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He could scarcely have imagined at the time that his outspoken and occasionally combative daughter would lead the party he helped found to an historic victory, forming Alberta’s first NDP government and sweeping away a Tory dynasty in the process.

The younger Notley began attending protest marches with her politically active mother, Sandy, before she was 10 years old. Sandy had worked registering black voters in the southern United States and was a vocal opponent of South Africa’s apartheid system.

Photo by Postmedia News files

“She took me on some anti-war demonstration. I honestly can’t even remember what it was,” said Notley in an interview with The Canadian Press.

What struck her was the energy of people seeking change.

“It was just about really doing everything you can to be heard,” she said. “A (protest) letter is easily dismissed. Five hundred people marching together is less so.”

Social and political issues were often on the menu for Sunday-night dinner at the Notley house during those years, said Tom Sigurdson, Grant Notley’s then-executive assistant.

“She was precocious, the whole family was smart,” he said. “Sitting around the table, the kids had to pick a topic and (the family) would deal with that topic.”

As a teen, Notley could be confrontational.

She was reportedly unimpressed by legendary social democrats Tommy Douglas and Ed Broadbent.

“I met (Broadbent) at some event; he smiled and introduced himself and shook my hand and I said, ‘Oh, you have that same fake politician smile as my father.’ Just horrible, right? I was just your standard obnoxious 12- or 13-year-old,” Notley said, according to an excerpt in the Canadian Encyclopedia.