Personally, I would rather live in a province that contributes to equalization than receives it, but it must wear a little thin when people use you as the country's whipping boy for your trouble.
In other words, use Alberta to subsidize eastern imports.
the equalization play is meaningless in the face of actual tax bases contributing to federal coffers... equally, the tired talking point about "giving and not receiving" is disingenuous for anyone to use equalization monies as "the determiner" in presumed inequality in the share of dispersed federal monies.
equalization monies, proper, are relatively mice-nuts small in relation to overall federal revenues and TOTAL federal expenditures to the respective provinces. There is no such thing as an "equalization transfer of Alberta monies" to the federal government. What you're really speaking to is the difference between revenues and expenditures... in that regard, more pointedly, the federal government does not receive anything directly from any province; rather, federal taxes/revenue are collected WITHIN a respective province, not FROM a respective province... be that personal income tax, corporate income tax, GST, investment income, etc. And most pointedly, federal expenditures to the provinces are, of course, more than just the so-called 'formal transfers' like health (CHT), social (CST) and equalization... they also include all manner of spending like for infrastructure, transportation, education, national defence, grant/funds for recreation & cultural events/festivals, environment, security, etc..