There are less than two months before the scheduled May 29 provincial election and the Alberta NDP and United Conservative Party are fighting neck-and-neck for support.

While UCP leader and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has Maxed Out host Max Fawcett blocked on Twitter, her opponent and leader of the NDP, Rachel Notley, graced his podcast wavelengths. To be fair, Smith does seem a bit preoccupied with a recent judicial interference controversy to currently give us the time of day.

For Max, the NDP is the most “sober-minded” party Alberta has to offer. But he is “nervous” about its ability to connect with Calgary voters because they’re “the ones who will ultimately decide this election.”

In Episode 11 of Maxed Out, Max asks Notley about her party’s key policies and whether they’re enough to win in May.

"What we are doing is trying to really meet people where they are, and they're telling us where they are right now,” said Notley, who credits her party’s emphasis on health care and affordability through its door-knocking efforts.

Maxed Out Rachel Notley Quote

The two also discuss the friction between Alberta and Ottawa when it comes to the energy transition, and of course, he gets the tea on Smith’s leaked phone call.

Want to know exactly what the possible future leader of Alberta told us? Listen to Episode 11 of Maxed Out on Apple Podcast, Spotify or your favourite listening app.

Maxed Out Episode 11 Rachel Notley
Listen to the newest episode of Maxed Out wherever you get your podcasts.

Maxed Out is made possible by listeners like you. If you’ve supported the podcast already, thank you. If you haven’t, click here to donate what you can to help us keep producing valuable journalism.

In an exclusive interview on #MaxedOut, NDP Leader @RachelNotley discusses her party's policies, the friction between Alberta and Ottawa when it comes to the energy transition, and of course, @ABDanielleSmith's leaked phone call.

Got questions or comments? Email us at [email protected].

You can also follow us on Twitter @NatObserver.

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Patreon lets me download an MP3 of CanadaLand. I just will not join spotify or any other site that turns me into the product. Spent the day wasting time on "Notes" as Substack tries to become Twitter 2.0 ; I'm just so sick of these big titans trying to capture a bunch of people, so they can sell us off to the next Musk. (With substack, most likely Amazon wanting a list of millions of very active readers.)

Looking forward to hearing Notley's plans for health care. In BC, the NDP have signed deals with doctors, care-aides, and now nurses, the unions are happy, hopefully employment will rise, shortages ease. At least they're trying. In Alberta, today's Herald headline was "UCP promises to not cut health care". Yippee.