With roughly 40 per cent of its members new to a cabinet role -- and 15 per cent of them brand new to Alberta's 87-seat Legislature -- Premier Alison Redford's new cabinet announced yesterday should have given the impression of more change than it did.

Despite the story the crunched numbers tell, though, this cabinet sure feels like the same old, same old.

Later today, Alberta Premier Alison Redford will announce whom she has picked to fill her cabinet.

As a consequence, today is almost certain to be the start of a disappointment for the thousands of Alberta teachers, health care workers, union members, soccer moms and other progressive citizens who cast their ballots strategically, some might say foolishly, for the premier's Progressive Conservative Party on April 23.

They did it, of course, largely to keep the far-right Wildrose Party out of power, and in that they succeeded. But many also acted in the naïve hope Redford really offered a genuinely progressive alternative.

'Tis late and the CBC's pancake makeup weighs heavy on your blogger's face. As all the world must surely know by now, Alberta Premier Alison Redford's hole card turned out to be an ace yesterday and Alberta's 41-year Progressive Conservative dynasty will live a little longer, perhaps a lot longer.

So today there is no joy in Mudville -- whether that place is located in the town of Okotoks, site of the world's largest glacial erratic, or at 24 Sussex Drive -- for the Mighty Flanagan has struck out. You can almost hear the disgruntled Wildrosers chanting "45 years is enough!"

If you have any doubts left there are only four more sleeps before the end of the Progressive Conservative Era in Alberta, look no further than the video and website called "I never thought I'd vote PC."

Whether or not the PCs under Alison Redford had anything to do with this vain effort to encourage hip, edgy young people to vote for the clapped out Conservative party in a last-ditch effort to prevent a Wildrose Apocalypse, there could be no surer sign of the imminent demise of the once mighty Tory dynasty.

If you think the Alberta election campaign has been exciting up to now, just wait. Any minute now, someone's going to start shouting the C-word.

That's right: "Coalition."

Leastways, if the election is as close as is now being suggested, there’s a good chance the Progressive Conservatives under Premier Alison Redford and the Wildrose Party under Danielle Smith will emerge from the voting on April 23 with approximately the same number of seats.

What's the deal with Thomas Lukaszuk, Alberta's new minister of education and well-known Lord Greystoke look-alike, pursuing alleged young miscreants through the slippery streets of St. Albert in the darkling hours?

Lukaszuk was in the pages of a local tabloid pifflesheet yesterday morning playing a public-spirited hero who cornered two young motorists described by the paper as "fake-cop punks" after chasing them in his government car through the Edmonton suburb's chaotic streets during the area's first winter snowstorm.

These days, the brown envelopes are piling up around my office like broken matchsticks on the floor of the Eddy factory. Only they're even more explosive!

I'm only telling you this so you can brace yourself. I'd feel bad if someone strained their heart or popped a gasket reading this blog.

This document was delivered to me at a late-night meeting in a downtown parking garage by a senior official of the Alberta Public Affairs Bureau, the world's largest single-client advertising and public relations agency. The PAB plans to release it to the media one day before Premier Alison Redford calls the next Alberta general election.

Word that Gary Mar is about to be sent into a comfortable voluntary exile in Asia by Premier Alison Redford prompted an instant and harsh reaction among many members of the Alberta public.

"It's just a jump to the left….

"…And then a step to the right!"

We're in a time warp, people! And Ron Liepert, Tory Riff-Raff personified, is back, bigger and uglier than ever!

Progressively minded Albertans of the naïve sort who, full of hope, bought Progressive Conservative Party memberships so they could vote for the most liberally minded candidate were wailing and gnashing their teeth yesterday. A few of them may even have been, as they say in the media, choking back tears.

Back during the PC leadership race, these nice folks pinned their hopes on candidate Alison Redford, a one-term MLA and former human rights lawyer and who served as Justice Minister in departed premier Ed Stelmach's cabinet.