re: How weak does Canada look vs the Saudis right now?

Canada's position is weakness really isn't fair because there are some major differences from province to province.

British Columbia is screaming progressives. They have some potential to be oil producers but have a great big case of NIMBY.

Next door Alberta (at least ) used to be about oil production and agriculture and even talked about splitting from the 'union'. Likewise Saskatch.

Go father east and try to figure out how Ontario got its size and traffic. And how they can live next to Quebec. Hint, Quebec has a huge amount of hydro power production and could turn the lights out.

Labrador and NFL are out there, half a year employment works somehow for them. PEI.....? tourist dependent, maybe.
New Brusnwick...don't know, never wandered through there.

Then how do you hand the north with great potential resources easily exposed on the Shield areas and with native populations that really aren't ready for first world status. Nor do they want to be, from the few I knew in Calgary.

Heck, they can't even get the train tracks up to Churchill repaired after two years of washout. (Not that anyone in metro Toronto or Montreal cares about the rest of the country.)