The Battle for Alberta has just taken a major twist, with the resignation of NDP Leader Rachel Notley.The daughter of former Alberta NDP leader Grant Notley, the fiery politician was the 17th premier of Alberta from 2015 to 2019 and has since been the leader of the Opposition.She currently sits as the member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Edmonton-Strathcona.While she failed to lead her party to victory in the May election, the NDP emerged with 38 MLAs, against Danielle Smith's UCP party, which garnered a majority with 48 MLAs — a solid showing, overall.The spring campaign was hard fought, with both parties fielding negative attack ads, which bordered on the vicious. Target areas were the main voter concerns of health care and the economy.Smith and Notley presented very different visions for Alberta at a crucial time in the province's history, but some pundits believe it was Notley's close relationship and cooperation with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, which damaged her credibility in rural areas.The UCP's more adversarial approach toward Ottawa appeared to go over well with Albertans.Possible leadership candidates include former Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi, outspoken Edmonton MLA Sarah Hoffman, MLA Shannon Phillips of Lethbridge, MLA Kathleen Ganley of Calgary and Edmonton lawyer and rising star, Rakhi Pancholi.Rachel Notley was born in Edmonton on 17 April 1964, the eldest of three children to Sandra and Grant Notley, a trailblazer for the NDP. Her family moved to northwest Alberta after her father became the MLA for Spirit River-Fairview.Her mother, Sandra Wilkinson, a native of Massachusetts, had been a social activist in the US involved with protest leaders of the day such as Abbie Hoffman. She came to Alberta to visit a friend and became interested in the province’s burgeoning New Democratic Party, where she met her future husband. Rachel Notley has said her mother had as much influence as her father on her social conscience, her mother taking her to protest marches before the young girl had turned 10.Through her father, she met some of the icons of Canadian socialism, including federal NDP leaders Tommy Douglas and Ed Broadbent.She remembers annoying her father when, as an adolescent, she met Broadbent: “I met him at some event; he smiled and introduced himself and shook my hand and I said, ‘Oh, you have that same fake politician smile as my father.’ Just horrible, right? I was just your standard obnoxious 12- or 13-year-old.”She exasperated her father on several occasions, perhaps most notably when, as a college student, she attended one of his town hall meetings in Grande Prairie and challenged him on the issue of student debt. She complained that while her parents made too much money for her to qualify for a student loan, her father was too cheap to give her enough money to buy food.“He was very irritated with me,” said Notley, recalling the event with a smile. “Everybody who worked with him was hyperventilating, they were laughing so hard. But he was really irritated. And then he gave me twenty dollars and that’s the story of how damned cheap he was.”Rachel Notley spent two years in college in Grande Prairie, before moving to Edmonton to enroll at the University of Alberta. On October 19 1984, the 20-year-old student learned her father had died in an airplane crash with five others near Lesser Slave Lake.Media reports noted it was snowing and visibility was poor as the pilot of Wapiti Flight 402 tried to calculate a landing path without the help of a co-pilot. The plane crashed about 30 kilometres south of the High Prairie Airport. Six of the 10 people on board died..Rachel Notley would graduate with a bachelor of arts in political science and moved to Toronto, where she earned a law degree from Osgoode Hall Law School.Her legal career would see her return to Edmonton, where she worked for the Alberta Union of Public Employees, specializing in workers' compensation cases.She would move to Vancouver to work for the Health Sciences Association of BC, taking a year off to work as an assistant to then provincial attorney general Ujjal Dosanjh on files that included safe communities, family relations law for same-sex couples and improving how police and courts handled domestic abuse cases.Upon returning to the HSA, she was appointed by the BC government to help rewrite its health and safety legislation.In 2002, she and her family returned to Edmonton, where she began contract work for the National Union of Public and General Employees.At various times, she was also an appeals commissioner for workers’ compensation cases, a tutor at Athabasca University and a sessional instructor in business law at Grant MacEwan College. She eventually went to work part-time with the United Nurses of Alberta.In a June 2015 interview with The Canadian Encyclopedia, Notley said that, at the time, she was avoiding working too many hours: “I was doing all these little things because I was trying to work part-time while dealing with a three-year-old and a one-year-old.”In 2006, she decided to enter provincial politics by campaigning to succeed Raj Pannu, who was retiring as the NDP MLA for Edmonton-Strathcona.She was acclaimed as the party’s candidate and won the seat in the 2008 election — she and party leader Brian Mason were the only NDP candidates elected.The two-person caucus divvied up 24 shadow cabinet positions; as a rookie, Notley was critic for aboriginal relations, advanced education, agriculture, children and youth services, culture, education, employment and immigration, environment, justice, seniors, sustainable resource development and tourism.Although she has admitted to being nervous at the beginning, Notley soon proved herself one of the most able MLAs on either side of the assembly.She also demonstrated a parsimonious streak similar to her father’s famous tight-fisted ways. In 2010, she filed so few expense claims that her total compensation for the year was $129,857 — the second lowest of any MLA.Notley has said her highlights as an opposition MLA included helping the homeless maintain the right to vote, establishing the independence of the Child and Youth Advocate and forcing the government to kill legislation that would have reduced pension benefits for public workers.Notley held her seat in the 2012 provincial election and the NDP caucus doubled to four.On October 18 2014, Rachel Notley won the NDP leadership with 70% of the vote, defeating two other candidates.On April 7 2015, Premier Jim Prentice called a provincial election one year ahead of schedule. This was an attempt to win a mandate from Albertans for a tough-news budget that was a response to the drastic drop in provincial revenues caused by declining world oil prices.Public opinion polls pointed to a three-way race between the Progressive Conservatives (PC), Wildrose and the NDP.But by the midpoint, polls had the NDP pulling ahead with a focus on repealing PC budget cuts to education, instituting a review of energy royalties and increasing the corporate tax rate by two percentage points.Albertans were clearly tired of 44 years of sometimes dismal PC leadership.Notley pulled further ahead in the polls after a strong performance in the only leaders’ debate, broadcast on television.PC leader Prentice also stumbled badly when trying to make light of an NDP gaffe in its budget numbers, telling Notley, “I know math is difficult” — a flippant remark that was attacked by many as condescending.The NDP won 54 of the province’s 89 seats on election night, capturing every riding in Edmonton, 15 in Calgary and 20 in other areas of the province — a result that stunned political observers across Canada.Notley faced significant challenges as premier but none so dramatic as the forest fire that devastated the oilsands community of Fort McMurray in May of 2016, almost one year to the day after her election victory. The fire destroyed more than 2,400 homes and buildings, generating insurance payouts of about $3.7 billion.She was widely praised from friend and political foe alike for her quick, cool-headed and effective response to the disaster.A sputtering economy undermined some of Notley’s more ambitious social plans. She reduced the scope of daycare subsidies and a free lunch programs for schools. Her royalty review in the energy industry steered clear of a major overhaul in favour of tweaks.Notley’s most controversial policy was the Climate Leadership Plan, which included a carbon levy that imposed a tax on the consumption of fossil fuels including gasoline at the pump and natural gas in the home.She entered the 2019 campaign on March 19 by proudly pointing to a record of achievement on the social front, while her conservative opposition, led by Jason Kenney, pointed to what he characterized as a failed economic agenda.Kenney's UCP would win back a majority government, leaving Notley to form the Official Opposition.Notley is married to Lou Arab. They have two children.— with files from The Canadian Encyclopedia
