Albertans may have voted for change on May 5, but the face of their new government — premier-designate Rachel Notley — has not been seen in public for a week.

The NDP leader's last appearance followed a meeting with outgoing premier Jim Prentice at Government House in Edmonton on May 12.

Since then there has been little information coming from Notley or her transition team. No one knows when she will be sworn in as premier nor when she will announce her cabinet.

While Prentice and his cabinet are technically still in charge, they are no longer making decisions, as evidenced by Notley's need to step in and stop the shredding of government documents last week.

Journalists are finding it hard to get information from the incoming government. Emails to Notley's press secretary Cheryl Oates generate an auto-response: "We are experiencing a very high volume of media requests. I have received your email and a member of our team will get back to you as soon as we can."

A government official told CBC News that senior bureaucrats are continuing to meet with the NDP transition team. Notley is being briefed on upcoming issues including the Council of the Federation meeting in July and the appointment of a new Lieutenant Governor.

The same official said a three-week transition period is not unusual for a government transferring power from one party to another.

10-day transition in Nova Scotia

In Nova Scotia, Darrell Dexter was sworn-in as premier 10 days after the NDP won 31 of 52 seats on June 9, 2009.

Maureen MacDonald became the province's new health minister after spending years in opposition.

MacDonald said the transition from the minority Progressive Conservative government was relatively quick since her party already had a transition team in place. They also didn't have the large number of rookies Notley now has in her caucus.

"We had been in opposition as the official opposition for quite a long time, we had quite a large number of members with lots of experience in the legislature," MacDonald said.

She says the radio silence from the Notley team doesn't strike her as odd. She says a new premier has to absorb a tremendous amount of information before taking the reins of government.

Robert Murray, a political scientist with the Frontier Centre for Public Policy, said Notley is wise to take her time, given that this is the first real transition between governments in 44 years.

"It gives Rachel Notley some time to make sure that when they do come out, they have a strategy to move forward," he said, adding the party needs to figure out how to govern and roll out an agenda.

"Likely a lot of questions they weren't asking during the campaign, because it really wasn't until the last week of the campaign that it looked like the NDP could actually win government."

Opposition politicians must undergo a psychological shift when they finally ascend the ranks of power after years of challenging the government.

Expectations can be huge from the people who elected you. That's when you need to remind yourself of what your role truly is, MacDonald said.

"You're not the government for your party," she said. "You're not even the government for who voted for your party. You're everybody's government ... and you have to govern for everyone."

Nova Scotia's NDP governed until October 2013 when voters elected a majority Liberal government. Today MacDonald is the party's acting leader.