As the beloved Scottish poet Rabbie Burns so famously observed, "the best-laid plans o' mice an' men gang aft agley."

The best-laid plans o' mice, of course, are usually wrecked by people with traps. But those of men often go awry because of what might be termed an over-exuberance of democracy.

Consider the sad case of Alberta's newest unemployed person, Ken Hughes, who on Dec. 28 last year announced he was stepping down as the first and only chair of Alberta's giant public health-care board, known nowadays as Alberta Health Services.