Rachel Notley has sought to distance herself from Jagmeet Singh. Here’s why

OTTAWA — It was perhaps inevitable that, moments into Thursday’s Alberta leaders’ debate, federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh would be dragged into the fast-paced sparring match.

For one thing, it’s a common trope in the United Conservative Party when attacking the Alberta NDP to suggest that Singh pulls leader Rachel Notley’s strings.

For another, Notley hasn’t been shy about distancing herself from the NDP’s leader in Ottawa, particularly on his stances on climate and energy policy.

It was UCP Leader Danielle Smith who invoked Singh’s name first on Thursday night, tying him to the provincial carbon levy brought in by Alberta’s previous NDP government.

“That increased across the cost of everything,” Smith said. “We eliminated it, but Justin Trudeau wouldn’t let us keep it off and now Ms. Notley has not stood up to her boss, Jagmeet Singh, in Ottawa, and worked with us to say, ‘Don’t increase that carbon tax any further.’”

Smith’s accusation is a mischaracterization: while membership in the provincial party buys membership in the federal one, the parties are different beasts that, at times, have had icy relations. It’s also something the Alberta and federal NDP have sought to draw lines around, painting themselves as distinct entities with their own agendas as they consider their electoral prospects. For Notley, it’s an attempt to push back against an incessant UCP tactic. For Singh, it’s about navigating cross-country priorities — including picking up seats in Alberta.

Alberta is in the middle of a bitterly fought election campaign between Smith and Notley. Polls have pegged the race as neck-and-neck between the two, and all eyes are on what happens in battleground Calgary come election night on May 29.

Smith “has absolutely no sense of understatement or subtlety, that’s for sure, and she doesn’t mind amping things up and misrepresenting things for her own purposes,” said NDP national director Anne McGrath.

McGrath has deep roots in the federal and provincial worlds of the New Democrats. She has run to both represent and lead the Alberta NDP, and served as Notley’s deputy chief of staff when she was premier. She’s also been chief of staff to three federal NDP leaders and is now on her second stint as national director of the party.

So whether it’s a UCP leader trying to sink her rival over her perceived ties to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his governing dance partner Singh, or an NDP leader at odds with her federal counterpart, McGrath knows that’s just the way politics goes.

“Rachel’s got her eye firmly on what’s best for Albertans and that’s what she’s fighting for,” McGrath told the Star, “and she will take issue with anybody that’s in the federal government or in federal politics on those issues, and anybody provincially.”

Some of those disagreements surfaced before the current provincial election campaign.

Earlier this year Notley was critical of a pillar of the Liberal-NDP governing agreement: moving forward with a “just transition” plan for workers in clean energy sectors. She argued that the proposed legislation should be dropped entirely.

The federal NDP, which worked closely with the minority Liberals to craft the framework, has also blasted the Liberals for failing to eliminate fossil fuel subsidies, something the oil-rich Alberta opposes.

“I disagree with (Singh) completely on this issue,” Notley told CTV’s Question Period last week about the subsidies.

When asked to respond to Notley’s comments, Singh did not criticize the Alberta NDP leader directly.

“About the oil and gas sector, I’ve said that they are experiencing record profits, so it’s different than other industries and different other sectors,” he told reporters this week.

“We said public money should go toward workers, should go toward investing in clean energy, should go toward investing in jobs that are going to be sustainable for the long run.”

Notley has also faced questions about her relationship with Singh as she’s campaigned to win the province’s election. On May 1, a reporter asked her when was the last time the two leaders spoke.

She said she couldn’t quite recall. “I’d say somewhere between six and 12 months ago,” she said.

Notley is the only provincial leader in Alberta in at least the last decade to secure an oil pipeline and in 2018, vowed to pull out of the national climate plan after the Federal Court of Appeal decided to put the Trans Mountain pipeline project on hold. During a meeting with Trudeau just prior, Notley had demanded the federal government launch an appeal. She kept pressuring Ottawa until eventually the federal government itself bought the project for $4.5 billion. It is set to be completed this year.

The federal NDP now says the project never should have gone ahead amid ballooning costs, despite previously suggesting the party wouldn’t axe it if it came to power — a position some NDP climate activists have criticized.

“Whether I am talking to the leader of the federal NDP, whether I am advocating in Ottawa, whether I am talking to New Democrats in B.C., Albertans know that I have always been quite ready to do whatever is necessary to stand up for the best interests of Albertans,” Notley said at her campaign launch event earlier this month.

Singh’s office stopped responding to the Star’s requests for comment for this story, while the party’s two Alberta MPs — Edmonton’s Heather McPherson and Blake Desjarlais — did not reply to interview requests.

“Folks are probably just trying to give Rachel Notley and the Alberta NDP the space to do what they need to do to show Albertans that they should be trusted with their vote,” mused Singh’s former communications director Mélanie Richer.

The federal NDP has taken a hands-off approach during the campaign, McGrath said.

“We have a lot to do here,” she said. “If we’re asked for help, we help. I wouldn’t say anybody’s been asking because they’ve been planning this for a long time now.”

McGrath also rejected the notion that provincial tensions with Singh create electoral headaches for the NDP, even though Alberta is a part of the country where the federal party is hoping to make gains.

In a series of fundraising emails this week, the federal NDP launched what it is calling the “Blue vs. Orange Battleground Fund”: an early effort to shore up support in Conservative ridings that could be seeking a non-Liberal alternative in the next general election.

“We think that there are other opportunities in and around Edmonton,” McGrath said, adding that the response to the weeklong campaign was “quite strong.”

Does that mean the NDP has to be a bit more careful about where it asserts itself in the face of provincial opposition?

“I would say that we’re careful in everything that we do — not just in Alberta,” McGrath said.

SHARE: