Many were floored when, in 2006, Ed Stelmach was chosen to replace Ralph Klein as leader of Alberta's Progressive Conservative party, thus becoming the province's premier. Over 144,000 Albertans cast ballots in that race. Few would have guessed that Stelmach would ultimately prevail.

The contest to replace King Ralph was billed as a race between Jim Dinning, the moderate, and Ted Morton, the staunch conservative. The two of them were neck-in-neck after the first round of voting, but PC leadership races use a runoff election system — candidates don't just vote for their preferred candidate, but their second-choice as well. When a race boils down to two intractable candidates and a less objectionable third party, the delegates for one of the main challengers will often refuse to give their second vote to their antagonist. This applies to both opposing camps, meaning also-rans can suddenly be the preferred choice of both groups.

In Ancient Rome, upwards of 50,000 people would fill the Colosseum to watch men battle condemned criminals and wild beasts. But like many things in life, sports have become far more civilized. Today’s Colosseums have names like Saddledome. Gladiators are no longer slaves. Now they’re multi-millionaire celebrities.

But regardless of whether people are cheering on a gladiator or a hockey goon, our demand for thrilling fights has remained much the same.

Fighting has always been a part of hockey. There was a time when our great Canadian heroes took to the ice without helmets or body armour, and got into scraps far more brutal than what we are used to seeing today.

Recently, however, the NHL has been tweaking its rules, to reduce the number of fights. In the 1980s, there was an average of one per game. By 2010, that number was almost cut in half.