Here in 14 words is the conundrum that faces the Progressive Conservative government of Alberta Premier Alison Redford: you can be progressive, or you can be conservative, but you can't be both.

So which is it?

The problem that confronts Redford's PCs is that they aren't really sure themselves.

Progressive? Or Conservative? Great taste? Or less filling? Breath mint? Or candy mint?

This, it is said here, is the source of the real pain that shows through the Redford Government's commentary about how we all need to reduce our expectations for the provincial budget scheduled for introduction on Thursday, March 7.

As Alberta's Tories gather today in Calgary to celebrate Peter Lougheed leading them out of the Social Credit wilderness 41 years ago, they will expend plenty of energy feuding over disinviting their federal Conservative brethren from future affairs of this nature.

In the past, federal Conservatives have been automatically entitled to vast votes at Alberta Progressive Conservative bunfests like the Cowtown annual general meeting today and tomorrow.

But so many of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Alberta caucus tilted openly in favour of the radically market-fundamentalist Wild Rosehip Tea Party during last April's provincial election that moves are afoot to sever the ties that bound.

Alberta Premier Alison Redford would appear to be unassailable.

A recent cross-Canada poll by Angus Reid found her to be the country's second-most popular premier after Saskatchewan's Brad Wall, with a 55-per-cent approval rating among Alberta voters. That's practically "beloved" territory!

We have 28 federal electoral districts in Alberta of which 27 elected members of the Conservative Party of Canada.

Of those 27 Conservative MPs, one has since been kicked out of caucus for refusing to blow into a Breathalyzer and now sits as an independent Conservative. One has quit and not yet been replaced. The 28th is a New Democrat.

So how many Alberta Members of Parliament, do you think, paid tribute to former Alberta Premier Peter Lougheed in the House of Commons when Parliament resumed sitting four days after Lougheed's death in Calgary at 84?

The answer would be "only one."