Notley spoke to a packed room at the Coast Plaza Hotel in Edmonton. The audience included provincial NDP candidates, current MLAs, and NDP supporters.
In her speech, Notley took the current Conservative provincial government to task on a number of points. She warned that the recent five percent MLA salary rollbacks are merely setting a precedent for cutbacks to public service workers. In addition, Notley criticized the mass defection of Wildrose MLAs to the Tories, including former leader Danielle Smith, and the introduction of the introduction of a bill hindering the development of gay-straight student alliances in schools.
“The oil-revenue shortfall that Jim Prentice and his friends tell us about daily are their rationale for the type of cuts that Danielle Smith has worked for her whole political life,” she said.
Notley encouraged voters who want a progressive provincial government to vote NDP in the next election, which is rumoured to be this spring, something which Notley says is a planned move in the best interest of the Conservatives.
