Once upon a time, while Alberta's premier was telling fairy tales to impressionable children, some of her senior officials were spinning fairy stories of their own.

Actually, this all happened yesterday.

The premier told a group of Grade 1 students at an Edmonton school library a story about a good princess named Alison, who built schools for children just like them, and a very bad princess named Danielle, who wouldn't build any schools at all!

The Alison in question, of course, is Premier Alison Redford herself, the one telling the story. The Danielle is Danielle Smith, leader of the Opposition Wildrose Party. And maybe Redford didn't use exactly those words, but you get the general idea.

It's tempting to say Alberta Premier Alison Redford walked boldly into the lions' den yesterday and emerged unscathed -- whether or not what she found there resembled a room full of pussycats.

There are certainly those in some corners of the labour movement who will think Premier Redford's welcome to the annual convention of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, the 80,000-member public service workers' union that is not affiliated to the Canadian Labour Congress, was entirely too congenial.

And it's true it's unlikely this was a performance Opposition Leader Danielle Smith could have managed before the same crowd, her evocative first name notwithstanding.

Veteran Conservative cabinet minister Dave Hancock had good news and bad news for Guy Smith, who was acclaimed yesterday to another two-year term as president of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees.

As the minister in charge of Premier Alison Redford's unwieldy Ministry of Human Services, Hancock told the Calgary Herald Thursday the provincial government has no plans just now to privatize or download onto municipalities any of the province's many social programs and services.