Love her or hate her, Rachel Notley undoubtedly made Alberta political history..The daughter of the late Grant Notley, who led the NDP for 16 years until his death in 1984, became leader herself in 2014. One year later, her party took 41% of the vote to seize power for the first time, only to lose it to the United Conservative Party in 2019..Duane Bratt, of Mount Royal University, said the party has come a long way under the younger Notley. Her party did not enter 2015 with good prospects..“Success for the NDP was winning eight to 10 seats. They did not anticipate forming government. And that was clearly evident with who they ended up electing, and the reason for such a small cabinet,” Bratt recalled to the Western Standard..“They were hoping to double their caucus in Edmonton and win a seat in Lethbridge, and maybe have a competitive race and one or two places in Calgary. And the next thing you know, they've got over 50 MLAs.”.Bratt believes NDP dominance in 2015 permanently changed Alberta politics and the party itself..“The NDP is a is a very different party from where they were in the lead up to 2015. They were a fourth place party, and now they're in a two party system..“Back in 2013, 2014, 2015, there was all this discussion, forget about uniting the right, about uniting the left, and whether somehow the Alberta Party and the Liberal Party and the NDP party should all coalesce into one. And instead the NDP just wiped those other parties off the map.”.The Notley NDP raised corporate tax rates to 12% from its former 10%, and imposed occupational health and safety regulations on Alberta's 43,000 ranches and farms. Notley also quarterbacked a cap on carbon emissions from the oilsands. Even so, Marco Navarro-Genie said the NDP became more appreciative of the energy sector in government..“When they first came to office, they wouldn't even talk to the oil guys in Calgary, let alone see them or shake their hand. And they were talking about eradicating the industry with their environmental policies. They saw the oil guys like what the regular NDP tend to do, the devil incarnate who are destroying the planet,” Navarro-Genie told the Western Standard..“Four years later they were holding all kinds of consulting consultative meetings with the oil patch. There was open channels of communication. There were pro-pipeline, pro-energy policies.”.In 2018, then-BC premier John Horgan threatened to restrict the amount of bitumen Alberta could bring in through pipelines. Notley retorted, “The B.C. government has every right to consult on whatever it pleases with its citizens. It does not have the right to rewrite our constitution and assume powers for itself that it does not have.” .Navarro-Genie said Notley made an astute move..“She launched a boycott against the peaceniks in Lotusland over the blocking of the pipelines, which could have meant a trade war with with British Columbia,” he recalled..“Whether she was doing it as a way to curry favour with the oil patch and conservatives and their money and their vote, or whether she meant it, it doesn't really matter. It was a pragmatic move to stand up for the oil patch against British Columbia, [that] had an NDP premier to boot.”.The NDP government prompted the merger of the Progressive Conservatives and Wildrose Party in 2017. In 2019, Jason Kenney led the UCP to a dominant 63-seat victory, leaving the NDP only 24..“They restrained a great deal of their policy zeal,” said Navarro-Genie of the NDP. “And they were trying really hard to be to be reelected.”.Same NDP in 2023.Notley made history as the first Alberta premier to be held to one term. This spring she makes history as the first former Alberta premier to lead her party to a general election following a defeat. Whereas the NDP initially hoped for 10 seats after Notley took over in 2014, they fight the 2023 election with 10 former cabinet ministers..While the presentation may have changed, the party is in many ways the same to Navarro-Genie..“I don't think the NDP policy agenda changed. They're still talking about spending a lot of money on social policy. They're still talking about spending and putting up more barriers for environmental preservation in things that seem to be over the top, because we have pretty good environmental policies in Alberta,” he said..“The NDP tamed or smoothened their sharp ideological edges in that only term. Now we're seeing some of those things pop up again. It is not that they're more radical and they are less radical. It's they've played enough they have become, to use lefty language, normalized.”.The Notley NDP brought in Bill 24 to make sure parents weren't allowed to know whether their children were in gay-straight alliance clubs at school, something the Kenney UCP reversed. Bratt says the NDP is “just as strident” on sexual minority issues as before..“That's always been a part of the NDP. The gay-straight alliance, their support for trans rights, that is something I think has been consistent. Where I think they shifted is on some of the economic and oil and gas files..Navarro-Genie said “identity politics” and a philosophy of unionization remain central to the party..“If they can't count on the unions, and they can't get the unions fired up, they have no chance of winning,” he said..“They're floating this idea they're gonna come back with their attempt to unionize agricultural workers. It was a bad idea then, it's a bad idea now, but they're trying to light their base to get ahead. I don't think they will.”.The Notley NDP also wants to imitate a community benefits agreement scheme for construction projects that was implemented in BC. University of Calgary political science professor Barry Cooper calls it another example of the NDP thinks it knows best..“The actual people who own the construction companies in BC are not at all happy with the BC regulation. So presumably, the unions are. So that doesn't say that she's evolved her understanding of how to get along with business in this province,” Cooper said in an interview with the Western Standard..“They want to direct everything because they don't trust citizens to be able to take care of their own lives, because they think they know better. That's what we used to call a fatal conceit mainly because it's not true. Most most of us know how to live our lives without direction from bureaucrats in Edmonton.”.Cooper believes Rachel Notley is on the same political page as Jagmeet Singh and Justin Trudeau, which differs from most Albertans..“The federal and provincial NDP are part of the same party. It's not like the conservatives, which are provincial; the provincial organization and everything else is separate from the federal one. In fact, she's the local agent of Jagmeet Singh,” Cooper said. .“I don't think she takes orders from him — I'm not saying that. But they see their purpose as being the same in every province, and nationally, or federally, so this allows for very little innovation, I would say, in terms of the thinking that would reflect the way people in this province think, which is, as the prime minister has said so often, is so different from the rest of us.”.The election scrap.In the 1993 federal election, the NDP accused Progressive Conservative prime minister Kim Campbell of wanting to reform social programs without consulting the provinces. In reply she offered the fateful words: “An election is no time to discuss serious issues.”.However, Navarro-Genie believes the Notley NDP is proving the truth of that adage in the current election fight..“Even though the NDP pledged this was going to be an election where there was going to be discussed ideas and policies, and then we're not going to get into personalities and personal attacks, that's really what they've done. They're playing hardball, and I understand why,” he said..“They keep harping Danielle (Smith) is going to start charging people for medical care, which is, in a way, nonsense.”.On April 25, the Danielle Smith UCP announced a deal to replace the Saddledome. Here, the city pays $537 million, the Flames ownership pays $356 million, and the province pays $300 million for roads, sidewalks, reclamation, and infrastructure, plus $30 million for an additional community arena on site..Notley did not commit to maintaining the agreement-in-principle.."Yeah, we're open to having that conversation. But it's super hypothetical at this point because we don't have all the details," Notley said.."We got secrecy and we've got game playing and it's disrespectful to Alberta voters.".The NDP also alleged there was a “confidential document” that wasn't released to the public. Cooper said it's going to be hard for the NDP to win on the issue..“Personally, I could care less whether the Flames are even here, but it's not a personal issue. It's a political issue, and it goes back at least 10 years. But then Danielle got a deal, and she even got the mayor of this city on board. They're political opposites in so many ways. She got her to agree at least to attend the announcement,” Cooper said..“Her opponents are saying there was injustice, it was entirely political. Well, duh, like, what is the premier supposed to be? It's a political accomplishment. It's not some kind of political misstep.”
