Bell: There’s still a lot of fight left in NDP Leader Rachel Notley – The TechLead

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When is Rachel Notley leaving politics?

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Everybody asks.

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It is likely a head fake but when Notley is asked for the umpteenth time, this time over lunch at Calgary’s Galaxie Diner, the Alberta NDP leader isn’t even confirming she is out the door.

Instead of dwelling on the fact her party lost to Premier Danielle Smith and the UCP in the recent battle for ballots, Notley points to how many seats the NDP won.

How they’re the biggest opposition in Alberta history. How they went from three Calgary members of the legislature to 14 MLAs.  How they’ve raised a whole heap of money.

How the NDP has to go back now and finish the job.

Notley speaks as if she is not a lame-duck leader.

She says the party has to focus on what Albertans consider important.

There’s the very real cost of living as individuals approach her about $300-a-month rent increases. That’s $3,600 more a year.

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“It’s anxiety-provoking to me when people come to me with that. Because there’s an answer and these guys are just cruelly refusing to give it,” says Notley, of the UCP.

The NDP pitch temporary rent controls. Danielle Smith’s UCP do not.

Notley talks about moving back to Alberta from B.C. in 2002. In those days, the Alberta Advantage was the political sales job of the day.

You could come to Alberta and live and it was much cheaper than elsewhere in Canada.

Notley admits she was “blown away by how much disposable income we had in Alberta.”

“It was unbelievable. Well, that’s gone. That’s gone.”

The Alberta NDP leader touches on many issues.

Like health care.

“It matters a lot to me. Health care is chaos right now.”

The idea Alberta would leave the Canada Pension Plan and start its own provincial pension plan.

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It’s a hot-button issue right now and Danielle Smith is still pushing the idea.

Notley calls it a “train wreck” and “a long-term demand of the extreme right as part of the separation ideology.”

Does she believe Smith will convince most Albertans to say Yes?

“I think there’s a very good chance this government won’t care and they will plow through,” says Notley.

“How can we trust the referendum process at all? How can we trust them to do a fair question? How can we trust them to do a fair vote?

“They’ve shown themselves to be quite willing to be incredibly biased on how they move forward on this.”

Notley is still swinging for the fences.

“I see a profound level of arrogance and don’t trust Danielle Smith or anybody involved in her party to run a fair referendum.”

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Of course, there’s also Smith’s fight with Ottawa.

Notley asks what former premier Jason Kenney and Smith have gotten Alberta.

“I’ll tell you the answer,” says Notley.

She makes the zero sign.

“You know what I can point to. The first pipeline to tidewater in 40 years. That’s what I can point to.”

She says dealing with Ottawa is complicated and needs “serious leadership” and not just to be fodder for the “8 a.m. diversion meeting.”

What’s that?

“You know, where they get into issues management. Oh God, we did something else that fell apart. Kids in Alberta can’t get chemo on time so let’s throw another bomb at Ottawa.”

For Notley, it stops feeling serious and folks are tuning it out.

“At certain moments even they, in their small moments of calm between the hysterical outbursts, they know the sovereignty act is purely a symbolic communications tool.

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“So you have to turn up the dial on your hysteria. And the more you do that the more you lose credibility, the more you lose the ability to negotiate anything.

“They are burning through their leverage. They are burning through the leverage so fast.”

Still, the UCP could always put a tag on Notley as a supporter of the “Trudeau-Singh alliance.”

In case you just moved to Alberta, neither Prime Minister Justin Trudeau nor federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh are particularly popular in this province.

“Do Jagmeet Singh and I agree on the need for strong public health care? Guilty as charged. Totally true. We do.

“Did I end up having to pick a fight with Jagmeet on the pipeline? Yeah, guilty as charged.

“What’s the common line there? Alberta. What’s in the best interest of the province? All I can say to people is look at the record. That’s all I can say. And hopefully sooner or later, that’s what they’ll agree to do.”

Notley still holds out hope. She truly believes the NDP can win it all as disenchantment with Smith and the UCP grows.

“I think that sense of being sort of a populist answer to disaffected Albertans. That’s going to disappear. People are going to see them as being the same-old, same-old Tory hacks.”

rbell@postmedia.com

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