Close X
Thursday, November 28, 2024
ADVT 
National

Notley says she'll step down from Alberta NDP helm to make way for fresh voices

Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 16 Jan, 2024 11:09 AM
  • Notley says she'll step down from Alberta NDP helm to make way for fresh voices

Former premier Rachel Notley, after almost a decade at the helm of Alberta’s NDP, is stepping down from the top job.

Notley, the official Opposition leader, said a leadership race will be called and she will stay on as leader until a replacement is chosen.

That means she will remain on the front bench during the upcoming spring sitting.

Notley said she doesn't know her next steps after that, including whether she will fulfil her current term as the legislature member for Edmonton-Strathcona, a riding she has won handily in five consecutive elections. She also did not rule out running again. 

"I just don’t know. It’s a volatile world, politics," Notley said in an interview before making her departure public Tuesday.

The party will now set the rules and timelines for the race. Caucus members Rakhi Pancholi, David Shepherd, Sarah Hoffman and Kathleen Ganley are rumoured to be eyeing potential leadership runs.

Notley said she will not be endorsing any candidate.

The announcement ends months of speculation over Notley’s future after her NDP lost the May 2023 election to Premier Danielle Smith’s United Conservatives. Notley’s NDP captured 38 of the 87 legislature seats to become the largest official Opposition in provincial history. 

It was the second consecutive election loss for the NDP under Notley, which ended a 44-year Progressive-Conservative dynasty in 2015 with a surprise majority government only to be trounced four years later by Jason Kenney's UCP. 

Notley was elected as party leader in 2014, commanding a caucus that, except for a short-lived breakthrough in 1986, had been confined to a tiny corner of the legislature with a handful of members who could hold meetings in a subcompact sedan.

Under Notley, the NDP wiped out rival left-centre parties, including the Alberta Liberals, to establish itself as the dominant alternative to the governing right-wing UCP.

Notley said she takes the most pride in what the NDP has become under her watch, staying true to its core values but becoming a mainstream alternative by doing a better job listening and connecting with Albertans.

“When we got elected in 2015, we didn’t know who voted for us. We barely knew why because we couldn’t afford polling,” said Notley.

That has all changed, she 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 be engaging with Albertans in a meaningful, responsive way strengthens the party, strengthens the movement,” she said.

“So did we move to the centre in the traditional left-right (spectrum)? I would say no. 

“Did we get better at talking to Albertans and representing who they are, through our own lens, but representing the things that matter to them? Yeah, we did."

Asked what she considers to be signature accomplishments as Alberta’s 17th premier, Notley points to getting approval for the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, building a new Calgary cancer hospital, reducing child poverty, investing in schools and hospitals, phasing out coal-fired electricity, kick-starting renewable energy investment and hiking Alberta’s minimum wage.

Of those accomplishments, she said the minimum wage hike resonates.

“We raised the minimum wage to $15 (an hour), the first jurisdiction North America to do that, and others followed because, of course, the world did not collapse as everybody suggested," she said. 

“And to this day, although a little bit less so now because we're falling behind again (on minimum wage), I still have people come up and tell me how it changed their lives. I’m very proud of that.”

So if the party is doing well, why step down as leader?

“I’m a bit of a polarizing figure in the province,” Notley replied.

"And I think we have a lot of really great people who are part of our movement and I think it’s healthy to allow other voices to have an opportunity."

Notley, as premier, 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 sellout. 

Her NDP governed during a punishing recession that saw her government rack up multibillion-dollar deficits as the profits dried up in oil and gas — the wellspring 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 met a dollar they didn’t want to spend and couldn’t be trusted with the public purse.

Asked if she felt like she got a raw deal when she won in 2015 only to be handed the keys to a government with no money, Notley said no.

Because they were in power, she said, they were able reduce poverty, increase wages for those who needed it most, index payments for people with severe disablilites to inflation and spend to keep pace with population growth in schools and hospitals.

"As much as we paid a price for it electorally (losing in 2019), I'm glad we were the ones that were there in the hard times," said Notley. 

"It would have been a lot worse if it hadn't been us."

MORE National ARTICLES

India restores e-visa services for Canadian nationals, easing diplomatic row between the 2 countries

India restores e-visa services for Canadian nationals, easing diplomatic row between the 2 countries
India restored electronic visa services for Canadian nationals, an Indian foreign ministry official said Wednesday, two months after Canada alleged the South Asian nation was involved in the assassination of a Sikh separatist in Canada. The electronic visa was back in order on Wednesday, the official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to reporters.  

India restores e-visa services for Canadian nationals, easing diplomatic row between the 2 countries

Province to launch website to seek public input on South Asian museum

Province to launch website to seek public input on South Asian museum
The B-C government says it will launch a website to seek public input on a new museum that would highlight the history, culture and contributions of South Asian heritages in the province.  Lana Popham, minister of tourism, arts, culture and sport, says public input, especially from South Asian communities, is vital to creating a first-of-its-kind museum.

Province to launch website to seek public input on South Asian museum

24 properties evacuated as precarious rock looms over Penticton homes

24 properties evacuated as precarious rock looms over Penticton homes
The City of Penticton says it has temporarily evacuated 24 properties in a mobile home park over fears of a potential rock slide. The city says it was notified on Tuesday morning about a large rock that may break off a cliff, and a geotechnical engineer's review prompted the evacuation of the properties in the Pleasant Valley Mobile Home Park.   

24 properties evacuated as precarious rock looms over Penticton homes

2nd degree murder charge laid in death of 18 year old Mehakpreet Sethi

2nd degree murder charge laid in death of 18 year old Mehakpreet Sethi
A second-degree murder charge has been laid in the death of an 18-year-old outside a Surrey high school last year. Homicide investigators say an 18-year-old man has been charged, but his name won’t be released because he was a youth at the time of the death.

2nd degree murder charge laid in death of 18 year old Mehakpreet Sethi

B.C. unfairly clawed back COVID-19 benefit to thousands during pandemic, says report

B.C. unfairly clawed back COVID-19 benefit to thousands during pandemic, says report
Thousands of people in British Columbia saw their $1,000 tax-free COVID-19 benefit unfairly clawed back by the provincial government, says an ombudsperson report. So far, 12,000 people have been told to repay their B.C. Emergency Benefit that the government said was for workers who had been affected by the pandemic, Ombudsperson Jay Chalke said Tuesday. 

B.C. unfairly clawed back COVID-19 benefit to thousands during pandemic, says report

Federal government posts $8.2 billion deficit between April and September this year

Federal government posts $8.2 billion deficit between April and September this year
The federal government recorded a budgetary deficit of $8.2 billion between April and September, $3.9 billion of which was in September.  The finance department says in its monthly fiscal monitor that the deficit between April and September compared to a surplus of $1.7 billion during the same period last year. 

Federal government posts $8.2 billion deficit between April and September this year