If you have a problem with something written in the Edmonton Journal, you can forget about seeking help from the Alberta Press Council.

Early last month, the Journal quietly pulled out of the 40-year-old voluntary organization that was set up to help resolve conflicts between newspapers and the people they write about. Journal management told APC officials that they no longer saw any value in the organization the newspaper once enthusiastically supported.

Maclean's magazine once said that the Toronto Maple Leafs -- which should be called the Maple Leaves, but never mind -- were "English Canada's team." This is hooey. Back in the days of the six-team NHL, English Canada's team was the Montreal Canadiens. (This was true even if the coach didn't speak English, by the way -- but never mind that either.)

Leastways, where I grew up in B.C., we all loved the Habs and we all hated the Leafs. Maybe it had something to do with Toronto, but we didn't think about it. It was just a law of nature -- or, maybe, a matter of historical inevitability, something like that. Anyway, the only English-speaking Canadians who loved the Leafs in those days, it needs to be said, lived in Toronto.

Knee-Dips sweep back to power in Manitoba? Premier Greg Selinger, who was chosen to replace Gary Doer when he trotted off to serve Stephen Harper in Canada's bunker in Washington, handily re-elected? This isn't what we were told would happen!

Other than the CBC -- the turbulent national broadcaster the Alberta-centric federal Conservatives would love to break up or kill off -- there's never been all that much interest in other provinces' elections out here in oil-drenched Alberta.

Uh-oh! Someone's got some 'splainin' to do!

Yesterday morning's blog post on the strange circumstances surrounding the use of an Alberta Progressive Conservative Party membership list and a flurry of activity behind the scenes in Tory circles provoked a strong reaction late in the day by the party.

On the face of it, yesterday morning's surprising Edmonton Journal-Calgary Herald-Environics poll of which Alberta Conservative leadership candidates have the most support among their party's members seems like a brilliant journalistic coup.

It showed Gary Mar in the lead, but not by enough to capture the leadership on the first vote. Astonishingly, Alison Redford was in second place, possibly poised to win on the second ballot. Steady old Doug Horner came third. And Ted Morton, the leading candidate of the right, was fading into the distance. What a terrific yarn!

Just when it didn't seem like another drop of blood was left to squeeze from its various Alberta stones, Don Mills, Ont.-based Postmedia Network Inc. pushed another five senior newsroom employees out the door of the Edmonton Journal on Friday.

The carnage at the Journal included two veteran copy editors, two graphic artists and a National Newspaper Award winning photographer.

Reports from Alberta's deep south indicate a similar number of newsroom staffers were made to walk the plank at the Calgary Herald about a week earlier.

Today is Municipal Election Day throughout Alberta. By midnight tonight it will be all over but the tears and the bet collecting. Tomorrow morning, many of us will be commentating bravely, taking credit for what we got right and explaining away what we got wrong. After that, we can move to the question of what it all means.

But let's get a jump on the latter bloviations by taking a look at a bizarre last-minute development that is certain to have an impact on the Edmonton mayoralty race.

All across Canada yesterday afternoon, journalists were filing cheerful little stories about the latest results from the Newspaper Audience Databank and how they provide heartening news for the local rag and, indeed, the entire newspaper industry.

After NADBank yesterday privately released its 2009-2010 readership results to the newspapers in the communities surveyed, the resulting story in the Edmonton Journal was headlined "Readership numbers good news for The Journal."

Finance Vice-President David Becker and Reader Sales and Marketing VP Stroud McDonald are among the latest 18 Edmonton Journal employees out the door in the aftermath of the Postmedia Network Inc. takeover of the Canwest newspaper chain.