Unless some brave outsider actually decides to enter the race for the leadership of the Alberta Progressive Conservative Party, it's possible Ken Hughes could emerge as the winner.

The trouble with that scenario -- from the perspective of both the PCs and Hughes himself -- is that his biggest liability won't become apparent until it's too late for anyone to do anything about it.

And the liability in question is potentially huge: the massive fiasco that Alberta Health Services has become, and Hughes' central role in creating that disaster.

If Alberta's Progressive Conservative Party leaders were smart, they'd quickly find a way to send the same message to Craig B. Chandler he just got from Opposition Leader Danielle Smith.

On April 10, Smith, concerned Chandler was suggesting he was just the guy to bridge the gap between her Wildrose Party and the foundering Tories, Tweeted to him: "Your views & how you express them are wrong for Wildrose and Alberta. I would never let you be a candidate for #wrp."

So, tell us Ms. Smith, what do you really think about Craig Chandler?

The question Jim Prentice really needs to ask himself is this: "Do I really want to ride that bus all the way to the bottom of the cliff and be sitting in it when it bursts into flames?"

The question the lawyer, banking boss and sometime federal Conservative politician will actually ask himself will likely be a little more polished, and a little more complicated. To wit: "Can becoming leader of the Alberta Progressive Conservative Party help my ambition to become the prime minister of Canada?"

There was blood in the water of the Bow River as it flowed through Cowtown last night.

After a while, it became clear the metaphorical blood had been shed by the ever-embarrassing Rob Anders, who at a mere 42 years of age had served an excruciating six terms as the Reform, Alliance and Conservative Member of Parliament for the Calgary West riding, which will soon cease to exist.

This, however, was not immediately obvious. After more than an hour and a half of waiting for ballot counters in the new Calgary Signal-Hill electoral district to figure out whether Anders or challenger Ron Liepert had won the hard-fought Tory nomination, the Calgary Herald posted a story saying they both had!