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So let's get this straight, when it comes to Canadian citizens abroad -- living human beings, leastways those whose families aren't rich enough to finance their ransoms discreetly on their own -- "Canada does not and will not pay ransom to terrorists, directly or indirectly."

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The Alberta Progressive Conservative Party may not survive the damage done by Alison Redford.

It's been 20 months since Redford was fired as premier of Alberta by her own Legislative caucus -- although so much has happened in that short time it seems much longer, doesn’t it? -- but she haunts the PCs still.

With Bill 1, An Act to Renew Democracy in Alberta, there can be no question that Alberta's NDP government is playing hardball with what's left of the shattered Progressive Conservative Party.

At a news conference in the Legislature yesterday morning, Justice Minister Kathleen Ganley confidently trotted out the government's talking points on why the cabinet banned corporate and union donations, why they banned them now, and why other changes will wait until later after a multi-party committee has taken a look at the whole question.

If you want a measure of the true popularity of Alberta's New Democratic Party government just now, in Edmonton anyway, consider the multitude that assembled in the warm sunshine Sunday afternoon to watch Premier Rachel Notley and her 11 cabinet colleagues sworn in.

There had to be 10,000 people in front of the Alberta Legislature at least, all but a couple of them wearing smiles and no shortage clad in NDP orange as well as Notley and her cabinet members were sworn in one by one in the sunlight by Chief Justice Catherine Fraser on the steps of the building.