Rachel Notley

A day after her election as Alberta NDP leader, she would lead the 30th anniversary memorial of her father's death.

Notley earned a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Political Science at the University of Alberta, and a law degree at Osgoode Hall Law School.

Rachel Anne Notley (born April 17, 1964) is a Canadian politician who was the 17th premier of Alberta from 2015 to 2019, and has been the leader of the Opposition since 2019.

She sits as the member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Edmonton-Strathcona, She is the longest serving member of the legislature by consecutive time in office and is the leader of the Alberta New Democratic Party (NDP).

The daughter of former Alberta NDP leader Grant Notley, she was a lawyer before entering politics; she focused on labour law, with a specialty in workers' compensation advocacy and workplace health and safety issues.

Notley was born on April 17, 1964, in Edmonton, Alberta, and was raised outside of the town of Fairview, Alberta, the daughter of Sandra Mary "Sandy" (Wilkinson) and Alberta NDP Leader and MLA Grant Notley.

She is the first Alberta premier to be born in Edmonton.

Notley is the sister of Paul Notley and Stephen Notley, author and illustrator of Bob the Angry Flower.

Her mother, a devout Anglican, was born in Concord, Massachusetts, and moved to Alberta as an adult.

Notley was unafraid to challenge older political leaders as a college student, even asking her father at an Alberta NDP public meeting on poverty and student debt for his advice to a "poor student whose parents made too much money for her to get a loan while at the same time being too cheap to give her enough money to buy food."

Notley credits her mother Sandy with getting her involved in activism, taking Notley to an anti-war demonstration before she was even ten years old.

She remained unsure about whether or not to enter public office until she was in her 30s.

Alongside her own family background, Notley has also cited her high school social studies teacher Jim Clevette as having made a lasting impact when it comes to her interest in politics.

She has also claimed Jack Layton as being a personal hero.

Notley was a twenty-year-old undergraduate at the University of Alberta when her father died on October 19, 1984.

After attending a large party she received a call at four in the morning from Tom Sigurdson, her father's executive assistant, stating that there had been a plane crash and that she should return home.

This was not the first accident her father had been in; as part of his frequent trips across the province he had already been in several other plane accidents as well as an automobile collision with an elk.

Fellow NDP MLA and future Alberta NDP leader Ray Martin later called to confirm to Notley that her father was indeed dead.

It was then left up to Notley to inform her mother of the news.

While at Osgoode Hall she became active in the 1989 federal NDP leadership convention where she endorsed second-place finisher and former BC premier Dave Barrett.

She is married to Lou Arab, a communications representative for the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) and a campaign strategist for the party.

She lives with him and their two children in the historic district of Old Strathcona in south-central Edmonton.

Notley is a cyclist, jogger, and skier, as well as a reformed smoker.

After law school, Notley articled for Edmonton labour lawyer Bob Blakely, and went on to work for the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees representing members with Workers' Compensation cases.

In 1991, Notley led the election-planning subcommittee for the Alberta NDP.

However, the party lost in the 1993 provincial election and was shut out of the legislature.

In 1994, Notley moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, where she worked for the Health Sciences Association of BC as their occupational health and safety officer.

During her time in BC, she worked for one year as a ministerial assistant to Attorney General Ujjal Dosanjh.

In this role, she was part of the team that first expanded the application of BC's family relations laws to same sex couples, several years before the Government of Canada took similar initiatives.

Notley acted as a representative of the provincial labour movement in the negotiation and drafting of new workplace health and safety standards.

During her time in Vancouver, Notley was active with "Moms on the Move", an organization that advocated for the rights of special needs children.

She is also a past board member of the Vancouver Community College.

Notley returned to Edmonton in 2002.

She worked for a short time for the National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE), worked at Athabasca University, acted as volunteer co-ordinator for the Friends of Medicare "Romanow Now" campaign, and finally as a labour relations officer for the United Nurses of Alberta.

Notley did volunteer work with the Strathcona Community League in 2006, assisting with a drive to garner support for the installation of sidewalks in east Strathcona.

Notley was first elected to the Legislative Assembly in the 2008 provincial election, succeeding former NDP leader Raj Pannu.

Six years later on October 18, 2014, Notley won the Alberta New Democratic Party leadership election on the first ballot with 70% of the vote and went on to lead the party to a majority victory in the 2015 provincial election, ending 44 years of rule by the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta.

In the 2019 provincial election, the NDP government was defeated by the United Conservative Party, making Notley the Opposition leader.

In the 2023 provincial election, the NDP made large gains but failed to form government, with Notley continuing as Opposition leader.

On January 16, 2024, Notley announced she plans to step down as leader of the Alberta NDP, but will remain leader until a successor is elected.