On Monday morning, after weeks of election call rumours, Premier Alison Redford dropped the writ and kicked off a 28 day election campaign, that's expected to become very heated.

The premier made the short walk from her office at the legislature to the office of Lieutenant Governor Donald Ethell Monday morning, and asked Ethell to dissolve the current sitting of the legislature and call an election for April 23.

The call comes after many of the provincial political parties have already begun their campaigns, with both the PCs and the Wildrose launching attack ads against each other in the last week, in addition to rolling out new campaign buses.

In what's expected to be the tightest election since 1993, the PCs will attempt to secure their twelfth consecutive majority, a position the party has held since 1971.

This time around, the leader of the Progressive Conservatives kicked off her party's campaign by promising change in the province.

"I think [what] we are doing right now is redefining Alberta," PC Leader Alison Redford said. "I think a lot of Albertans are excited about that, and will come out to vote."

Wildrose Party leader Danielle Smith joined in by pledging change, but of a slightly different sort.

"It's time for us to turn to what we have to offer, Albertans are open minded, Albertans understand that this party does not deserve another majority," Smith said Monday.

The Liberal Party, with a former Tory MLA at the helm, is entering the race after gaining 50 candidates over the last five weeks, and leader Raj Sherman hopes a split vote by conservative supporters between the PCs and the Wildrose works in his party's favour.

"A nasty conservative divorce suits us just fine," Sherman said. "We are the reasonable, honest, alternative government."

Voters have another new option on the ballot, with Davy Taylor leading the Alberta Party.

"I think Albertans be surprised, when the dust clears there will be some Alberta Party candidates in the legislature," Taylor said.

Meanwhile, the leader of the New Democrats is entering his third election as leader of the party.

"We have an excellent slate of candidates, we have an organization that I think is better than I have seen in many years in this province for our party," NDP leader Brian Mason said. "I'm very confident that we are going to do extremely well in this election."

At dissolution, the PCs had 66 seats, the Liberal Party had eight, the Wildrose had four, the New Democrats had two, and one seat each was held by the Alberta Party and an independent, with a single seat vacant.

Four new seats have also been added for this election – bringing the total number of seats in the Alberta Legislature to 87.

With files from Kevin Armstrong