The leader of the Official Opposition, formally known as the leader of His Majesty's Loyal Opposition, is the member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) who leads the Official Opposition, typically the second largest party in the provincial legislature. Rachel Notley, who leads the New Democratic Party (NDP), has served as the leader of the Opposition since April 30, 2019. Alberta has enjoyed long periods of stable government rule, and has elected massive government majority during almost every election in its history. In most other legislatures in Canada, the opposition party is traditionally recognized as a government in waiting, and will alternate periods of government among two or three parties. In Alberta however the opposition has traditionally been very small in terms of seat numbers, and highly unstable in terms of party leadership. Until Jason Kenney‘s United Conservative Party (UCP) formed government in 2019, Peter Lougheed was the only leader of the Opposition who has ever gone on to become Premier of Alberta. Until 2019, Harry Strom, whom Lougheed defeated, was the only premier who has ever gone on to serve as opposition leader. History The Conservative and Liberal years (1905 to 1940) In the early years of the provincial legislature the opposition was dominated by the Conservative Party. This was a party built on remnants of the old Territorial Conservative Association. The party started out in 1905 forming opposition with only 2 seats in the legislative assembly, and proportionally grew as much as 20 seats in 1921 as Albertans grew tired of the scandals of the Liberal government. The Conservatives looked poised to form government after a strong showing in the 1917 general election,. However both the Liberals and Conservatives were wiped out of the legislature in the 1921 general election by the United Farmers of Alberta. Albertans still distrusting of old line dominion parties opted instead for a new party that had third party status as the Non-Partisan League of Alberta and later became the United Farmers. With the Conservatives wiped out of the legislature the Liberals formed the opposition from 1921 to 1926 confined to the cities of Calgary and Edmonton. The Liberals were helped by the fact that the United Farmers did not typically run candidates in the cities. From 1926 to 1940 there was no official opposition leader due to a Speaker's ruling that divided the Official Opposition funding between all the party leaders. However the