11.20.2017 - By Empire Club of Canada
Rachel Notley made history in May of 2015 when the New Democrats were elected to form government for the first time in Alberta.
Premier Notley’s gender balanced and diverse cabinet is working to make life better for Albertans and is proud of its many accomplishments, including:
Implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
Supporting a National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women
Securing two new pipelines that will give access to new markets
Providing stable health care funding
Cutting school fees
Ensuring better child protection by giving more power to Child and Youth Advocate
Building new schools and hospitals to meet growing demand
Providing province wide pilot projects for $25 a day daycare and school nutrition
Freezing post secondary tuition
Funding the Student Temporary Employment Program
Increasing the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2018
Taking action on climate change
Funding energy efficiency programs
Modernizing the Municipal Government Act
Spurring economic diversification and job growth
Premier Notley’s passion for politics was fuelled by her parents. Grant Notley was the leader of Alberta’s first NDP opposition. Before she was 10 years old, Rachel attended protest marches with her mother Sandy. Social justice is the Notley way.
Born in Edmonton and raised in Fairview, Premier Notley obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science at the University of Alberta and a law degree from Osgoode Hall Law School. She practised labour law and workers’ compensation advocacy and also served as an adviser to British Columbia’s attorney general.
Premier Notley was first elected as an NDP MLA in 2008, serving the constituency of Edmonton Strathcona, where she still resides with her husband, Lou Arab, and their two teenage children.