He expressed a desire to step down so he could explore new opportunities in his life. His resignation raised some questions with the opposition; NDP leader Jack Layton expressed concern over the apparent connection between Ministers and the large banks. Though previously rumoured to have been interested in succeeding Stephen Harper as federal Conservative leader, Prentice entered the 2014 Alberta Progressive Conservative leadership election on May 15, 2014. At the time the Alberta PC party was lagging badly in polls behind the opposition Wildrose due to personal expense controversies with Allison Redford, who resigned as premier and party leader after facing a revolt from the caucus and riding associations, with Dave Hancock serving in these roles for the interim. On September 6, 2014 Prentice won the leadership race with more than 76% of the vote on the first ballot. Prentice was formally sworn in as premier on September 15, 2014. He immediately named a 20-member Executive Council of Alberta, smaller than the cabinet had been under recent premiers. His recommendations for cabinet appointments included two people, former Edmonton mayor Stephen Mandel and former Calgary Board of Education trustee Gordon Dirks, who were not members of the Legislative Assembly. Prentice was elected to the legislature in a by-election in Calgary-Foothills, the seat formerly held by MLA Len Webber. The PCs won all four of the provincial by-elections held on October 27, 2014 in what was seen at the time as a major electoral success for Prentice. On November 24, 2014, Wildrose Party MLAs Kerry Towle, (Innisfail-Sylvan Lake), and Ian Donovan, (Little Bow) crossed the floor to join the ruling PC Party's caucus giving the turmoil within the Wildrose Party, uncertainty about the leadership of Danielle Smith and confidence in Prentice as reasons for their move. On December 17, 2014, Smith confirmed she and eight other Wildrose members – Rob Anderson, Gary Bikman, Rod Fox, Jason Hale, Bruce McAllister, Blake Pedersen, Bruce Rowe and Jeff Wilson – would cross the floor to the Progressive Conservative caucus. At a press conference, Smith said that her conversations with Prentice revealed that they shared so much common ground that it made little sense for her to continue in opposition. "If you’re going to be the official Opposition leader," she said, "you have to really want to take down the government and really take down the premier. I don't want to take down this premier. I want this premier to succeed." The defections were termed by a journalist as "an unprecedented move in Canadian political history", although they did not change the overall make-up of the government – the Conservatives still held a vast majority of the seats and the Wildrose Party was still the Official Opposition with a smaller caucus in the Legislature.