* Rachel Notley’s speech to the Stampede Investor Forum

I was about to head inside the Calgary Petroleum Club for an interview Tuesday when a man dressed up as a cowboy accosted me on the sidewalk, stunned look on his face. This is common during Stampede, even in the afternoon.

It happened to be an oil industry lobbyist, who had just left an investor’s forum where Premier Rachel Notley had delivered her first major (private) speech to an industry crowd, two months after her New Democrats won.

This plaid-shirted fellow told me he didn’t expect that kind of speech to the Stampede Investor Forum. Didn’t expect the NDP premier to sound that pro-industry, replete with words of the oil sands’ “tremendous asset,” “job creators” and a province “wide open to investment.”