Never mind the winner. Yeah, Calgary lawyer Gary Mar got way more votes than anyone else -- enough to clinch it decisively had Alberta's Conservative leadership ballot count last night been in a normal first-past-the-post election.

But for the moment, there is no official winner, just three contestants still standing in the race to become Alberta's Next Top Premier ™ and two more weeks in which they need to Keep Calm and Carry On.

OK, the world as we know it has ended. Get ready to get used to a new world as we'll know it soon.

After an inauspicious 2010, and a horrible start to 2011, Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach has taken the traditional Canadian walk in the snow, which is as plentiful in Edmonton right now as it was in Ottawa in 1982, and announced he won't run again as Alberta premier or anything else.

If Marie Stelmach is truly as unenthusiastic about her husband's political career as the rumourmongers report, she may now have a Freedom 55 escape clause built into in her retirement plan.

That is to say, if he even wants to survive as premier of Alberta, Ed Stelmach is going to have to win 55 seats in the next provincial general election.

Fifty-five is just a number, of course. But some arbitrary number very much like 55 is sure to soon become the benchmark that Stelmach must meet or exceed if he expects to remain in politics, at least as the leader of the Alberta Conservatives.