Does anybody remember the brouhaha in 2009 that was semi-officially designated The Trouble in Strathmore?

The trouble actually started a year earlier, in February 2008, when then premier Ed Stelmach and his Progressive Conservatives were running for election. The premier got up on his hind legs at a campaign meeting in the town half an hour east of Calgary and promised residents the government of Alberta would build 600 long-term care beds, 100 of them right there in Strathmore. There were 23 long-term care beds in the town at the time.

"We don't need any more meetings," Stelmach vowed. "It is a go."

If Stelmach had kept that election promise, he might still be premier today.

Civilization as we know it in Alberta has ended.

Ken Kowalski, 66, is stepping down. The Speaker of the Alberta Legislature and its longest-serving MLA -- "the dean of the Legislature," in Press Gallery-speak -- made the announcement yesterday morning in a news release that looked as if he'd typed it up himself late at night on his home computer.

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.

Former Alberta energy minister Ron Liepert, who is now Premier Alison Redford's minister of finance, yesterday denied Opposition allegations that his previous department put together a backroom deal to benefit a couple of energy companies.