On November 1, 2006, she was elected Member of the House of Assembly (MHA) for the district of Signal Hill-Quidi Vidi, and re-elected the following year in the provincial election, and again in 2011. On January 6, 2015, Michael announced her resignation of leader of the NDP following a leadership election which took place on March 7, 2015. Michael successfully contested the 2015 provincial election in the district of St. John's East-Quidi Vidi. Following the resignation of her successor as NDP leader, Earle McCurdy, Michael served as interim leader of the NDP from 2017 until 2018. She did not re-offer at the May 16, 2019 provincial election and retired from the legislature.