Alberta needs leaders who put people before politics
By Lethbridge Herald on September 11, 2025.
Editor,
I am exhausted by the direction Premier Danielle Smith’s government has taken with recent policies targeting schools and students.
The UCP’s decision to restrict school library materials and to bar trans girls from school sports teams is less about protecting children and more about political posturing. These are issues that affect a small number of people, yet the government has inflated them into wedge politics to rally a narrow base.
Requiring school officials to investigate a child’s gender history if someone makes a report is a disturbing invasion of privacy. Encouraging people to formally report on each other creates a culture of suspicion more common in authoritarian regimes than in a free society. Trans kids deserve compassion and understanding at the school level, not to be made into political pawns.
The library issue is equally troubling. Of course, explicitly pornographic material has no place in schools — and it never has. Boards have always dealt with such concerns responsibly. But the government expanded its restrictions into vaguely defined “non-explicit” sexual content, casting suspicion on respected literature and forcing school boards to consider pulling classics from shelves.
This overreach brought Alberta international embarrassment before the government quietly backtracked, promised a rethink, and has delayed its release.
All of this comes at the worst possible time. Our school boards are already stretched thin and now face the looming threat of a teachers’ strike or lockout. Instead of supporting educators, this government is saddling them with more bureaucracy and controversy.
Meanwhile, Alberta faces real problems that are being ignored. The unemployment rate sits at 8.4%, the second highest in Canada. Available jobs fell by 14,000 in August. Young Albertans, in particular, are struggling with low wages, stalled careers, and limited opportunities. These are the issues that deserve the government’s full attention.
Alberta needs leadership that puts people before politics — leadership that focuses on jobs, education, and stability instead of fueling division and distraction. Our future depends on it.
Kevin McBeath
Lethbridge
12-11
Isn’t it too bad that ignorant Albertans wouldn’t listen to us true conservatives and believe our warnings about how dangerous these Reformers were?
With Lougheed’s energy minister Bill Dickie being a brother in-law of one of my uncles I know how the former social credit and conservative MLAs felt about them.
Having known the Klein family since 1960 and how some of them felt about making Ralph our premier I know electing a well known drunk was a huge mistake and form premier Don Getty told me in 2003 that inviting Ralph Klein into the Conservative Party was the dumbest thing he ever did and I certainly agreed. Even his daughter Angie was so disgusted with him she urged us to vote NDP and kick him out.
We tried but these ignorant Albertans, mostly seniors, refused to let us. Now these fools have allowed Reformer Pierre Poilievre to get re-elected going against the wishes of the conservatives in Ottawa proving how stupid they are. Apparently polluting their farmland with Abandoned oil wells and making them pay for the cleanup is no concern of theirs, nor is praising criminal convoy truckers and Donald Trump and ignoring the billions of dollars they have cost us. That’s how stupid they are, isn’t it?
I am in complete agreement with you and the letter writer. Yet, on Postmedia newspapers, in the comment sections, many people, be it seniors, or people who aren’t seniors, still defend the UCP and Danielle Smith, while actual Conservatives do not. Fedup Conservative is fitting, because real Conservatives do not support the UCP and Danielle Smith. Here are real Conservatives, who were in politics before. They do not support the UCP and Danielle Smith.
https://www.reddeeradvocate.com/news/former-red-deer-pc-attorney-general-jim-foster-takes-issue-with-smiths-ethics-violation-6826729
https://lethbridgeherald.com/commentary/letters-to-the-editor/2025/01/27/smiths-mar-a-lago-trip-grounds-for-dismissal/
My name Fedup Conservative was created by a lawyer friend who knew how heavily involved with the true conservatives in Alberta and Ottawa our family was.
He knew Lougheed’s energy ministry was Bill Dickie a brother in-law of one my uncles and he also knew how disgusted the Conservative MLAs were with what these Reformers were doing to Canadians, yet as you know these stupid seniors absolutely love what they are doing to our children’s future. Too stupid to understand it.
I recall someone who was very unwilling to become a politician in Alberta. When they got very upset at what the Alberta PCs were doing, someone asked them if they would join the Wildrose party, and run as an MLA. They reluctantly agreed. Right after they heard Danielle Smith say how much she loved what Ralph Klein did, they backed out. They certainly were smart. Peter Lougheed also had warned Albertans about Danielle Smith, because he knew how bad she was. Also, Peter Lougheed didn’t like Ralph Klein and what he did to Alberta. Can you blame him? I heard that Alberta PC members tore up their membership cards, after Ralph Klein was elected leader. The UCP are also like the Social Credit Party, which Peter Lougheed worked hard to replace. Did you ever volunteer with the Alberta PCs in the 1960s, and in the early 1970s, when Peter Lougheed was building the Alberta PCs back up?
No, but my late parents and two sisters certainly did. One sister voluntarily worked on the Federal Conservative elections also. Her husband voluntarily flew the government plane for Lougheed and Getty in his spare time and never got paid a dime.
His first experience with Ralph Klein was his first and his last. He flew Klein and a group of his MLAs from Edmonton to Calgary to attend a meeting. They promised to be back at the plane by midnight and never showed up until 3:00 a.m. Many were so drunk he had problems getting them onto the plane, the wives were some of the worse ones.
He had to be back at work at 7:30 a.m. and he never volunteered for them again and neither did any of my other family members. But knowing Klein like they did was the main reason, and none of us certainly never voted for these phoney conservatives Reformers. We know there is nothing conservative about them.
It was a well known fact that Lougheed refused to appear anywhere with Ralph Klein and Don Getty told me in 2003 that inviting Ralph Klein into the Conservative Party was a huge mistake and he regretted doing it. We certainly agreed it was a stupid mistake, Ralph was a real jerk and had no desire to help anyone other than the rich, and his Reform Party pals and Danielle Smith is no different. Her praise of what Klein did to us proves it.
Taking hospitals away from the people was a disaster and we have never recovered from it. His father Phil was furious with him for doing it.
Again, re: the UCP not putting people before politics, sadly, those who vote for the authoritarian UCP still have to come to the realization that they’re not being kissed while being you-know-whatted.
Once again we see the whining by these Phoney Conservatives, Reformers, and the rural fools who support them. Danielle Smith and Scott Moe proving how stupid they are.
With China giving our farmers ample warning ,March 8, 2025, that they should not plant canola this year or they would put a 100% tariff on it you can bet Smith and Moe never bothered to take them serious and suggest they shouldn’t.
These are the same Reformers that ignored what Joe Biden was saying about approving the Keystone XL pipeline and wasted $1.3 billion on it, $75 million on children’s cold medicine , $2.2 million on Preston Manning’s lies about COVID, and $142 million on lawsuits they created by destroying Lougheed’s protection on our mountains. That’s how stupid they are.
$7.5 billion was blown by the UCP on that pipeline bet gone bad.