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It was like election night all over again.

When Premier Rachel Notley addressed a meeting of the NDP’s provincial council Saturday in Edmonton, the standing-room-only crowd of several hundred chanted her name, interrupted her speech with applause and ended with a standing ovation.

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“I can’t tell you how great it is to be here with you today,” said a beaming Notley, who must have viewed the warm reception as something of therapeutic group hug.

For the past month, political attacks against Notley have grown to the point people have posted hateful and abusive comments online, some apparently inciting violence against the premier.

Many of these comments are linked to opposition against the government’s farm-safety Bill 6. But you have to wonder if the anti-Notley/anti-NDP vitriol is also a boiling over of unreasonable frustration and anger with the results of the May 5 election.

Conservative critics are pretty much blaming the NDP for everything bad, including every private-sector layoff and U.S. President Barack Obama rejecting the Keystone XL pipeline project.