Cheers 4 Lethbridge celebrates the people who make Lethbridge great. Celebrate someone today!

Tag & Cheer! Join us in celebrating the people who make Lethbridge a great place to live, work, and play – tag and cheer someone who’s made a difference in our community today! We invite you to share and applaud the actions for positive change you’ve seen throughout our city. Have you noticed someone contributing to our community in a positive way? Tag your nominee in a social media post on Cheers 4 Lethbridge’s Facebook or Twitter to celebrate them, and they may be recognized with a High 4 package!

TOAST: To the drive-thru testing location in Lethbridge. I booked an appointment to be tested on Thursday, Oct. 15 and was given a testing time for Friday. The drive-thru was very well set up, and efficiently run. Lots of information was provided and the test itself well handled. I had my results by Sunday the 18th. Congratulations and much appreciation to all those involved.

ROAST: Don’t be fooled! City of Lethbridge “Waste Reduction Week” is the first step in the introduction of the green bins to the taxpayers! We do not want them! Having a smelly little bin on the kitchen counter to collect potato peels is awful and it is unsanitary! Dumping a small wastebasket of kitchen scraps into a large green bin every week does not make any difference at the landfill! It does not make sense! The landfill will not be affected in the slightest not receiving our potato peels! Also having to deal with three bins — black, blue and green — in limited yard space is not acceptable! It comes down to a tax grab! We, the taxpayers, own the Lethbridge landfill. If the City wants to curb waste, stop accepting garbage from the rest of southern Alberta and B.C.!

TOAST: To anyone questioning the effectiveness or danger of wearing face coverings long term. A Florida immunologist with 35 years experience who had his YouTube video removed that told how the human immune system works. Face coverings may end up doing more harm than we understand, when a natural immune system is supressed long term. That’s scary! Also a toast to anyone questioning why there’s zero published data on how many mask wearers vs. non-mask wearers have contracted COVID-19 — verifying the effectiveness of “the mask.” I suspect there’s an explanation why officials choose to run Lethbridge’s economy into the ground over two deaths due to COVID-19. Hopefully one day they don’t do the same with car accidents — nobody will be driving.

ROAST: To the maskless man at Walmart who yelled the Fword ... you are not very nice. Wear the mask, walk the right direction as instructed and you won’t need to use vulgarities.

TOAST: To the Veldman Brothers for winning their bricklaying competition, and hoping they can compete in

Las Vegas in January.

TOAST: To the Waste Management employees on the northside who do a terrific job, and seem to really enjoy what they are doing.

ROAST: To those people who think privatizing health-care jobs saves money, even suggesting they shouldn’t be paid for stat holidays. What a myth. All the contractor does is cut wages to pay for their profits. Still costs the same in the end. Then expect costs to skyrocket after the companies create a monopoly. Have yet to see where privatization has saved money without having to reduce service. Highway privatization costs are so high government can’t even afford to get potholes filled. Let’s go back to cheap and unlivable wages for 11,000 workers just so a few corporations can make big profits. I wonder how they know they’ll save $600 million a year when the work hasn’t even been tendered out yet.

ROAST: It’s a City bylaw to wear a mask in big stores to protect all of us. Most city residents are abiding by the law but why is store security letting some law-breaking no-maskers brazenly walk in without confronting them?

ROAST: I almost choked on my Cheerios after reading a toast to Trump in last week’s column. You complain about fake news from the Democrats. The leader in fake news is Trump who, it has been proven, has told over 20,000 lies. As he repeats his lies over and over and over, some people swallow his garbage hook, line and sinker.

ROAST: A huge roast to the UCP Health Minister Tyler Shandro. His unwillingness to provide the mayors of the three cities and one municipality as to his decision to consolidate the EMS services with concrete facts as he sees them and has no intention of considering the arguments opposing his decision really speaks to the attitude of the UCP party overall. The way Jason Kenney rules his ministers and their related lackeys smacks of the ideals of a communist dictator. It is his way or no way in dealing with the problems he inherited when he became premier. He left federal politics hoping to strike it rich in Alberta. All his promises of Making Alberta Great Again has blown up in his face. Now he is nickel and diming as many government departments he can so he can give tax breaks to the energy sector and the poor taxpayers be damned.

TOAST: Thank you Drs.

Susan Adelmann, Janine Karpakis, Arlene Oishi and Jillian Demontigny for the forceful advocacy of supervised consumption sites as a credible public health strategy. The current mobile site is inadequate.

TOAST: To the Alberta Minister of Justice, bravo! Showing strong leadership qualities, he dismissed the director of the Edmonton Remand Centre, utilizing a report submitted by the previous NDP government from members of its correctional department. It states, the toxic work environment was configured of macho behaviour, sexually charged inappropriate conduct, inappropriate staff relationships as well as the stating that the environment was similar to a high school environment. Where there is smoke there is fire and I bet this is not the only facility in Alberta that conducts operations in this manner and there should be a great deal of directors and managers that should be nervous about their conduct. Sounds like the old boys’ club is on its way out. Nice to see there are still good leaders with strong morals and values that focus on the principles of operations.

ROAST: OK, people, one more mask comment. Roast to those criticizing people who do not/cannot wear a mask — I, for one cannot. To those critics: Have you ever been attacked and had someone try to

smother you with a hand over the face? Have you ever thought of that when you see someone without a mask? I am sure not — you do not know their story. Please try to mind your own life and trust that most, who do not wear masks, are not careless and uncaring with others’ lives — we simply cannot wear one. (I, for one, am not shopping anywhere in Lethbridge because of the bylaw and the unwarranted shallow comments). Do you roasters want to come purchase my necessities for me? Please be tolerant of others.

TOAST: A big Toast to The Herald for allowing this

Roasted and Toasted page so that we are able express our feelings — you are appreciated.

TOAST: To Pope Francis who recently announced endorsement of same-sex marriages. The Catholic church has an excellent leader who sensibly sees people as having different needs and welcomes them into the church just as everyone should.

ROAST: A huge roast to Kenney and the UCP government for trying to get American-style health care entrenched in Alberta. None of us want it! This style of health care, as proven in the States, caters to the rich and the common man gets pushed to the bottom of the health ladder.

TOAST: To the Lethbridge Herald for again providing us with the Kakuro puzzle. I enjoy the challenge of this puzzle and look forward to it each week.

ROAST: To Jason Kenney. I very recently spent time in two top Edmonton hospitals. The care was excellent but the short sightedness of Kenney is unbelievable: Hand sanitizers empty. Hand towel dispensers empty, porters not available to handle electric stretchers to take you to scanners, X-rays, etc. across the tunnel because their equipment is not working and no money to fix. Anyone voting for Kenney needs their head examined as all the funds went to the oil companies.

ROAST: The lobster fiasco goes on and on with both sides providing nonsense as the temporary solution. The problem has created a local law rules, when the facts all point to a federal statement of the rules to finalize a proper solution.

ROAST: It is fairly obvious which way our city council is leaning when they could have made a decision on the $100million proposed performing arts centre but instead decided to review it further. While Dianne King, the spokesperson for the performing arts centre advocacy group, may submit a thousand words why the project should be approved right away, the public in Lethbridge should submit 100,000 signatures to affirm why the project should not be approved at this time.

TOAST: Many thanks to the young people who shovelled sidewalks on the 500 block of Columbia Boulevard on Oct. 22. You are so appreciated. Wish we could have thanked

you in person.

ROAST: A large roast to the letter to the editor writer of

Oct. 21 who trivialized the plight of those suffering indentured servitude and slavery by equating their hardship to the civil economics of paying for recycling and road-building programs. You have the option of voting for or even running for election if you don’t like what your council is doing. I don’t think prisoners, temporary foreign workers or victims of human trafficking have any such options. I suspect any of them would be glad to exchange their life of hardship and struggle for yours.

TOAST: I wear a mask, I love my mask,

It has an important task, It keeps me from getting sick, which is no easy trick.

Now that the weather is not of the norm

I wear my mask to keep my nose warm.

TOAST: Toast to No Frills grocery store for sending out flyers, business should improve. Real Canadian Superstore should follow suit.

TOAST: A great big thanks to the City of Lethbridge for getting all those empty buses back on the road. We all missed them.

ROAST: To the incorrect roast on Oct. 20: It was not Premier Rachel’s NDP who sold the 13,000 kilometres of electrical transmission lines to Warren Buffett. It was, in fact, Jim Prentice, who in May 2014 was the premier of the Progressive Conservative government which allowed Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. to buy SNC-Lavalin’s interests in AltaLink for $3.2 billion for 13,000 km of utility lines that Albertans had paid for on their electricity bills. In the intervening six years gleaning the annual half-billion dollars revenue from AltaLink, Buffett has recaptured his initial $3.2billion investment. Following Rachel Notley’s good example of investing in renewable energy, Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Energy Canada is building a $200-million Rattlesnake Ridge wind farm southeast of Medicine Hat to produce enough energy to supply 79,000 homes. All this revenue should be coming to Alberta; instead, Buffett continues to profit from Alberta’s fiscally inept conservative governments.

ROAST: To those people who are too lazy to remove their garbage and recycle containers from the alleys after pick up day. Seriously, how is the City supposed to maintain grading and snow removal. If we had a bylaw officer you would be ticketed.

TOAST: No Frills Food Store. I went shopping Friday morning. Had my shopping bag on my wheelchair and filled it up with groceries, paid up and went out to my car. Where were my car keys? Missing. Went back in and asked a clerk if anyone had turned in my keys. They sent me to the manager, Sandie. No one had. She was concerned and determined to help. She

and an agile clerk got into the car through the unlocked hatch door and opened all the doors and searched car. No keys. Sandie phoned AMA for me. They couldn’t help. Sandie got clerk Katie to give me a ride home to get my wife’s set of keys. So I did the remainder of my shopping. I did find keys later. I’d say the store has some frills.

TOAST: To the big rig driver with a long flatbed. Great idea, hauling a toy dump truck strapped to it. Had a good chuckle, thanks.

ROAST: To all but three City councillors. Why do the rest of you think that the Lethbridge money well is bottomless. At least three of you thought to stop the senseless spending while we, the poor taxpayers, get a handle on our lives from COVID-19. Yes, you need to tighten your belt just like we do. Why leave things open for some group to twist your arm and you go on a spending habit we cannot afford. Short of updating the Fritz Sick pool, there is no need to leave the door open, because sure as you do, you will dream up some ridiculous venture to satisfy the rich and artsy people in this town.

TOAST: Recently I told a friend that the best thing about getting The Herald is that you get a sense of the whole community — not just your own little bubble. In fact — this is true. Getting a sense of the community is also pretty discouraging sometimes, as when you read “63 per cent say no to the federal plan to invest $100 million in cleaner energy research.” So — we keep on using fossil fuels until our environment becomes. unliveable?

TOAST: To the gentleman in Shoppers Drug Mart on Saturday who helped me get two flats of Gatorade into my shopping cart. And toast to the gentleman who helped me load them into the truck. Thank you.

ROAST: A toast to all the folks compliant wearing masks. An emphatic roast to the few defiant, selfish, non-thinking, non-compliant boneheads. As well, with signs on business entrance doors, free masks and sanitizer, you have no excuse. What are the security personnel standing at the entrance doors doing? Where are the bylaw officers handing out infraction tickets? If you can’t comply, just stay home. Don’t need your business or your infection.

ROAST: To all the cheerleaders for Trump; the base of people that support him, somewhere around 72 per cent, do not have any education beyond high school. Does that include you? Take a few hours to think about it, longer if you need, I know it’s hard for you.

ROAST: To the roaster who ends his roast with “commie union socialist ways.” This is anther example of someone who has no idea what they are talking about. None of those words go together, in any context! I hope you don’t say stuff like that in public. You would just embarrass yourself.

ROAST: To the man who came out of the University Sports Centre on Oct. 23 in the morning and just threw his mask on the ground before driving away in his brown Ram 4x4.

TOAST: To all the businesses posting signs, offering free hand sanitizer and masks prior to entry and employees wearing masks. Thank you. Roast to the businesses who are non-compliant during the pandemic and their employees who don’t wear protection equipment. I won’t be back.

ROAST: To the four doctors from Calgary telling us all about the SCS in Lethbridge. Your whole argument is based on the false usage numbers supplied by the former director who is now under criminal investigation. Once she left, the number of visits reported dropped by 85 per cent. SCS reported numbers from ARCHES. Fact is you don’t have knowledge of the market, just opinions from somewhere else. You are being suckered.