‘After 25 years of public service, I am not prepared to serve another full term as premier’
Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach announced on Tuesday he will not run for re-election. In a blog post on a government website, Stelmach explained that “after 25 years of public service, I am not prepared to serve another full term as premier.” “Until I provide the formal notice of intent to resign,” Stelmach added, “I will continue to govern to fulfill commitments I made in the last general election.” Polls have shown a steady erosion in Stelmach’s popularity since he won the 2008 election in a landslide. He was due to run for re-election in March 2012, a general election that may now be postponed for up to a year. “That was my timetable and mine alone,” Stelmach wrote. “My successor has the parliamentary authority to call an election anytime up to the constitutional deadline of March of 2013.”