Current UCP government is the farthest thing from the Lougheed-led progressive approach

By Lethbridge Herald on January 31, 2026.

Ken Moore

For the Herald

The current UCP government is not one which could be headed by Peter Lougheed. Their policies are anything but progressive.

To understand the depth of the current identity crisis in Alberta politics, one must look back at the “Progressive” half of the Progressive Conservative dynasty that Lougheed built. For Lougheed, conservatism was not a crusade to dismantle social safety nets or centralize power; it was about building a province that was as compassionate as it was prosperous. He believed in a “Social Contract” where the province used its resource wealth to protect the most vulnerable.

Today, under Premier Danielle Smith, that contract is not just being rewritten; it is being shredded. The UCP’s recent legislative agenda reveals a government that views the underprivileged not as citizens to be supported, but as costs to be managed and voices to be silenced.

The most glaring departure from Lougheed’s legacy is the transformation of disability supports. The move to replace the Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped (AISH) with the Alberta Disability Assistance Program (ADAP) is a masterclass in bureaucratic cruelty. By reducing core benefits by $200 a month for new applicants and slashing earnings exemptions, the government is effectively trapping disabled Albertans in deeper poverty.

Lougheed’s first formal act as Premier was the Alberta Bill of Rights. He understood that the measure of a society is how it treats those who cannot advocate for themselves. In contrast, the UCP has moved to claw back the federal Canada Disability Benefit, ensuring that the poorest Albertans never see a dime of federal relief. This isn’t fiscal responsibility; it’s a targeted strike on those with the least.

Perhaps even more “un-Lougheed” is the government’s aggressive takeover of independent institutions. The recent dismantling of the Alberta Law Foundation (ALF) is a chilling example. For decades, the ALF used interest from lawyers’ trust accounts to fund community legal clinics, places where the poor could go for help with a “renoviction,” a domestic violence order, or a wrongful dismissal.

By passing Bill 39 and Bill 14, the UCP has basically seized control of these private funds, redirected them to cover core government legal aid costs, costs the government is responsible for, and given the Justice Minister a personal veto over grants. When the entire staff of the Law Foundation resigns in protest and board members are ousted for “challenging the government,” we have moved far beyond the realm of conservative governance and into something more authoritarian. Lougheed respected the independence of the civil service and the legal profession; the current regime seeks only their compliance.

Locally, the Lethbridge Legal Guidance Clinic’s funding has been slashed by 32% over three years.  This clinic provides free front-line legal advice to our city’s most vulnerable populations.

We see this same war against the most vulnerable in Bill 18, the Provincial Priorities Act. By demanding a veto over federal funding for municipalities, the UCP is holding low-income housing and transit projects hostage to a political feud with Ottawa. In our largest cities, where homelessness has reached crisis levels, and even in Lethbridge, this gatekeeping or paternalism is a death sentence for urgent housing initiatives.

Furthermore, the introduction of the “Alberta Escalator” for benefit indexing (Bill 32) ensures that even when the government claims to help, it is actually cutting. By capping benefit increases at 2% even when inflation is higher, the UCP is baking a permanent decline in purchasing power into the lives of every person on income support.

Peter Lougheed once said that the purpose of the Heritage Fund was to ensure that future generations of Albertans would have the same opportunities as his own. He built hospitals, funded world-class research, and championed human rights.

The current government, however, seems preoccupied with a different set of priorities:

- entralizing power by breaking apart Alberta Health Services into four fragmented agencies.

-  estricting professional training in unconscious bias, anti-racism, diversity, equity and inclusion (Bill 13).

- verriding Charter rights with the notwithstanding clause to settle labor disputes and social debates.

There is nothing “progressive” about a government that cuts the income of the disabled while the cost-of-living soars. There is nothing “conservative” about a government that seizes private foundation funds to pad its own budget.

Alberta was once a place where “Progressive Conservative” meant a balanced approach to growth and grace. Today, the “Progressive” label has been stripped away, leaving behind a brand of populism that is increasingly hostile to the very people it is supposed to protect. If Peter Lougheed were to walk into the Legislature today, he wouldn’t recognize the current United Conservative Party. And it’s doubtful they would recognize him, either.

Ken Moore is a longtime resident of Stirling and retired news director at CFAC Television