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Rachel Notley seemed to be bouncing on air as she walked along the hallway in the Telus Convention Centre, on her way to a news conference.

This was one happy premier.

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She’d just been cheered heartily several times by a huge crowd at the annual meeting of the Albert Urban Municipalities Association. As she finished, the delegates gave her an almost unanimous standing O.

This is new. It may also be a lot bigger than applause from one audience. The New Democrats believe, and they may be right, that 2½ years after they won, civic decision-makers are finally warming to them.

That would be a huge change. Many Calgarians remember Notley’s frigid reception by the Calgary Chamber of Commerce in October 2015.

A hostile silence hung over that crowd for 40 minutes. It was painful, even insulting.

Notley shrugged it off — people were just listening hard, she said. The animosity was partly her fault. She’d got the tone wrong by failing to talk about the thousands in Calgary who were being laid off.