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