ROASTED & TOASTED

TOAST: To the Dry Day campaign, but it should definitely include marijuana and edibles along with alcohol.

TOAST: To Gail at London Road Market for going above-and-beyond to source Seville oranges for marmalade making. She even called me when they came in. That’s awesome customer service Gail, thank you.

ROAST: To the roasters who don’t understand the difference between thermal coal and metallurgical coal. The coal that is proposed to be mined on the western slopes of Alberta and being mined in the East Kootenays is metallurgical coal a key element in the production of steel. The coal found around and under Lethbridge, and in and around Hanna is thermal.

ROAST: A big roast to the recent Trump lover who said “I told you so!” when commenting that Biden cancelled the XL Pipeline project. He or she was implying that Trump did a good thing by allowing the XL project to go through. It probably was a good thing for Alberta, but that doesn’t “trump” the many horrendously stupid things he did to harm the rest of North America and the world!

ROAST: To the federal Conservatives. Lynn Beyak the Conservative Senator who spoke “her truth” of the good Native kids received while attending Residential schools has “retired” early. She’s had enough of the harassment. Many kids’ lives were saved, they were educated, given proper nutrition and a hope for the future, emerging healthy contributing productive people. Why is their voice and the voice of the likes of Lynn Beyak, a spokesperson for those people shut down? The Conservatives of Canada will never get another X on the ballot from me. Free truthful speech is important, and I will not support anyone seeking to stymie it.

ROAST: To those who think Biden will be a friend to

Canada. Although Joe Biden is better then what they had, he has always been part of the more protectionist side of the Democratic Party as is evident in his executive orders. He may also get along well with our current PM as they are both very much apart of the Eastern/Laurentian Elite. Both believe more government is better.

ROAST: Pipeline or no pipeline, Biden is the best thing that has happened to the states in four horrible Trump years. Because Biden was elected, the U.S. will not fall out of democracy and descend into a dictatorship led by a racist narcissist who used everything he could to steal a fair election.

TOAST: To those Americans who voted for Joe Biden, a decent, honourable man of integrity who will clean up the mess left by Trump. Trump lied about the election being stolen and incited a mob who attacked the very heart of their democracy. A mob who said they listened to Trump and who killed a capitol police officer, as well as causing three other deaths and a number of injuries to other police officers. Trump and his followers have blood on their hands. He is undoubtedly the worst president the U.S. has ever had.

ROAST: Firstly thanks to all writing roasts against those running our city. In my humble opinion the City of Lethbridge should not spend our hardearned tax dollars to support non profits/charities or Indigenous projects. All are already receiving funds from municipal and federal coffers which in itself should be restricted to only one level of government. Roast to the city for not freezing salaries, etc during this stressful time. Roast to the mayor and councillors for having doubled their salary during the last five years. It is time for drastic change including a new stipulation that these elected people can only serve two terms congruently.

TOAST: I would like to send a big toast to Nick and Susan, my wonderful neighbours. Thank you for all of your help with snow removal for many years and for the offers to help during this past year. It is so good to have neighbours like you who are always watching out for me, it is truly appreciated.

ROAST: To the woman who regularly sets up a training run for her dog in Kodiak Park. What part of “on leash park” do you not understand? I’m sure the city bylaws apply to everyone

else but you.

ROAST: To the roaster who couldn’t purchase postage stamps from a permanently closed outlet at a pharmacy. Don’t be mad, just go to Safeway and buy your stamp pack there! Easy peasy!

ROAST AND TOAST: Threequarters of a toast and a quarter roast to the roaster of the bottles in recycling. For sure: clean them and remove the lids. But roast on removing labels: the food bottlers are at fault for using impossible glues. Let them fix it by using some sort of soluble glue to make it possible! Roast to those million-dollar business loans. If you can’t pay them back, the state will close your business or take it over! Demand reopening instead!

TOAST: Someone put it very well...We isolate now so that when we gather again...No one is missing. Stay safe.

ROAST: If the mayor and council don’t approve of what they read, hear or see they don’t get mad, they get even. So sad, I hope we all remember when the time comes. To the councillors who wish to run again, please don’t.

TOAST: To Mayor Spearman for walking away into the night. What a legacy he leaves us. At least he has a lifetime invite to all the artsy wine and cheese parties but at what a cost to us taxpayers? In six years, he has graciously left us with a $500 million dollar debt for our greatgrandchildren to pay off. We will remember for along time Mr. Spearman, oh we will remember.

ROAST: To Mr. Kenney for throwing away our money but we know why you were so quick on the draw to give away $1.5 billion. Can anybody point out a politician who doesn’t have his own interests at heart? Me thinks not.

ROAST: Where is Joe Mauro? He doesn’t show up much for council meetings. Does he still get paid by the taxpayers when he doesn’t show up? #NoShowJoe!

ROAST: To most of city council for semi-continuing to support our local newspaper. You want us to support local but again the city does not e.g private recyclers. Your Lethbridge.ca is hard to navigate and it seems you have to have correct dates etc. to get the info you require, and yet you tout transparency. All of us cannot afford these fancy phones nor are we computer savvy. You talk about saving money. Did you get your yearly raise?

ROAST: With a global pandemic, Canada has a drama teacher for a prime minister and

a journalist turned finance minister playing with our money. The outcome is very scary.

TOAST: Toast to Bill Morneau for giving up his quest to be a big-wig for the OECD. That is Strike 2 for Trudeau}s quest to get onto the global stage. Strike 1 was when after globe trotting around the world trying to buy votes to get Canada a seat on the UN security council, he failed. That was his important mission when the pandemic had started and he refused to return to Canada till he was done. Hopefully Strike 3 will come in the next federal election if the people of Canada finally wake up and smell the B.S. and send him back to being a drama teacher, the only thing he is good at.

ROAST: To all the idiots who continually put other peoples lives at risk to go into the mountains and rescue them. Geniuses, have you ever wondered why elk,moose and deer come down from the hills in the winter. It’s because they figured out if they don’t they will die. So you people with less intellect than a deer, don’t go in the mountains in the winter, duh.

ROAST: Roast to the Alberta teachers union and the almost nightly whining from the ATA drone for wanting to put mostly young and healthy teachers ahead of the more vulnerable older people and ones with respiratory and other conditions in the queue for the COVID-19 vaccine. Even a greedy union must realize that an older infirm person is far more likely to die after contacting COVID-19 than a younger healthier teacher. Get to the back of the queue like the rest of us.

TOAST: To the anti-Trumpers, nice to see you getting what you asked for. Keep up the good work.

ROAST: The city claimed no increase in residential taxes for the next 3 years ..... but my assessment went up by 8.4% between 2020 and 2021. So my taxes should be the same as last year? Or is this how the city raises property taxes?

TOAST: To Premier Kenney. Thank you for standing up for Alberta after Biden and Trudeau stabbed us in the back and left us for dead. I’m so tired of all the critics second guessing you during the pandemic. If it}s so easy to run a province right now, let’s see if they could do any better.

TOAST: To Loren Fitch’s guest column in the Jan. 27th Lethbridge Herald for outlining more information on the coal mining in our Eastern slopes and to encourage all of us to let our politicians know we are not in favor of any mine development in Alberta.

ROAST: To the UCP government for not releasing their contract to the public, with T.C. Energy’s Keystone XL Pipeline to divulge what is happening to our 1.5 billion paid out and the $6 billion loan guarantee. What happened to their campaign promise of transparency?

ROAST: Roast to the current and past City of Lethbridge city managers. You have to hire third party consultants, that don’t come free, to review your operation to identify areas to “cut the fat” to make your operation more cost efficient. We are paying you gobs of

money to do what? You should be finding ways to save taxpayers money on a daily basis.

ROAST: Roast to the City of Lethbridge. How do you think that we all learn about what the City does? It’s through the Herald of course! It keeps us all on the same page! Perhaps council should pay The Herald for keeping us all in the loop? Geez Louise!

TOAST: Last Tuesday I when I got to the checkout at the grocery store, I realized I had left my credit card at home. My plan was to just leave my cart there and go home to get my card. The gal behind me took one look in my cart and said “you don’t have much. I’ll pay for it.” Can you imagine? What a great thing to do. Thank you. I have no choice but to pay-itforward because I didn’t get her name.

ROAST: Less than 1% of abortions in Canada are performed in the last trimester. They are performed only in hospitals and only in cases of where the fetus is gravely or fatally impaired or if the woman’s life or physical health is at risk. Unfortunately most of these severe or fatal impairments are not detectable until after 24 weeks. Canada is in no way like China or North Korea and it is irresponsible to imply that Canadian doctors and women are in any way like these totalitarian regimes. If are you pro-life, that’s fine. You are entitled to your opinion.

ROAST: To our mayor: first you attract more homeless to this city and now we have a problem of where to place them and take care of them and at whose expense? The taxpayers of this city. The sooner you retire the better.

TOAST: To Canadian politics. Our worst sins are wasting billions of dollars, wanting to rip up the mountains to dig for coal, and picking (and firing) a nasty egotist to be the ceremonial head of state. Compare that to the USA where a sitting congressman was recorded calling for the murder of the Speaker of the House, or Russia, where Putin poisoned and arrested the leader of the democracy movement.

TOAST: Toast to the Fraser Insitute article regarding the common sense that should have been used to help indigenous groups. Oops! We’re talking federal government here — where there is absolutely no common sense.

ROAST: To the West Lethbridge MLA. In your recent column in the paper you have once again managed to take snippets of fact and convert them to forecasted doom for southern Alberta. Your constant negativity and manipulation of the news is depressing and serves no productive end.

While you accuse the UCP members of being arrogant, they do not have a monopoly on that as you can see the next time you pass by a mirror.

Some thoughtful suggestions on ways to help solve the problems we face would be more appropriate.

ROAST: Roast to Lethbridge MP Rachel Harder on vitriolic and uninformed comments about PM Trudeau and KXL Pipeline and lack of support for Alberta oil industry. Remember who supported and bailed out the TransMountain Pipeline which is currently under construction, which will expand capacity to get Alberta crude to West Coast. Even though this commitment was unpopular with the Liberal Base and not generate Liberal votes in

Alberta. Lethbridge deserves better representation than our current MP.

ROAST: To the writer of the letter to the editor on Friday,

Jan. 29 who stated that all that would grow on the reclaimed mine sites was alfalfa. That person needs to take a trip to those sites and get a lesson on agronomy.

TOAST: Toast to Councillor Coffman for routing out the lack of transparency by City planning staff on “City paid” advertising fees for developments. This issue may be the tip of the iceberg respecting the development costs and planning processes in the city. Developers in Lethbridge are respectable businesses who pay significant fees to the city for the development process, so the notion that the city subsidizes developers for advertising costs, may be inaccurate. Likely, fees go into one pot and advertising cost coming out of another pot, but developers end up paying for it. There should be a further third-party investigation and audit of the fees, development processes and planning department costs. The Chamber of Commerce and developers should be screaming for this. Lethbridge development costs are some of highest in Alberta, which is why there is a development and new housing boom in Coaldale.

TOAST: Toast to this being true: I’m hearing Councillors Miyashiro, Coffman and Campbell are not going to run again. Please tell me it’s true. It sure seems like you’re voting like you don’t care anymore. I’ll actually miss the mayor more than I’d miss any of you (and that’s saying something).

ROAST: Time for a big change in council, one that doesn’t think an $8-million road narrowing in front of Galt Gardens during a pandemic recession was necessary. Wake up, no one goes there for a reason and parking wasn’t it.

ROAST: To the UCP since Kenney's election. Not one good plan for Alberta. More drops in oil revenue. The Keystone XL pipeline is dead in the water. The war room is an incredible joke. I have lost trust in UCP. What next?

TOAST: To President Trump for all your hard work and the accomplishments you provided the world. It's been a pleasure to see what you have achieved.

ROAST: The recent lack of support for the Herald by council is showing their true colours, ignorance, lack of common sense and apathy. No problems giving away thousands upon thousands of dollars. Perhaps someone could drop a 5 dollar bill inadvertently at next council’s meeting and watch them all fall out of their chairs in a scramble to save it. November won’t come fast enough! Fingers crossed all council seats vacant except three.

ROAST: To the letter “Coal dust was in their veins”. Need some clarity on your point. Is it coal mines are bad? Your uncle made bad choices, or are you boasting about your education?

ROAST: To whoever at the City of Lethbridge who sets the maximum speed on “The Hill” and then forgets about it. On the afternoon of Friday, Jan 29 the road was bone dry yet the signs still indicated a maximum of 60 KPH .... come on...

TOAST: To Rajko Dodic, letter to the editor January 29, “Bylaw decision impacts citizens who rely on The Herald.” Well said and expressed! I totally agree with you!

TOAST: Toast to the Lethbridge Mayor for retiring at a time of his choosing. Better this than having voters make that decision. A question: now that he is no longer accountable to voters, will he recuse himself from major council decisions? Sigh, likely not. Thankfully, the next council should be able to fix any damage.

TOAST: Toast to The Herald for calling out city administration for publicly making inaccurate and apparently imaginary data regarding City media spending. This simply follows a pattern of behaviours around inaccurate data for other boondoggles. The deafening silence from the City Manager seems to confirm what was reported.