Separation talk distracting from real issues in Alberta
By Lethbridge Herald on June 26, 2025.
Editor,
I don’t think I am alone in saying that I am tired of reading about the separation of our province from Canada.
The people who are pushing this venture, along with our esteemed premier who is out of touch with reality and the people of Alberta certainly haven’t considered or reported the downside.
One only needs to look at Quebec and Brexit for proof that going it alone or threating to go alone comes with consequences. Many, many big businesses moved their head offices out of Quebec when a referendum on sovereignty was held in 1995. It ultimately failed and Quebec remains a viable province of Canada but it cost them.
This reminds of the statement issued at the start of the Star Trek tv episodes “To blindly go with others fear to tread” or something like that. Alberta is screaming that they are being disrespected by Ottawa; however, the current federal government has spent billions of dollars in Alberta to help the building of pipelines and reclaiming orphan oil and gas wells. Just recently, the Alberta had to return 137 million dollars of the billion dollars the federal government gave them in 2020 to help with the reclamation of orphan wells by 2023.
The UCP government gave most of the money to oil companies who could well afford to clean up their wells and shunned the smaller companies who needed the assistance. It was an opportunity lost to help those companies.
Also, in 2018 the federal government purchased the Trans Mountain pipeline in order to keep it viable and help with getting Alberta oil to the BC coast.
And let’s not forget the scandals going on with health care in our province. Once again, we seniors are going to feel the brunt of the Alberta government’s ineptness in dealing with this crisis.
They seem to have a problem seeing the forest in spite of the trees. Further, taxpayer money being spent on international travel by our government with no tangible evidence that it has been well spent is another contentious issue. It has been reported that Danielle Smith and Lethbridge East MLA Nathan Neudorf were the biggest offenders.
It is glaringly obvious that the UCP government does not have the backs of average Albertans. With a leader who believes in direct democracy we will always be at the mercy of those who speak the loudest and cause the most unrest.
Kent Perry
Lethbridge
13-12
It seems like every day Smith says or does something that grabs our attention. These actions accomplish the “look at this shiny bobble” and take our focus off her old scandals which is her main intent. We must keep her feet to the fire on the healthcare scandal, mining on the Rockies and privatization of the healthcare system to name a few. There are too many others to name.
Well said that’s exactly right. Hardly a day goes by when she isn’t causing problems with a different sector of the province.
It’s no secret that Alberta can’t survive without Ottawa’s help. Four million people can’t provide what forty million can and with Alberta’s unstable economy we would be fools to consider it.