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.

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.