On Thursday a former premier of Alberta, Rachel Notley, announced “with mixed feelings” that she is resigning her seat in the province’s legislature at the end of the month. Her feelings might well be mixed, and that’s a decent description of how Alberta feels about Rachel Notley. The judgment of history will emphasize her extraordinary feat in winning an Alberta general election for the New Democrats, something that had previously been unthinkable, and establishing the party as a credible governing alternative when the province really, really needed one.
If you’re a United Conservative, you might be opening a bottle of champagne right now. But don’t forget to thank her under your breath for providing crucial competitive pressure that forced Alberta conservatives to clean up their political act.
There’s bound to be speculation about what Notley will do next and why she’s quitting the assembly. She’ll be measured for some higher political role whether she wants to be or not. Her own success as a leader and campaigner may appear to have left her (usefully?) somewhat homeless as a politician. The Alberta New Democratic Party she was born into has been taken over by Naheed Nenshi, an egotistical politician with his own political machine, no NDP background and a relative lack of specifiable political principles. (I mean all that in a kindly way: I do not expect to hear Nenshi cry out “Egotistical? Moi?” when this is published.) And his marriage to the Alberta NDP has a compelling logic that everyone in the province who can’t stand the Tories has accepted.
But it does mean that he isn’t bound to run on Notley’s track record or Notley’s prairie socialism. After her time in office, Notley herself didn’t have much luck with this. If she takes on some new political job that requires or even indicates moral support for the current federal government, that would be seen as a surprising betrayal of the Alberta NDP (as well as the federal NDP, for whatever that might be worth), and would risk dividing the provincial party. Let’s also remember that the lady is 60 years of age despite her youthful appearance and energy. She is four years senior to her successor Jason Kenney, seven to the current premier and eight to Nenshi.
Nenshi has stopped talking about a potential re-branding of the NDP(A), which can for now still command the inherited loyalty of organized labour and that of the people who literally grew up alongside Notley, the crown princess who became queen, in the party. But the temptation to turn the provincial party into Nenshi’s Purple Prosperity People must still be present, and such a defection would be a dreadful development for the New Democracy.
I’m not the person anyone needs to hear this from, exactly, but a strong NDP (with that name) in Alberta may be more important for the future of soft democratic socialism and labour-union power than the immediate fate of the federal party. Hell, a bad 2025 federal election and a grateful-but-quick-moving-on from Jagmeet Singh is probably the best thing for the NDP, even considered purely as a party, in the long run.
National Post