EDMONTON-after more than two million miles in his car, close to 2,000 question period and nine provincial elections, speaker Ken Kowalski has decided to step down.
In a letter to Barrhead-Morinville constituency Association-Westlock on Friday, says he'll stay Kowalski until 2012 spring election, but then would come to an end a run of a service that began in 1979 when Peter Lougheed is the principal.
66-year-old is the fourth longest-serving Alberta MLA, spent half his life as a politician.
"It's been my whole life, that's why I take that back," he said Friday. "I have no plan, no agenda, no timetable, but I just need some time for me and my family."
This decision came as something of a surprise, because Kowalski indicated in August he planned to search for term 10 in the Office. He said Friday that within days of the announcement, he begins to feel differently.