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For decades, many in the oil and gas-rich prairie provinces of Alberta and Saskachtewan have bemoaned how they are underrepresented, despite the region's economic significance for the country as a whole.

The fires in Alberta are sending plumes of smoke eastward over prairie provinces Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

In Canada, the rise in babies born with syphilis is concentrated in the three prairie provinces: Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta.

In Canada, the majority of tornadoes pop up in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba — the so-called Prairie Provinces — and Ontario.

There are complicated regional tensions to navigate, particularly in the oil-rich prairie provinces, where many think Ottawa is threatening the sector that powers their economies.