Notley accomplished the impossible in 2015 and her party remains strong enough to do it again some day
Rachel Notley’s remarkable career in Alberta politics will end shortly after 2 p.m. Saturday, when the party announces who won the race to replace her.
But Friday evening at the BMO Centre is about honouring Notley and her career, with greetings from federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, an opening speech by longtime NDP warrior and Notley aide Brian Topp, and a farewell speech from the leader herself.
There was much for this party to celebrate. Notley accomplished the impossible in 2015 and her party remains strong enough to do it again some day.
Notley won government after her PC opponent, then-premier Jim Prentice, declared that “Alberta is not an NDP province.”
This NDP had captured only four seats in the previous election, when Brian Mason was leader. After Notley took the helm in 2014, the NDP surged to 54 seats and a clear majority.
One factor was the conservative split between PC and Wildrose. But even with that advantage, the NDP could not have have won without Notley. She impressed legions of Albertans with her quickness, humour and sincerity.
Conservatives then united under the UCP led by Jason Kenney. His party trounced the NDP in 2019, with 63 seats to 24.
One significant result was little noticed. No other party won a riding in 2019. The Liberals and Alberta Party were obliterated.
After a long string of elections in which New Democrats fought Liberals for second and third place, Notley’s party was the dominant opposition voice, the only one people discontented with the government could turn to.
After the 2019 UCP victory, many conservatives still expected the NDP to wither away; they’d be “one and done,” as Kenney liked to say.
But under Notley’s energetic leadership, they grew. The NDP led the UCP in fundraising for two years running.
Last May 29, the UCP defied many expectations and won under Premier Danielle Smith’s controversial leadership. The NDP helped them out with an ill-timed promise to raise business tax.
But Notley’s party raised its seat count to 38 and for the first time won a majority of seats in Calgary. With a few flips in close ridings, they could have won.
Notley was bitterly disappointed, of course, but she has claimed ever since that near-victory against a single conservative party was a crucial achievement in Alberta.
Alberta now has “a two-party system where people who don’t agree with the prevailing conservative extremism, have a genuine and hopeful, realistic opportunity to vote for someone better,” she said in an interview. “That’s what I’m proud of, what I’ve helped create with the help of many, many others.”
Asked about her proudest government achievement, Notley cited the phase-out of burning coal for electricity.
“What that means is that we have cut greenhouse gas emissions for Canada’s electricity system in half,” Notley says.
“I don’t believe there’s any other government in recent memory that can point to that actual outcome.”
When further asked about her greatest disappointment, Notley doesn’t mention the 2023 election, or the carbon tax she introduced without mentioning it in the 2015 campaign.
She says it was Bill 6, the legislation that tried to pull farm workers under Workers Compensation and other safety laws.
Politically, Bill 6 set the countryside aflame.
“I learned very early how careful we had to be in some ways around the way in which Bill 6 rolled out, and that was a mistake on our part,” Notley says.
“Our intentions were never to wrap Alberta farmers in red tape . . . we wanted to find a way to help that work (with safety) in that sector, but we didn’t do a good job.
“That was the end of the honeymoon in our government. It is a disappointment to me that it’s still a scar to this day.”
That nine-year-old scar is a major reason the NDP was blanked in rural Alberta last year.
Don Braid’s column appears regularly in the Herald.