Happy Alberta Day!

Whoops, I meant Canada Day. Sorry.

Same difference, though. As any astute observer can see clearly, the Albertanization of Canada continues apace under the heavy hand of transplanted Ontarian Stephen Harper's Revised and Reactive Reform Party of Canada, or whatever their focus groups have them calling themselves this year.

It's the Conservative Party of Canada at the moment, I think, a moniker that must have that great Canadian patriot John A. Macdonald, founder of a party with a somewhat similar name, spinning in his grave fast enough to send up puffs of smoke.

Since the media has shown such reluctance to let it go, let's put this whole Ruth Ellen Brosseau brouhaha in perspective.

Brosseau is the young woman elected as the New Democratic Party Member of Parliament for the riding of Berthier-Maskinonge as Opposition Leader Jack Layton's Orange Wave swept through Quebec on May 2.

It's too late for televised accusations of "blind ambition" to stop the momentum of the New Democratic Party.

It's too late for plaintive calls to cost out NDP proposals, which Canadians pretty obviously like, to have much effect.

Jack Layton and the New Democratic Party may be on the cusp of a historic breakthrough in tomorrow's federal election, or they may face a bitter disappointment like that experienced by former NDP leader Ed Broadbent in 1988.

Whatever happens, the decision will be made one by one by Canadians in the privacy of a polling booth. Habits, instincts, intuition, loyalties, distrust of traditional right-wing parties and desire for change will all play a role.

Do you remember "Canada's New Government"?

For a time there the phrase Canada's New Government was practically trademarked by the minority government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper after it squeaked into power in January 2006.

Here's a small wager: Within a decade, probably much less, the Alberta Progressive Conservatives and the Wildrose Alliance will be one party.

What that party will be called, and who will lead it, depends a bit on the outcome of the next provincial general election. But let’s make a side bet that this new political entity will be called the Conservative Party of Alberta.

Edmonton mayoral candidate Daryl Bonar has signs that say "FIGHT BACK!" I suppose that locates him somewhere in the political spectrum, but I hope readers will forgive me if I say that this particular candidate's slogan really ought to be "STANDING UP FOR EDMONTON!"

Heeeee's baaaaaack! Guy Boutilier is in the news again. This does not bode particularly well for Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach.

"Tories in name and nothing else," said a headline on the front of Friday's Globe and Mail. The story was about the meeting between Britain's new Tory prime minister, David Cameron, and Canada's allegedly Tory PM, Stephen Harper.

"The two men are united only by the word Tory," the Globe's writer asserted. Actually, while this is true in a sense, and while Cameron sounds as if he actually may be a Tory in one historical sense of the word, Harper is not. He's no Tory, and he's no Conservative either.