Brian Mulroney's success in leading the Progressive Conservative Party to a second majority victory in the general election of 1988 was the last hurrah of the old Conservative Party, the party whose lineage extended back to the great days of the Liberal Conservatives of the 19th century, under the leadership of Sir John A. Macdonald. It is ironic that the party's final electoral victory was in aid of the implementation of the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement that had been negotiated between the Mulroney government and the Reagan Administration.

It seems that the Calgary Herald is the only media organization some corporate executives will talk to when it comes to the news stories they'd rather not talk about.

This convoluted fact goes a long way to explaining why, even though the last link between that newspaper and downtown Calgary is about to fall, it makes little difference because the ties that mattered were severed ages ago. And not just in Calgary.

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.

OK, the fledgling Alberta Party says it's moving onward and upward from meeting, greeting and eating in kitchens and living rooms throughout the province, and that now is the time for Momentum-with-a-Capital-M. Big Momentum.

Hey, it turns out everyone has a you-know-what right-wing brother-in-law -- even Conservative Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach, who's far enough to the right himself to be in danger of tipping over the edge.

At any rate, Alberta’s media is full of the news this week that Stelmach's brother-in-law has gone and joined the far-right Wildrose Alliance and said some uncomplimentary things about the job his sister's husband is doing as premier.