Considering her future: A Q&A with Opposition leader Rachel Notley

Weeks after being relegated to the Opposition benches in the 2019 provincial election, NDP leader Rachel Notley was already spelling out her ambition for 2023 — to defeat the newly United Conservative Party and once again become premier.

Notley says her party got "two-thirds of the way" to that goal in the May election when Danielle Smith's UCP won 49 seats to the NDP's 38.

Notley, now in her 10th year as NDP leader, sat down with CBC News in mid-December in the legislature's Opposition lounge to reflect on the past year and talk about what's ahead.

The conversation has been edited for length and clarity. 

There's been a lot of curiosity about your future. These are natural questions any time any party leader loses an election, or two elections. When do you plan on providing an indication of what lies ahead?

As I've said before, and as I will continue to say today, I'm going to take the time necessary to consider my future and consider all the various factors in that, and I'll let people know once I've reached a conclusion.

You took responsibility for the election loss though. On election night, you were standing there saying, this is on me. Does that not prompt the necessity of looking at change at the top?

That's why I'm taking the appropriate amount of time to consider all the factors and determine what's the best choice for me, my family, for the party, for the province.

Is anybody head-hunting you? Are you getting any tempting offers in federal politics, or for ambassador positions or consulting jobs?

Never enough. Honestly, that's just not something that I'm having any serious conversations about with anybody.

Your opponents point to your party's ties with the federal NDP and influence of labour unions as evidence of a great socialist plot. Why have you been so resistant to severing ties with the federal party?

Any sophisticated, thoughtful, provincial party is going to temper what they do on the basis of what's in the best interest for the people in their region. Those are the things that drive some of the differences, but I would argue that we have more in common than what divides us.

One of the single biggest issues that Albertans care about is health care and there is no party that has done more to protect and promote public healthcare than the NDP across this country. 

It's a brand I am proud to be associated with. Just even in the last couple of days we see them move forward with the expansion of the [federal] dental plan. That is, like with most things related to health care, something that would only happen with the hard work and the dedication of the NDP.

We're also talking about [the Canada Pension Plan] right now. Go back in history and you will see that CPP was also the condition of the federal NDP supporting the then-federal government.

There are many features to our social lives and social networks that we have in this province and in this country that can be traced back directly to the long-standing advocacy of the NDP.

The UCP government dismantled much of your former government's Climate Leadership Plan, and now federal polling suggests there could be a national shift in government too. How do you think that will affect Canada and Alberta's climate goals?

The work and the race — and it should be a race — to combat climate change is equal parts urgency and complexity.

What is very troubling to me is the position of the UCP government right now. They are desperately close to being climate deniers.

Their cancellation of renewable energy [project regulatory approvals] not only undermines our economic growth opportunities, it also significantly delays our capacity to to reach net zero emissions, regardless of the year you choose to reach it by.

We need serious folks in the room rolling up their sleeves and being part of an unending effort to come up with a path to grow our economy, protect sectors of our economy, and make dramatic progress on reducing our emissions.

And we've got a government right now that is demonizing anybody who talks about the need to reduce emissions.

Alberta hasn't been immune to the consequences, with wildfires, drought and localized flooding. Why haven't you been able to galvanize Alberta voters to see the environment as critical to survival and economic success?

Albertans are nervous about these conversations. There's no question we have an economy that has been successful overall at generating wealth. And people are worried about the consequences of that stopping. And this conversation is happening in the face of concern about affordability.

A small group of folks is getting richer and richer, and the middle class is disappearing and more folks are struggling to make ends meet.

It's hard to get people to think about 10 years down the road when they're literally trying to figure out how to pay their bills at the end of the month.