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!

ROAST: To the few anti-maskers. Forty per cent of those who get COVID-19 don’t get sick but spread it everywhere, while some who survive COVID-19 say it was the worst experience of their life — someone I know said it was worse than chemotherapy. The way things might work out, the anti-maskers and the antivaxxers are often the same people, so four months from now most everyone will have the vaccine and be safe while those “freedom protesters” will be the only ones getting sick.

ROAST: A recent Herald survey asked if you want Trump to be reelected. About 750 readers responded with 25 per cent saying yes and the other 75 per cent saying no. It baffles me that the 25 per cent are willing to see the U.S. decline into a dictatorled country with the leader defying all rules, laws and norms. If it did happen (thankfully it won’t) Canada would surely be affected in many negative ways.

ROAST: Have you sat in A&W or Tim Hortons with a view of street traffic on Mayor Magrath or Scenic drive and noticed since October the visually impaired drivers in this city? The headlights become 1-2 (legal) 34-5-6 with overpowering lumens, meaning they blind you; the two allowed auxiliary lights become four continuously, not in averse conditions. The highways minister says it is the local LPS job to correct. Could it be during those Christmas road blitzes the LPS will correct the headlight problem?

ROAST: To Nathan Neudorf for his Friday column. You say “This is not the time to politicize, be antagonistic or take sides.” I can recall when the City was enacting their own mask bylaw, back then you stated “this bylaw proposes an incredible reach into private lives and businesses by the state and will be deemed an incredible overreach.” You and your government are the ones that have been been politicizing, antagonizing on taking sides with COVID. Perhaps if your government wouldn’t have acted in this manner we wouldn’t be in the position we are today. Also a ROAST to Hyggen, Parker and Mauro who voted against a mask mandate twice. Shame. TOAST to the mayor and the rest of council for putting health ahead of politics.

ROAST: To Trudy and his henchmen. Here we are just told groceries are going up another six per cent and this schmuck wants to raise the carbon tax again up to $170 a ton. We are barely surviving now with this pandemic and he wants to kick us while we are down again. Why doesn’t he go after the big-box stores who are making a fortune gouging us during this epidemic? This drama teacher and whoever is pulling his puppet strings have no care in the world for the little people (us) who are paying for his free ride playing king. We need a revolution.

ROAST: I had cause to be in the Lethbridge Community Health building (old railway station) and was surprised to see it is about the only place in town that does not protect the frontline staff with a plexiglass divider. These people deal with sick persons and those travelling from other countries. Is this an oversight or does the government believe they do not matter?

ROAST: To Trudeau’s carbon taxes. Successive Liberal leaders have made carbon reduction targets and introduced many measures to achieve them. All of them failed including Trudeau’s latest promise to reduce Canada’s emissions by 17 per cent below 2005 levels, even with his carbon taxes and having five years to get there. We are on target to reduce the emissions by a mere .14 per cent and will only get there because of the COVID pandemic. The U.S. made the same commitment. After five years of the much-hated Trump and him dropping out of the Paris accord, no carbon taxes there either and yet they are on track to reducing their emissions by 20 per cent by year end, well over their goal. Now new promises and much higher carbon taxes and he still will not do what he says. He just ends up with more of our money to play with.

ROAST: Should I be concerned when I see a car with a Montana plate parking in front of me at a big-box store on Thursday, and the couple walked into the store without mask? I alerted an employee; she said she could not do anything about it.

ROAST: Monster roast to our prime minister! During the ravages of a pandemic, the loss of billions upon billions of dollars in Canada and especially in oil country Alberta, he has the gall to announce a Canada-killing tax on everything oil. Everything you do in life uses oil directly or indirectly and your living costs almost doubled! This is our leader and be assured the NDP will support it!

TOAST: To the person who wrote the heart-warming editorial in the Lethbridge Herald on Friday, Dec. 11 on supportive housing. I could not agree more that we should be welcoming

The Mustard Seed’s proposal, not trying to shut it down before even giving it a try. Where on earth are basic human attributes like care and compassion for those less fortunate than the majority? One would think, especially in this time of COVID19, that we should be trying to help one another in any way we can. For those who started the petition and those who have signed it so far: shame on you. Whatever happened to “love thy neighbour”?

TOAST: To the young employee at the northside Canadian Tire store who helped secure a heavy box in my van. The box, containing a treadmill, was too large to allow the backend of my vehicle to close. The employee recommended I buy a ratchet in the store. He then secured the box with the ratchet and secured the back-end door with a bungee cord. I expressed my thanks at the time, but a more public expression of my appreciation seems fitting. In addition, I plan on contacting store management to ensure they are aware of the absolutely excellent work of said employee.

ROAST: To the idiots wasting fuel, clogging the highway, and disgracing our flags on Saturday. If you had your childish way our health-care workers would be even more overwhelmed and there would be even more deaths. Go help a family who has lost a loved one and stay out of your trucks.

TOAST: To the Herald editorial of Dec. 11, “Supportive housing is the solution, not the problem.” This was one of the very best editorials I have ever read, anywhere! You hit the nail on the head.

ROAST: To inconsiderate mask disposers. I’ll be up front and admit I’m not a fan of masks, but I am wearing them to keep the fighting down. However, a byproduct of mask wearing is the number I’ve seen litter the streets, even blowing into my property. Masks are about keeping your germs in more than keeping germs out, so they become essentially little petri dishes of germs and whatnot that even under normal circumstances I’d hesitate to pick up for fear of what I might catch. Please ensure your masks are disposed of in a trash can, not on the side of the road where they can work into a bush or pile of leaves. I am doing something I don’t want to to protect you; please return the favour.

TOAST: To comic observer Ron White — he was right all along. Throughout this pandemic, governments have tried doing nothing, doing very little, or recommending blanket or precision approaches controls to lock down the spread, relying on people to do the right thing. Small enough groups of people cannot be relied upon to do the right thing. As Ron White has famously observed, “You can’t fix stupid.” Points for Ron White. Touchdown — and the convert is good!

TOAST: To all mask wears and washing your hands; thank you, and a roast to all anti-mask demonstrators; give your head a shake. We need to wear a mask/wash hands to protect everybody.

TOAST: To the premier for asking the question: Can government force a lockdown? He has raised an important issue. Can the government tell a business to shutter ? To limit the amount of patrons? It is time to ponder the questions. To those protesting the wearing of masks, you are protesting the wrong issue. A mask protects the wearer from airborne particles, eg. dust, toxic gas and viruses. A business is not the cause of an infection — people are. Businesses are so intent on being disease-free with their sanitation practices upon all surfaces that a virus hasn’t a chance of survival. Why can dental offices stay open and provide service, yet a hair salon cannot? How much transmission has occurred from either one? Why must a tiny gym in a condo close where there has not been one case of COVID among the residents in 10 months?

ROAST: To the UCP government for closing all arenas, but yet the world juniors can still play. Dollars over public health. How come?

ROAST: To the City recycling and 311. Twice they have not picked up my recycling, the second time before I noticed it, it was the weekend so I called 311 and was advised that after 48 hours it would have to wait two weeks before it is picked up. The bin is full and they are fine with me dumping my recycling in the garbage. Great system, great customer service and great employee responsibility! Merry Christmas!

ROAST: To all the drivers that think driving on the wrong side of the road is fine. From driving across the centre line to park at Henderson Lake to driving left of centre to deliver food to backing out of a driveway. Not only is it unsafe but expensive if we had a police service that actually enforced the laws. I talked with a food-delivery driver who drove left of centre then made a Uturn; he laughed at me ... ho ho ho!

ROAST: AHS would like everyone to think they are doing all they can for the health workers in Alberta. Not. Several months ago the Alberta government announced a $2per-hour top-up program for HCAs working in long-term care and designated supported living facilities. (At the time those facilities were locked down pretty tight and the only people they would be seeing would be the staff there.) This program excluded home-care HCAs.

Every day in Alberta thousands of HCA workers go into many homes where they have no control of how careful their clients or their families have been. Even though family gatherings have been outlawed, some clients and their families are still planning to go ahead with them. Please people, you are not only putting your loved one at risk, you are also risking the lives of your HCA workers and the other people they will be caring for.

TOAST: Blaine Hyggen, Ryan Parker and Mayor Spearman for their opposition to defunding LPS by $1 million, during a period of escalating crime in Lethbridge. Shame on the rest of council, we’ll remember come next election. Lawyers who defend criminals fouling this community are going to be working overtime — so this defunding isn’t all bad!

ROAST: To the Air Canada roaster: Air Canada is a private company owned by individual shareholders. Air Canada has lost over $2 billion this year. All other developed countries have provided financial support to their airlines — the U.S. gave each of their three major airlines $10 billion. Other countries see airlines as an essential part of their transportation network. We need to provide funding to both Air Canada and WestJet — or we will be flying on foreign airlines because ours will be bankrupt. Both Trudeau and Rachael Harder, as do all MPs, have a certain number of free flights every year and this covers families as well. Hey there, roaster — get the facts first!

ROAST: To the three city councillors who voted against rent subsidy for local tenants. Obviously, they have never had to worry about how to pay their rent. They are now on my “naughty list” and will be next October in the municipal election.

ROAST: Seriously — a motion was made to reduce a council wage cut from 10 per cent to five per cent and then everyone unanimously votes against it — even the one making the motion?

ROAST: How embarrassing it must be to bring forward a motion at council to protect your own paycheque (in the middle of budget cut talks and businesses closing) and then have to vote against your own motion. A complete waste of time, effort and air. Why not exhibit common sense before you shot yourself in the foot?

ROAST: I would like to know who is making the decision to have The Mustard Seed at the old Ramada hotel. I’m concerned to have The Mustard Seed there for many reasons. First, there is no yard and it’s next to Mayor Magrath Drive which is busy at any time. Second, a liquor store is right next door. Third, across the street is a cannabis store. Fourth, three blocks away is an elementary school. Don’t think we have forgot what happened at the SCS.!

ROAST: To the Trumpie in last week’s column who thinks

Trump did a good job on hurrying vaccine production. In the situation we are all in, a forest frog as president would have hurried vaccine production.

TOAST: A big toast to all my customers in west of Coaldale (Highway 845), the Station Grounds and Garden Grove trailer park. It’s a pleasure to deliver your paper each morning and knowing that I am appreciated with all your thanks and well wishes makes my job so much easier.

ROAST: To Jason Kenney. The same guy who refused to bring in rules to minimize COVID impact, who said that regulating mask and distancing was “against our Charter rights,” is now bringing out community supports for those areas which are COVID hotbeds! What a hypocrite! Always looking towards the next election, is this guy!

ROAST: To our mayor and city council, have you lost your minds? What benefit are the citizens of this city going to get by cutting roughly seven LPS officers’ positions or other crucial LPS-related services? Can’t believe that a decision such as this has been made during such a difficult time. Our wonderful LPS are dealing with the protection of our city’s residents, the drug problems in this city, the problems related to the pandemic, and a whole lot of situations that we as citizens rely and expect the police to handle. When something unlawful happens, who is the first organization called? Is there not another way? Thank you to Mr. Mayor and our city council who were in favour of a not-so-smart solution to assist homeowners in keeping their taxes at the current rate! Will this cut of $1 million to the LPS cost us more or less?

ROAST: To the home care employees who are under the impression that they are entitled to “help themselves” to their client’s personal possessions.

This behaviour is wrong, hurtful and unacceptable. Our elderly rely on this help and some choose to take advantage of their position, so disappointing and disgusting!

TOAST: To the home care employees who do a wonderful job; you are appreciated more than words can say. Thank you for your care, compassion and honesty!

TOAST: If the LPS works hard enough and thorough enough to find the missing money from the SCS, then they should apply that money to their million-dollar shortage that city council has mandated. How’s that for incentive!

ROAST: Soooooo, how do you like Jason Trump now?

ROAST: Just listened to the government climate minister, Jonathan Wilkinson, who insisted the huge carbon taxes are going to be a financial benefit to your family. Another example how out of touch the Liberals/NDP are!

TOAST: On Wednesday, Nov. 25 I was sitting inside the A&W on Scenic Drive having lunch with my husband. The drive-thru lane is very close to the restaurant and it’s very easy to see the people inside. I have been dealing with breast cancer since April of this year and had a recent setback. As we were eating, one of the staff came up to me with a $25 gift card with the words “Thinking of you” written on the card holder. Surprised and overwhelmed can hardly describe my feelings that day. So thank you from the bottom of my heart to that kind, sweet person that I will never know.

ROAST: For those of you who complain about not wearing masks. Why do you care if, and that’s a big if, they work so why do you care about who’s not wearing one? Mind your business; not all of us are sheep. We still have rights. And when people get together it’s called living. Not all of us are dead. Do some research on masks before you speak.

ROAST: To whomever wrote the marriage contract because it doesn’t come with warranties. If your husband acts out you can’t just take him back to his mama’s house and get a refund.

ROAST: To the divorce lawyers who took so long because there was a child involved. My husband.

TOAST: To The Mustard Seed for taking a hand a pulling Lethbridge up by its bootstraps by stepping in in an effort to curb our addicted/homeless population. They helped our son when he was in crisis in Calgary and for that we will be forever grateful.

ROAST: Seriously? Within minutes of cutting $1 million from the policing budget (a need) the same council members approve a $100,000 art piece purchase (a want). I think it’s time the Gang of Six took an economics course and understood financial priorities. Needs first, wants second. Only three of the current council will get my vote (I pray one of them runs for mayor); I’ll do my homework on new potential council members.