Today is the fifth anniversary of the day the wheels fell off the Tory bus.

That is to say, today is the fifth anniversary of the day Alison Redford was sworn into office as Alberta’s 14th premier, the leader who was supposed to renew the Progressive Conservative Party one more time -- as Ed Stelmach, Ralph Klein and Don Getty before her had all been meant to do in their time.

Jim Prentice was supposed to play the same role too, but by then, notwithstanding his own blunders, it may have been too late.

 So all this means that yesterday was the last day steady old Eddie, Unlucky Premier No. 13, was at the wheel of Alberta's PC bus, and while it may have needed a coat of paint and a new set of spark plugs, it was still a perfectly serviceable vehicle.

Like this article? rabble is reader-supported journalism. Chip in to keep stories like these coming.

We now live in the 21st century, a digital age, and it's time to recognize access to fairly priced banking service as a human right.

A decent life, after all, is all but impossible without a bank account. Access to banking services has rightly been called a passport to the modern economy.

More significant change is coming to Alberta's government in the wake of last week's election of Premier Designate Rachel Notley's New Democratic Party government -- and I'm not speaking of the interim appointment yesterday of former infrastructure minister Ric McIver as leader of the much diminished Progressive Conservative caucus in the Legislature.

OTTAWA

Here's a tip for Alberta New Democrats from one of the principal architects of Jack Layton's historic 2011 Quebec campaign: don't tell voters they're stupid because they've been voting Tory for 43 years.

Ray Guardia was too diplomatic, of course, to put it quite like that in a panel discussion yesterday on winning progressive campaigns during the final session of the Broadbent Institute's 2014 Progress Summit in the nation's capital.