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After years of toiling on the opposition benches, NDP Premier Rachel Notley says it took a while to get used to heading a majority government.

After her government selected the Speaker, deputy Speaker and deputy committee chair on its first day in the legislature, she turned to the three colleagues who, with her, previously made up the entire NDP caucus and exclaimed: “Oh my goodness. We just won three votes. It’s a career high.”

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Notley concedes it’s “kind of cool” to now have a 53-seat majority.

But taking the reins after 44 consecutive years of Progressive Conservative rule has not been easy for the New Democrats, tackling sensitive political issues from reviewing energy royalties and hiking corporate taxes to boosting the province’s climate change levy on large greenhouse gas emitters.

The first 34 days in power have been a whirlwind for the quartet and their new troubadours. The days have been long and hard.