Accountability Isn’t Optional

A lot of Albertans are either furious with or deeply worried about the United Conservative Party right now. Between the boondoggles, the rhetoric, and the Premier’s smug responses, people are turning into angry activists, and I am here for it!

I’ve watched enough provincial and federal elections to see the shift. Maybe it’s leftover pandemic angst—understandable—but certain politicians keep squeezing that tragedy for advantage while their supporters flood social media with rage. It feels like we’re all on autopilot, destination: global implosion.

I’ve been an activist since the early 2000s, always aiming at what helps the most people: getting distressed folks and animals care, securing clean drinking water, pushing for better supports and fighting censorship. I usually ignore the bumbling gimmicks that waste tax dollars—“Axe the Tax” was doomed from the start. What I do care about: the right to a quality education, to quality healthcare, to functional supports, and to self-expression without interference.

Under the UCP, Alberta has become a breeding ground for hate, bigotry, and intolerance—stoked, rewarded, and converted into policy. The result: declining quality of life across those core areas. And when the public pushes back, the government’s response is a masterclass in dodging accountability.

People make mistakes—sure, maybe not as often as this government—but reasonable people accept that mistakes happen. What we won’t accept is the refusal to own them. With the UCP, calling out errors has become a weekly ritual while accountability is flushed down the toilet.

Education

Our education minister slapped together a one-page ministerial order to ban books—a vague, poorly thought-out mess. If someone on my team delivered work like that repeatedly, they’d be let go. I expect planning, clarity, and delivery—and when that fails, I expect accountability. Here? We got the opposite. The Premier seemed unaware, then supportive, then suddenly not—tunes changed, responsibility didn’t. No apology, no admission, just finger-pointing and buck-passing. And let’s be clear: government deciding what books students can read is an authoritarian impulse, full stop.

Fairness & Safety in Sport and the Pronoun Crackdown

Let’s talk about the “Fairness & Safety in Sport Act” and the pronoun rules, because this stuff cuts right to the bone of who gets to belong. Bill-29 takes a sledgehammer to trans inclusion by walling off “female-only” divisions and shunting trans girls and women into “open” or co-ed lanes. Bureaucrats will call it “balance.” I call it picking winners and losers by policy memo. And now it’s law—rammed through with the usual smug grin—so school boards, universities, and sport bodies have to build compliance machinery around it. More forms, more gatekeeping, less humanity.

And while they’re at it, they’ve cooked up a de facto pronoun ban unless your parents sign the permission slip. Under-16s need parental consent just to be addressed by the name and pronouns that match who they are; 16–17-year-olds can be outed to parents whether they’re ready or not. Sex-ed that touches gender or orientation? Opt-in only. If you’re trying to keep kids safe, maybe don’t build a system that punishes honesty and rewards silence. Spare me the “parents’ rights” branding; what we’re seeing is state-mandated misgendering baked into the school day.

All of it—the book bans, the sports law, the pronoun rules—flows from the same place: a government reaching into classrooms, teams, and lives to play culture-war puppeteer. Bad policy. Bad outcomes. Zero accountability.

Healthcare

We all see it. Quiet moves toward privatization. Questionable deals. Suspiciously timed firings. A metric shit-ton of wasted public money. Accountability anywhere? Notta. Apparently politics is a get-out-of-responsibility free card and a ticket on the IDGAF express. Ongoing investigations will tell us more, so I’ll leave it there—except to say: accountability shouldn’t need a subpoena. We also want all that missing money back.

Alberta’s Most Vulnerable

The federal government introduced the Canada Disability Benefit to give people on supports like AISH a small but meaningful bump. Two hundred dollars can be the difference between keeping the lights on and going without, between making an appointment and missing it, between groceries and hunger. Yet this government would rather score points against Ottawa than protect Albertans who need help most. Clawing back the federal benefit—something no other province is doing—says everything. The optics are awful; the policy is worse. And, again, the accountability? Zero. I don’t care what rationale they trot out—it’s gross and it’s cruel.

Doing the Work vs. Demanding Results

People spend countless hours FOIPing, filing ATIPs, digging, documenting, memeing, and wrestling algorithms just to make the record clear. I respect that work—it matters. But investigation is only half the accountability equation. At some point, we have to show up.

Waiting for the next election can’t be our only plan. I’m done watching this government edge into authoritarian territory, throttle supports, and curb people’s freedom to learn and be themselves. Motives don’t matter as much as outcomes—and the outcomes are wrong.

If a bunch of yahoos can tailgate in Ottawa and at our borders, grinding normal life to a halt, surely the rest of us can gather—peacefully, lawfully, and without disruption—to say: Enough is Enough. No roadblocks. No harassment. Just numbers, voices, and clarity.

Unity, Even If We Disagree on Parts

You might agree with one point here and side-eye another. Fine. We won’t see eye-to-eye on every line item—and we don’t have to. What matters is that we show up together, respect our differences, and make it crystal clear that we are watching, we are demanding accountability, and we will carry that energy into what’s to come in the next general election for those that prefer apathy or patience over action.

October 25 @ 1:00 p.m. — Province-wide, peaceful protest.
Hold this government to account—because they won’t do it themselves.

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