Those with political aspirations who realize their current position would conflict with their ambitions often resign their job in order to run in an election. For instance, the publisher of a newspaper may resign in preparation for a run at being Mayor. Not so though for Mac Olsen, reporter for the local Falher paper the Smoky River Express . Olsen was elected one of the Village of Donnelly's new councillors , and apparently, he kept his day job. Not only for the campaign, but since he won, too.  If ever you wanted proof that we still live in the wild west when it comes to journalistic ethics here in the Peace, this is it. The Village of Donnelly is part of the coverage area of the Express , and the Express regularly publishes the actions of the Donnelly council in its council notes. It's not as if Olsen is at least working for a paper that covers a different area than the one where he's on council. Words almost fail me in trying to explain why this is such ...

The United Conservative Party's leadership contest is over, and to almost no one's surprise, Jason Kenney is the new leader of the new party. Poor Brian Jean may finally have to accept that he signed his own political death warrant with the party merger, now that he's not only lost the leadership role but also been completely shut out of Kenney's leadership team . Kenney has also apparently gone to swift work firing any staff member who supported Brian Jean , and getting an MLA to step down to leave room for a by-election so he has his chance to win a seat in the Legislature. Peace River will be one key battleground in the provincial election coming up in what UCP supporters believe will be the “2019 summer of repeal," if the fact the constituency saw visits from all three UCP leadership hopefuls in recent weeks is any indication. Even before the merger, the constituency was already seeing meetings featuring Wildrose MLAs from neighbouring constituencies ...