UCP just keeps doing things Albertans never asked for
By Lethbridge Herald on August 22, 2025.
Editor,
I am writing this to express my dissatisfaction with the present Alberta UCP government and Premier Danielle Smith.
This government continues to ignore the majority of Albertans by attempting to appease the minority base of the party. They continue to further and/or invent asinine ideas and projects even when the courts and the populace have advised them to drop them.
Examples of this are:
• attempting to re-tweak the health care system, showing no results to date.
• continuing to push Grassy Mountain coal mine forward by manipulation of process , against scientific warnings
• settling erroneous claims with coal and exploration companies due to government incompetence, at an alarming cost
• chasing an unreal dream of Alberta separating from Canada
• chasing an unreal and terribly expensive dream of creating an Alberta Pension Plan in lieu of an extremely successful CPP
• chasing an unreal and terribly expensive dream of creating a provincial police force
• changing electoral boundaries around Lethbridge
• firing personnel and/or cancelling contracts for unjust cause
The latest asinine idea is charging a majority of Albertans for COVID vaccinations , which will severely impact the already overburdened and over stressed health care system. In addition they are intent on not offering health care workers free vaccinations, which has the real potential to cause uncounted absences within the system due to covid illnesses of front line staff.
Nursing homes and extended care facilities experienced great numbers of fatalities in the first covid epidemic, this will be exacerbated again.
I would hope that the UCP has some members with spines and who can use internal fortitude to get through to the premier.
The premier should be reminded of what almost happened to the federal Liberal party when the leader needed to replaced due to hated performance issues , and would not step down, if not for the change of the leader the Conservative party would be in power today.
P.S.: the Alberta NDP maybe not too popular but could offer the change, as an alternative.
Wayne Pavey
Lethbridge
20-19
Agreed! Could not be said better!
And, there are the UCP gifts that keep on giving…axing the insurance rate cap and the electricity price cap.
As the former Conservative MLAs taught me looking after the rich is far more important to these idiots than the well-being of the people and boy were they right. Isn’t it too bad Rural Albertans weren’t smart enough to understand it?
It is interesting to note that some of our UCP voting rural acquaintances are now, starting to complain about insurance rates. One wonders why…is it now putting a dent in their financial status? Were they so financially well off that they didn’t mind/notice the increases in these rates over the years? Many of them seeded thousands of acres of canola…now China slapped an almost 80% tariff on Canadian canola. With drastic increases in input costs, etc. the days of the chicken monied days are possibly coming home to roost. Maybe these rural monied folks should have a chat with the feds about the Canadian 100% tariffs on China’s EVs. Instead, we’ve got Scott Moe and Danielle Smith starting to whimper about financially supporting canola farmers, some of whom are stunningly wealthy, or have been.
After China threatened Canada with tariffs I was surprised at seeing so much Canola planted. It made no sense to me.
While Ralph Klein allowed the insurance companies to increase vehicle insurance by 40% and Jason Kenney a further 5% we saw no complaints from rural Albertans. Maybe they have finally figured out how badly they go screwed, it’s about time isn’t it?
Wonderful comments Wayne you have nailed it. Where else would the people be so stupid they would show no respect for the Conservatives in Ottawa for kicking Pierre Poilievre and re-elected another Reformer who has shown Canadians no respect for the billions of dollars lost because of the Convoy Truckers and Donald Trump.
I hope Lethbridge residents will remember this should the UCP present a slate for city council. Polarizing municipal politics is yet another bad idea nobody asked for.
Typical NDP undeducated rant full of horse apples! LOL!
Remember the NDP pushing a SCS on Lethbridge we didn’t want and their harm reduction policies which already showed signs of failing in BC for years?
The NDP is responsible for hundreds of deaths and destroyed families and not to mention hundreds of millions of tax dollars spent to deal with the issues they brought upon us by enabling and encouraging addicts with their policies! The UCP is still enabling programs to reverse the damage done from this, and the proof is already showing that their policies work! Over 60% reduction in fatal overdoses in Lethbridge in 2024 and over 40% reduction province wide!
Your great NDP West MLA was very much a supporter of the SCS and harm reduction policies and viciously attacked fellow Councillors in meetings which I witnessed when he was a Councillor when they are bringing citizen concerns to Council . . . The NDP destroyed our city and our province!
Parts of your rant are also misinformed if not misleaded which appears to be the trend of the NDP fearmongers! Our province would be triple the amount in debt if the NDP were still in power, with our downtown looking like Vancouver DTES, and hundreds more dead from overdoses.
We would have 300% more non-profits sucking our tax dollars up, industry pushed away from over taxation, causing lost revenues so the taxpayer have to pickup the losses with more taxes. Social services would increase and many who were capable of work would just live on social services and crime would increase because they would defund police! And on and on!
The Premier has made it very clear she doesn’t want to leave confederation, but does want to be treated equally in the confederation, like Quebec and Ontario, which we are not and she has stated, that with the number of Albertan’s wanting to separate, there is enough to bring forth a referendum as part of a functioning democracy!
I could go one, but what is the use since many of you NDP’ers are brainwashed with misinformation and rately listen to the reason the Premier has made decisions.
I have never seen a time in decades as I see today where there are so many misinformed people who are sheep, especially at a time where the whole world is close to exploding . . . but the NDP denies we are close to WW III as well, even though by definition we are already in it!
Canada has so far missed many of the recent conflicts worldwide but within the next 5 years will feel the impacts, see the economic impacts, and realize what those in Canada went through in WW I and WW II. Naive!