Of course, the stereotype is mostly a product of marketing. Fewer than 100,000 of the ~2 million workers in Alberta are employed in oil and gas. Whereas 1.5 million of them are employed in services of some sort. 81% of Alberta is urban, which is in line with the Canadian average. The average Albertan is pretty much the same as the average Canadian, an underpaid urban service worker. With a small, well paid minority of workers who really mess up the stats.