By Monday afternoon Alberta will have a new premier as Jim Prentice will be sworn into office however political experts are divided on whether that means any significant change for the province.

Bob Murray with the Frontier Centre on Public Policy said he expects new blood in the cabinet.

“I think we are going to see some new faces that have yet to be actually elected. Stephen Mandel is likely to be one of them.

“We are going to see some change. We are going to see some significant demotions,” he said, adding he expected Doug Horner to be out.

“I think he is going to be one of those people you are going to see either out of cabinet completely or in a much lower portfolio.

“I really don’t think we are going to see Thomas Lukaszuk or Ric McIver in cabinet. If we see one of them out of the two we are going to see Ric McIver probably over Thomas Lukaszuk and I think most of that is personal.”

Political scientist Jim Lightbody said it was irrelevant who was in the new cabinet.

“It is not a change of government so the ministry really doesn’t matter much. It is just who is arranging the deck chairs.

“I think if he dumps the two that ran against him and brings in some junior members from the outer ranks of the caucus, possibly one or two outsiders then he might get away with it. But unless there is some radical policy change to show there is a new direction, a clean slate, he is condemned to reliving the past.

“If Albertans are looking for a break with the past, apart from throwing out the dirty linen, they are not going to get it from Jim Prentice,” he added.

Murray disagreed.

“From that acceptance speech it is very clear that he intends to change the culture within that party very quickly. So, there are a lot of very nervous people around the Legislature that have been part of the party both on the political side of things and the staff level side of things that are very wary about what happens this week and whether they or not they are still going to have jobs.”

Prentice will be Alberta’s 16th premier.

CTV Edmonton will be live streaming the ceremony starting at 1 p.m. Monday.

With files from Amanda Anderson