Former premier Rachel Notley, after nearly a decade leading the Alberta NDP, is stepping down from her top job.
Notley, the official opposition leader, said a leadership race will be called and she will remain as leader until a replacement is chosen.
That means he will remain on the front bench for the upcoming spring session.
Notley said he doesn’t know his next steps after that, including whether he will serve out his current term as a member of the legislature for Edmonton-Strathcona, a constituency he has won handily in five consecutive elections. He also did not rule out running again.
“I just do not know. Politics is a volatile world,” Notley said in an interview before making his departure public on Tuesday.
The party will now set the rules and deadlines for the race. Caucus members Rakhi Pancholi, David Shepherd, Sarah Hoffman and Kathleen Ganley are rumored to be considering potential leadership runs.
Notley said he will not endorse any candidate.
The announcement ends months of speculation about Notley’s future after his NDP lost the May 2023 election to Premier Danielle Smith’s United Conservatives. Notley’s NDP captured 38 of the legislature’s 87 seats to become the largest official opposition in provincial history.
It was the second consecutive election defeat for the NDP under Notley, which ended a 44-year Progressive-Conservative dynasty in 2015 with a surprise majority government only to be defeated four years later by Jason Kenney’s UCP.
Notley was elected party leader in 2014, leading a group that, except for a brief breakthrough in 1986, had been confined to a small corner of the legislature with a handful of members who could hold meetings in a subcompact sedan.
Under Notley, the NDP eliminated rival center-left parties, including the Alberta Liberals, to establish itself as the dominant alternative to the ruling right-wing UCP.
Notley said she is very proud of what the NDP has become under her leadership, staying true to its core values but becoming mainstream by doing a better job of listening to and connecting with Albertans.
“When we were elected in 2015, we didn’t know who had voted for us. We barely knew why because we couldn’t afford to do surveys,” Notley said.
That’s all changed, he said, with more financial resources, strong candidates and more ways to find out what Albertans want in a government and from their elected representatives.
“Those relationships with stakeholders and that ability to engage with Albertans in a meaningful and responsive way strengthens the party, strengthens the movement,” he said.
“So we move towards the center on the traditional left-right (spectrum)? I would say not.
“Have we gotten better at talking to Albertans and representing who they are, through our own lens, but representing the things that matter to them? Yes we did it”.
When asked what he considers his signature accomplishments as Alberta’s 17th premier, Notley points to approval for the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, construction of a new cancer hospital in Calgary, reducing child poverty, investing in schools and hospitals, phasing out coal-fired electricity, -initiating investments in renewable energy and increasing Alberta’s minimum wage.
Among those achievements, he said, the increase in the minimum wage resonates.
“We raised the minimum wage to $15 (an hour), being the first North American jurisdiction to do so, and others followed because, of course, the world didn’t collapse like everyone was suggesting,” he said.
“And to this day, although a little less now because we are falling behind again (on minimum wage), there are still people who come up to me and tell me how it changed their lives. “I’m very proud of that.”
So if the party is doing well, why resign as leader?
“I’m a bit of a polarizing figure in the province,” Notley responded.
“And I think we have a lot of really wonderful people who are part of our movement and I think it’s healthy to allow other voices to have a chance.”
Notley, as prime minister, had been criticized from the right as an out-of-touch, spend-happy eco-extremist, and from the left as a pipeline-loving fossil fuel traitor.
His NDP governed through a harsh recession that saw his government rack up multi-million dollar deficits as profits dried up in the oil and gas sector, the lifeblood of Alberta’s economy.
The UCP, under former Leader Kenney, won the 2019 election in part by painting Notley’s NDP as wide-eyed spendthrifts who never found a dollar they didn’t want to spend and couldn’t be trusted with the public purse.
Asked if he felt he got a raw deal when he won in 2015 only to be handed the keys to a cash-strapped government, Notley said no.
Because they were in power, he said, they were able to reduce poverty, raise wages for those who needed it most, index payments for people with severe disabilities to inflation, and spend to keep pace with population growth in schools and hospitals.
“As much as we paid an electoral price for it (losing in 2019), I’m glad we were the ones who were there during the tough times,” Notley said.
“It would have been a lot worse if it hadn’t been us.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 16, 2023.