"Without absolutes revealed from without by God Himself, we are left rudderless in a sea of conflicting ideas"

The race for the next leader of the provincial Tories almost got nasty with Thomas Lukaszuk taking aim at Jim Dinning Prentice for slighting Dave Hancock.

For those keeping score, this is the former deputy premier who thinks Red Redford's social and economic policies were bang on coming to the defense of Red Redford's best friend who governs even further to the left than she did.

“You’re insinuating Mr. Hancock isn’t exhibiting qualities of leadership,” he told the Calgary Sun editorial board.

“This short-lived premiership is one of the hardest you’ll have...he is keeping it all together and at the same time serving Albertans well.

“If I were Premier Hancock, I’d be offended.”

I agree that Hancock is trying to "keep it all together". Of course, what he's keeping together is the despicable Red Tory side of the PC party. Not exactly a big noble gesture that serves Albertans well, if at all.

Prentice’s comments, he said, are also selling PC MLAs short by suggesting they’re incapable of making decisions.

“The caucus is not a pack of sheep that unless they have a shepherd, they’d go in disarray,” said Lukaszuk.

Prentice is the perceived front-runner in the race and has the support of much of the PC caucus.

Nobody in their right mind would ever insinuate that the PC caucus is incapable of making decisions. We've just seen time and time again that they are horrible decisions. That's what DinningPrentice was getting at, and Lukaszuk is being intentionally doltish here if he pretends not to understand what that means.

Finally, on the subject of Doug Horner, the finance minister who doesn't know what the laws say Lukaszuk took the encircled wagons approach.

But when asked if he agrees with the Wild Rose demand Finance Minister Doug Horner be fired for overseeing a government travel system abused by Redford, Lukaszuk hinted Horner’s days in the post are numbered without taking that action.

“The answer to that question is moot because there will be a cabinet shuffle,” he said.

Lukaszuk also said he opposes a snap election soon after a new Tory leader is chosen in September, adding a date set for October, 2015 should trump any anger over Redford.

“We didn’t do it with premier Stelmach...there’s no hate meter there,” he said.

If you want a reason not to vote Lukaszuk, throwing around terms like "hate meter" is a good one. The idea of a snap election is to force the PCs to run on their record, and they know they'll have to do it eventually. Until that day though, just because Red Redford flew in empty planes doesn't mean that there isn't still some good gravy trains left to ride.

Finally, I'm not sure how much "there will be a cabinet shuffle" suffices as an answer: it's highly unlikely that Horner is going to lose his spot on cabinet (especially under a Premier Lukaszuk), and all this means is a man who, again didn't know what his own laws said, will be going somewhere else.