Money is the exit strategy. I hear this kind of misunderstanding a lot when conservatives double down on something that seems against their self interest, like "they're still Albertans, they want a prosperous future for their children too, they just disagree on how to get it"

That's true for the average uninformed propaganda regurgitating voter, but it's not true for the people actually making money from conservative policies. The money they collect makes them hyper mobile. If Alberta crumbles in the future from doubling down on oil and gas they'll just... leave. When you have millions nothing ties you to where you live. They can ditch their property and move to another province, another country, no big deal. That's why they focus on extracting as much value as possible from the land and the populace, because it's expendable to them. They just want to make the most money now while they can.

So they use the idiots, but I don't think the people pushing this line of thinking are the idiots.