Sarah Hoffman third NDP MLA to join party leadership race

Edmonton-Glenora MLA Sarah Hoffman is resistant to the notion that an Alberta NDP with her as leader would be like Rachel Notley's party.

Hoffman on Sunday made official what was well-known in political circles, becoming the third MLA vying to replace outgoing Opposition leader Rachel Notley.

"I've never thought of myself as part of the establishment," Hoffman said during an embargoed interview before launching her leadership campaign Sunday.

"I've thought of myself as somebody who isn't your typical candidate. Women like me aren't supposed to be in politics. I'm fat, I'm sassy. And I have a really hard time trying to be something that I'm not."

Notley announced in January that she would step aside as party leader, after nearly a decade at the helm. Since then, Calgary-Mountain View MLA, lawyer and former justice minister Kathleen Ganley and Edmonton-Whitemud MLA and lawyer Rakhi Pancholi have also launched party leadership bids.

Alberta politics blogger, commentator and podcaster Dave Cournoyer says Hoffman has deep roots in the party.

"Sarah Hoffman was a New Democrat before it was cool to be a New Democrat in Alberta," Cournoyer told CBC News.

A child of educators, Hoffman grew up in Kinuso, Alta., a hamlet of about 150 people surrounded by the Swan River First Nation, about 235 kilometres northwest of Edmonton.

The 43-year-old has post-secondary degrees in religion, math and education, and worked as a teacher before becoming a researcher for the NDP.

Hoffman was chair of the Edmonton public school board, then deputy premier and health minister in Notley's government starting in 2015.

Driving the late federal NDP leader Jack Layton around Edmonton in her Honda Fit, when he dropped in to woo voters, is among Hoffman's highlights from her early days as a party volunteer.

Some progressives are pushing the Alberta NDP to change its name and sever ties with the federal party, but Hoffman has no appetite for that.

"I don't think there are any shortcuts to forming government," she said. "I don't want to try to trick people into voting for us by doing some rebranding exercise."

Her leadership campaign slogan, emblazoned onto banners, reads, "Health, climate, housing."