Notley douses Harper’s incendiary comments

Premier Rachel Notley says she will stay out of the fray surrounding the federal election, but will likely attend political rallies in support of NDP candidates.

She already has a Linda Duncan sign on her front lawn. Duncan, who represents Edmonton- Strathcona, is the only incumbent federal NDP MP in Alberta.

“I’ve been born and raised in the Alberta NDP,” and always voted NDP in federal elections, Notley said upon her return to the legislature after a holiday.

She said she respects and likes Federal NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair. “That being said, I have a pretty major day job and in my view that day job should be focused on doing the work that the people of Alberta elected me to do, so that’s what I’m going to focus on. I believe that in focusing on that, I have to do what I can to maintain co- operative and collaborative relationships with my colleagues federally in order to be productive.”

Notley reiterated her strong disagreement with Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s comments made earlier this week that Alberta’s provincial election ushered in a disastrous result that has been rejected by voters.

“I completely reject the Conservative campaign’s comments about the decisions of the people of Alberta that they made last spring,” Notley said Thursday.

“Whether their federal cousins like it or not, the people of Alberta decided they had enough of the

I completely reject the Conservative campaign’s comments about the decisions of the people of Alberta.

Conservative government in this province and they decided to elect a new government.”

Notley said she will not get involved with such negative campaigning. “We’ve all been elected to serve the people and to do that, I believe that we need to work to try and get along and we need to be able to maintain relationships that allow us to work together.”

As such, while she plans on door knocking during the byelection in the Calgary- Foothills riding to replace Jim Prentice, as well as attending NDP rallies for federal representatives such as EdmontonStrathcona incumbent Linda Duncan, Notley said she won’t get deeply involved with federal campaigning.