According to Roy Macgregor in the Globe and Mail (tinyurl.com/a67kr), The Secret Mulroney Tapes: Confessions of a Prime Minister by Peter C. Newman, Brian Mulroney is firmly convinced of his place in Canadian history:

"By the time history is done looking at this and you look at my achievements as opposed to any others, certainly no one will be in Sir John A.’s league–but my nose will be a little ahead of most in terms of achievements. Nobody has achievements like this, Peter. I can say that to you objectively. You cannot name a Canadian prime minister who has done as many significant things as I did, because there are none."

The jury is still out on that one... oh, wait, the jury’s back. Over on the Calgary Grit blog (tinyurl.com/bgu76) readers are voting on Greatest Prime Minister, and Mr. Mulroney didn’t even make the semifinals. (At the moment, Wilfred Laurier is leading King, Trudeau, and MacDonald.)

WE’RE RICH! WE’RE FILTHY RICH!

Premier Ralph Klein met in Bonnyville this week with his top advisors to decide how to spend Alberta’s oil windfall. At this writing, there’s no word about where that money will go, though lots of suggestions are floating around. The DEW Line has one too: However the money is spent, it should benefit all Albertans equally, and not benefit a few people the most, as would be the case with a graduated tax cut. Those resources belong to all of us, and the benefits should be fairly distributed. This is especially important because it’s the poorest working Albertans who are hit hardest by the high oil prices producing this windfall. Since some of the money is profit from the misfortune of others, in America, Iraq, elsewhere in Canada and even in Alberta, there’s a karmic concern here. I know you guys will do the right thing.

EVOLVE!

There’s hope for our human race. According to the New York Times (tinyurl.com/8dlee, "the brain is still undergoing rapid evolution." New versions of two key genes, "or alleles as geneticists call them, appear to have spread because they enhanced brain function in some way, the report suggests." Yes, there are mutants among us. Let’s hope they use their bigger brains for good, not evil, and help lead us unevolved slobs to a better, more fair world–and not, for example, just turn the rest of us into their mud-grey slaves.

THEY MIGHT BE MUTANTS

Also from the Times (tinyurl.com/aprlj), a story on young, practical idealists who combine do-gooderism with the marketing savvy and efficiency of CEOs. In Canada, we’re way ahead of the curve on this, with people like Craig Keilberger and Laura Hannant, now grownup activists who started out in grade school working to free third world children from slavery. Know any local examples? Email me.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

From the Glenbow archives, the diary of "Happy Jack" Jackson (tinyurl.com/dum8h), a hermit , a drunk, and a homesteader in southeastern Alberta:

April 15th, 1915: Cut two bulls

17th: My kingdom for a bottle

21st: Done some farming

23rd: Drunk as Hell

24th: Still drunk

25th: Rather feeble

26th: Planted some oats