Beeber brings unique insight to new role on city council

By Lethbridge Herald on November 13, 2025.

Alejandra Pulido-Guzman
Lethbridge Herald

Editor’s note: This is the second in a series of features on the three new members of city council elected in the Oct. 20 municipal election.

After spending 38 years as a reporter and editor for the Lethbridge Herald (plus another seven at other newspapers before that) Al Beeber sent in his final “Leave It To Beeber” column the week after the Oct. 20 municipal election and began his new role in a new office at City Hall.

“For this new role, covering this community in so many ways really helped me out,” says Beeber. “At the paper I wrote about everything, and that included becoming city council reporter, which I did for four years.”

While covering city council, he read every agenda, watched every SPC meeting, and became very familiar with local governance. 

“I learned the ropes watching these past council adapt and some of the newcomers. I felt like I knew a lot, but I didn’t realize how much I still didn’t know until we finished orientation.” 

Beeber says from his time at the paper, everyone knew him as a folksy kind of guy, down to earth, average joe on the street, and he still wants to portray that to residents. 

“I want people to know that I can relate to them, to everyone who is worried about taxes increasing, or those who want more dog parks, or those concerned about utility rates. I am still going to be that guy, except I have to be more eloquent verbally, because before I had time to edit my words, but now I have to think on the fly and hopefully talk slowly.” 

He says sometimes when he gets excited, he talks fast, which came in handy during campaign as candidates only had a limited time to speak during events. 

“Plus, I know people have short attention spans, so during the campaign I kept my messages to less than a minute because I didn’t want to lose people.”

Beeber says while most people know him from his newspaper career, he wants to expand his sphere of influence and get to know other people as well, especially those in the younger generation, while still maintaining continuity. 

“I believe in showing continuity because even though councillors provide their voice and opinion, we have to follow the leadership of our mayor and show a united front.”

Even though every councillor campaigned on different platforms, Beeber says he wants to be the optimistic guy that helps find a unified voice.  

“I want to be that politician, which is weird because I was a reporter, but I want to elevate myself from what I did before.”

He says he’s always seen himself as a builder and he wants to keep on building relationships, regardless of political affiliation, as he did when he was a journalist. 

“I was able to reach out to the UCP and the NDP and was able to build strong relationships within both parties.”

Those relationships will come in handy, he says, because they know he will be fair to both parties and will also be critical when he needs to be. 

Councillor Beeber sits on the Assets and Infrastructure and Safety and Social Standing Policy Committees, as well as a Council representative for the Chinook Arch Regional Library System and Economic Development Lethbridge.