A DEAD FISH

It seems to me that it is entirely appropriate that I open my blog with a Dead Fish story. The photograph that you see at the beginning of my blog was taken a couple of years ago at a fishing camp on the extreme north end of the Queen Charlotte Islands. The virile looking young man is yours truly. The Dead Fish was until an hour or so before the photo was taken, a fierce and elusive Pacific King Salmon. Unfortunately for the Salmon, I had landed it after a ferocious manno a manno epic battle. Alas, what was once a proud and formidable King Salmon, had been reduced to a dead fish.

Speaking of which, I can't help but think of poor Ed Stelmach, the new Leader of the Alberta Progressive Conservative Party. Like the proud King Salmon, Ed is flush with victory, having killed the giant- dare I say - eel, Jim Dinning. While not too high on the political food chain in Alberta because he is electorally untested as a Premier and Party leader, nonetheless, Stelmach is savoring his new found fame and influence, and enjoying his swimming with the big fish.

For the moment, most of the Alberta media are giving him a pass on disasterous and catastrophic errors of judgement, the like of which is as profoundly damaging as it is unprecedented. After all, its the honeymoon period. But make no mistake, the honeymoon will end. Stelmach's political opponents together with the major print media establishment will soon encircle the hapless Ed. They are getting ready for the kill. When they are finished with him, poor Ed will be just like that big Dead Fish. He won't know what hit him.

Why am I so pessimistic about poor Ed's future? Because his mistake of decimating urban representation in his government and rubbing salt into the wounds of his political foes instead of applying some elementary healing remedy, is contrary to every fundamental rule of Politics 101. At the risk of belaboring this metaphor, and mixing it with others, the writing is on the wall. Changes in Alberta are well on their way.