About this feature

Submissions will be edited for length. Comments are the opinion of the readers, not the Lethbridge Herald and not all will be published, particularly if they are of similar content, no longer timely, in poor taste, potentially libelous, contain accusations, target specific persons or businesses or where facts cannot be verified. This feature appears each Tuesday in The Lethbridge Herald.

NOTE: Due to high volume and larger type size to make this feature easier to read, some submissions may not get into the paper the week they are sent in. They will be printed as soon as possible.

ROAST: To Shannon Phillips. So it is all about principle! But now a $400,000 legal action? What next? A GoFundMe appeal?

TOAST: To the Rotary Club and all the workers and association that sponsored and volunteered for the annual Christmas dinner at the Sandman. A TOAST to them for the gift and card.

TOAST: To Jill Skriver for her Lethbridge Herald letter “Lethbridge property tax increase is unacceptable.” I think most taxpayers can accept an increase in some departments; e.g. policing and emergency services because of budget cuts last time. What you don’t see is city administration showing both council and the taxpayers where they can reduce costs. There is room for improvement.

ROAST: To Mayor Hyggen. Increasing taxes can be avoided. Increasing taxes is the easy part of your job. Do your job correctly and find ways to cut taxes! I didn’t vote for you so you could increase my tax bill.

ROAST: To Shannon Phillips for claiming in her column on Nov. 26 that Danielle Smith “would like to ensure Albertans pay out of pocket for more services, such as visits to a family doctor.”

TOAST: To the staff behind the counter at the post office downtown. Outstanding, efficient, friendly, kind, caring, helpful and cheerful service.

TOAST: To the Legion for the wonderful banners helping us remember. Please make them bigger next year so we can read them even better!

TOAST: To the Herald for the hilarious cartoon above Shannon Phillips’ monthly column. I had a great laugh!

TOAST: To NDP finance critic Shannon Phillips for her entertaining quotes in the Herald. Phillips has been getting very generous MLA compensation for over seven years now and has no concept of the strain on the average citizen. She has never owned or operated a business and never signed the front of a pay cheque. Pretty easy to constantly complain about everything when not being responsible for the outcome. Lethbridge West deserves better.

ROAST: To doom-and-gloom Phillips. Only she could find something bad to say about a balanced budget. As far as I’m concerned that’s a good thing for all Albertans and it pays for her pay cheque. Then she says there is no money for the Heritage Fund. As I recall, the NDP had a deficit and no money for the Heritage Fund while not in a pandemic. I guess spending oil money is only OK if the NDP is spending it.

ROAST: To Shannon Phillips. I was going to vote for you until this lawsuit you filed against the police. This is why you are losing respect - nothing is ever enough for you.

TOAST: A deeply heartfelt thank you to the amazing staff and volunteers at Lethbridge Family Services and their Angel Tree campaign. Every single person who works or volunteers there is kind, compassionate and caring. I cannot imagine our city without this stellar organization!

TOAST: To the Rotary Club for the fabulous Seniors Christmas dinner. Well organized and delicious food. We are looking forward to next year’s!

ROAST: To the justice system for giving people who commit violent crimes which change the life of totally innocent families a slap on the wrist. Somebody should have to atone for these acts of violence.

ROAST: Each week in Toast and Roast people gripe about the state of Alberta’s health care system, lack of doctors etc, etc! Alberta’s problems in health care are mild compared to other jurisdictions on this planet. Could the doctor shortage be due to those smart enough to become doctors also being smart enough to realize that they can set up a veterinarian service after becoming a vet where the payee is willing to fork over any amount charged to fix their animal member(s) of the family? With this service, the vet is free to charge any fee for service they desire with almost never a complaint from patient or whomever settles the bill with the vet. Is this old-fashioned democracy in action?

ROAST: To the person defending trespassing just so they don’t have to take their dog’s poop home with them. I don’t own a dog and I shouldn’t have to put up with the smell.

ROAST: To Premier Smith.

She is withdrawing provincial funding from organizations dependent on such funding if they require proof of vaccination. Surely we as taxpayers should have some input into such decisions for use of our taxpayer dollars. I guess we will have a say at the next provincial election. Can our province survive five more months of her? Right now, this province is the laughing stock of the rest of Canada.

ROAST: I thought blackmail was a crime in this country. Smith, what you are doing with your phone calls to businesses about mandatory vaccines is exactly that. You need to go as soon as possible before you totally ruin this province.

TOAST: To Dory Rossiter for being named the new Honorary Lieutenant-Colonel of the 20th Field Battery RCA.

TOAST: To those who realize that property tax increases compound on themselves. It is not just a once yearly five per cent increase, but five per cent on top of five per cent for a total of four times. It is especially the on top of compounding that challenges your budget. Save your last tax bill and review it in four years.

ROAST: To the Emergency

Act investigation for not asking Trudeau how far in advance did he know that the protest in Ottawa was going to happen. This protest could have been stopped on the highways way before it occurred. If Trudeau possibly knew the protest was going to come to Ottawa, then Trudeau is just as guilty as anyone else for breaking the law and should resign. I cannot believe that particular question was never asked.

ROAST: To Danielle Smith for engaging in blackmail (and involving her cabinet in the same) for imposing her anti-health/ safety ideology and by insisting grant applicants remove COVID-19 vaccine mandates in order to obtain government grants! As an example, the Herald on its front page of Nov. 29 quoted the premier as getting the Arctic Winter Games to remove their vaccine mandate in order to qualify for receipt of $1.2 million requested of provincial funds!

TOAST: To the City of Edmonton for including a carbon budget in their budget deliberations. To the City of Calgary for having less than a five per cent property tax increase with significant funding for addictions and mental health, which our council refuses to touch when we know the majority of crimes are committed by people who need addictions and mental health support. ROAST to the Lethbridge council for an almost six per cent tax increase every year for four years.

ROAST: To Danielle Smith who was selected as premier by the UCP - not elected by Alberta voters. Before even thinking of bringing in something as radical as The Alberta Sovereignty Act, she should face the electorate with her platform. Shame on her and the UCP for supporting this totally undemocratic move!

TOAST: Canada Health reports that “Last year more than 80,000 Canadian kids used prescription drugs to get high. Many said they stole them from home.” Next question: How many of these 80,000, and likely many more, used “recreational” marijuana to get high? And most likely they did not have to get it from the family medicine cabinet.

ROAST: To city council who don’t know the definition of the word “no.”

ROAST: To Danielle Smith for her Sovereignty Act. How embarrassing to be the province who wants the federal financial support, but not adhere to the rules. May is not coming soon enough to see the premier and our Lethbridge

East MLA gone.

ROAST: To Mr. Burns for his letter about the trip to Germany but he forgets about all the trips Kenney made to Washington for the Keystone pipeline.

ROAST: Danielle Smith, elected by a mere 30,000 votes, has now given herself and her cabinet cronies the power to bypass the legislature and rewrite laws she doesn’t like behind closed doors. Without any hint of irony, she says this is to combat “over-reach” by our dictatorial federal government. Folks, we’re in big trouble.

TOAST: To our Premier Smith - a refreshing change.

TOAST: To Premier Danielle Smith, I am one not to count my chickens before they hatch and I was impressed that Smith made good on her promise to introduce the sovereignty bill! Thank you and be sure we are standing with and for you and Alberta.

ROAST: To Danielle Smith and the UCP for their egregious, anti-democratic, power grabbing Sovereignty Act.

ROAST: What is the world coming to when people support trespassing and disposing of dog poo, which is totally irresponsible. Do not assume that it was a small bag and do not assume that this only happened once, either.

ROAST: To Nathan Neudorf for backing Danielle Smith’s Alberta Sovereignty Act. This act proposes that Alberta’s government will pick and choose what Canadian laws they feel like following and give unprecedented power to Smith’s cabinet to amend laws without consent of the legislature. The Canadian Petroleum Producers and Calgary Chamber of Commerce have both expressed real concerns of businesses avoiding investment in Alberta due to the chaos. Indigenous Chiefs of Treaty 6, 7, 8 First Nations have condemned the move. Municipalities would be rudderless. Neudorf’s clearly willing to sell out Albertans in return for his promotion.

ROAST: Years ago I used to vote conservative as my family did. I’ve made a point to follow politics more closely and conservatives today don’t even remotely resemble what the party used to be. It has melted down into a populist cult that beckons to conspiracy nuts, convoy clowns, and ultra-rich grifters. I’ve watched for years as they greased the pockets of rich donors with my tax money. And schemed to privatize public services like healthcare so their buddies can take a cut.

TOAST: And huge gratitude to John Middleton-Hope for asking the obvious much-needed question “how many residents showed support for the proposed location while council entertained more conversation about the potential use of the Civic Centre as a sober shelter.” Thank you, John Middleton Hope!

ROAST: To the city for raising the speed limit on the west side hill to 90 on Friday and not clearing debris from a prior accident from the road. This led to an accident when a driver slowed to avoid the debris and was rearended by another driver going too fast for the road conditions.

TOAST: To city council for looking at different options for the sober shelter. How about putting it in the yards of those who are so loudly demanding it since they have an issue with NIMBY?

ROAST: To people who have a problem with the housing authority wanting to protect the vulnerable from being used and evicted. A big hullabaloo over nothing.

ROAST: To Lethbridge city council which voted unanimously to rescind the sober shelter decision. This was a spurious distraction from the real issue of shelter for the unhoused.

The September place-in-time count in Lethbridge showed 400 unhoused — more than Alpha Shelter can accommodate. And we wonder why people break into the heated transit terminal when it’s -20C at night.

ROAST: Trudeau is a dictator type leader. His government caused loss of work ergo loss of employment ergo loss of income for truckers and others. He then besmirched them for protesting COVID mandates, exercised his need for power with the enactment of the Emergencies Act when border access was already resolved, and has caused high inflation, high costs. His carbon tax is just revenue funding for his elaborate spending. Now he is pushing Bill C-11 which will eventually hinder access to nonCanadian content. I do not need anyone to decide for me what misinformation or false information is. There will be much more damage created by this man before he is voted out of office.

ROAST: The property tax rate hikes approved by council are unrealistic. Where is the city’s report card on cost savings and cost efficiencies achieved and projected for the future? How does the city lure business when imposing high costs? It was thought that this mayor and council would be more financially prudent. What a disappointment. My family is seriously considering relocation to a more affordable community.

ROAST: To city administration for wasting so many people’s time yet again with yet another committee that ended up doing nothing. I am talking about the SSIG group that recommended the sober shelter location. How many meetings were there and for what end result? This is another example of the incompetence of city administration.

ROAST: To the City or housing authority. I’m confused. The story in the Herald - which is the most reliable source of news in Lethbridge - says LHA doesn’t want to set up a shelter at Castle or Halmrast but the rezoning application mentions shelter. What gives?

TOAST: To the deserving recipients of the Jubilee medals. All of them were fantastic choices - they are real credits to our community.

ROAST: To the City for not having enough shelter for those poor people out in the cold. It’s not their fault they’re homeless. Do something! How about convert a few empty downtown buildings into shelters. Nobody goes down there anyway despite the spin put on by some whose salaries depend on them trying to make everyone believe that. Downtown is a lost cause.

TOAST: To the letter writer who supported the property tax raise. You definitely have courage for writing that - you must know you’re going to get roasted.