meat.

But, in their world, it’s enough for them to tell others they helped Alberta out and the province should be damn grateful and count their blessings.

Thank you Justin. You’re so swell. Gag.

And they probably think they have Alberta by the … you get the image.

Alberta needs the money and maybe … just maybe … if the province is real nice we might see some more.

So even as the Trudeau government is, in the words of federal Conservative leader Erin O’Toole, “a panicked government burning money to hide its incompetence,” Alberta is left to take the bone or leave it.

As loyal readers of this piece of newspaper real estate first learned, Premier Jason Kenney boarded a red-eye flight to Ottawa in the fall looking for some fairness.

The premier had been pushing for what he saw as equalization in reverse.

He told us the chance of getting a fundamental fix on equalization was pretty small but his manoeuvre was a way to get something for Alberta through the back door.

Even though the Trudeau government kept stalling and even though Trudeau and company pushed their anti-oilpatch laws down Alberta’s throat, Kenney avoided ripping the prime minister apart.

Kenney played nice and asked for around $6.5 billion, revised down to just under $6 billion.

Just to compare, in 2018 alone, Alberta contributed a net $17 billion-plus to the rest of Canada. Just that one year, a time when it was no picnic here. Far from it.