Hopefully you’ve already heard that Ed Stelmach is stepping down as premier. 

For concerned citizens, the immediate question now becomes: Who is going to replace good ol’ Eddie. Sure, some guy name Ted Morton has announced he will be going after the province’s top job, but have you seen him? If he was on Twitter, his permanent hashtag would be #boring.

Remember a few months ago when Nenshi won and everyone was convinced that the voice of the young would finally be represented? Those were the days, weren’t they? That’s why, after a few hours of thinking about it and realizing that buying mikeforpremier.com would only cost $10, I’ve decided to announce that I want to run for premier. Please note that this is significantly different than declaring that I’m running for premier, I’m merely stating that it would be fun.

And aren’t we all missing the fun that used to come with being premier? Who doesn’t remember and miss the days of Ralph Klein? We could always depend on him to keep us entertained. Whether he was throwing booklets at pages, or running his campaign from the St. Louis Hotel and Bar, he made politics fun and that’s what I would bring back – well that and Ralph Bucks. Frankly, Stelmach has been like that bland uncle, who you put up with because he gives you good Christmas gifts (see: no provincial sales tax).

I know what you’re thinking, “But Mike, if you are anything, you are the opposite of Conservative.” And you’d be right, but if our recent history is any indication, the trick to being a successful premier in this province is to get along with anyone or be disliked by everyone. I’m happy to say that I’m fully capable of doing both. Just ask my roommates or anyone ever dated. In a province that has had the same government for more than 40 years, I’m not really sure your actual politics and beliefs even matter.

Working in my favour is the fact I’m still not convinced a clear agenda is actually even necessary to win the Conservative leadership. I’m fairly certain I could just read some city periodicals every second Monday to get a solid grasp of the right’s politics. From what I can tell: Teachers bad. Oil good. There, that wasn’t that hard.

And as long as there are people from the Alberta and Wild Rose Party tweeting are bold statements like “ABs are proud to be rat-fee,” I think I’m going to be just fine.