Protesters say 'Enough is Enough' to UCP government Saturday
Rallies took place in towns and cities across the province on Saturday afternoon to send a message to the provincial government.
In Calgary, about 500 people gathered outside city hall to demand transparency and accountability after the UCP government decided to push ahead with several unpopular policies.
“They are not listening to Albertans, so we decided to take to the streets,” said organizer Rebecca Brown. “We’ve had enough of the lies, we’ve had enough of the deception, the gaslighting.”
Moves drawing the ire of protesters include the introduction of political parties at the municipal level, which organizers say is opposed by 80 per cent of Albertans, along with giving the province the ability to supersede local government decisions and fire local politicians.
Brown says 70 per cent of Albertans don’t want coal mining on the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains, a policy that the UCP is still investigating.
She says her group has submitted a freedom of information and privacy request three times about the province moving toward a provincial pension plan, but have received no information. She says polls show the majority of Albertans don’t want to leave the Canada Pension Plan.
There are also widespread concerns over rights for transgender youth, the reorganization of Alberta Health Services, and funding for public education.
“There’s no consulting with anybody,” she said. “These are not conservatives anymore, they haven’t been conservatives since Kenny came into town.”
“Very frustrated,” said retired teacher Joanne Adomeit about Premier Danielle Smith. “She came in, dismantled AHS without ever making that a campaign promise, she attacked our CPP, that was not in her campaign, she campaigned as a moderate and came through as a far right-wing person.”
Nate Pike runs a podcast called “The Breakdown” and was also at the rally. He says the decisions people in the UCP are making are not based on evidence, science or expertise.
“It’s all fear and pandering and I think Albertans deserve better,” he said. “It’s a constant firehose of things the UCP government has been doing and I think people can overlook one thing, people can overlook two things, but when it becomes a constant onslaught, I think that that’s when people start to check out and people start to get frustrated and angry.”
The Calgary rally ran for about two hours. Organizers say they plan to have similar rallies in the future.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
![](https://www.ctvnews.ca/polopoly_fs/1.6978861.1722008569!/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_800/image.jpg)
At least 4 buildings burned at Jasper Park Lodge, others damaged: Fairmont memo
The Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge said Thursday afternoon most of its structures are "standing and intact," including its iconic main lodge.
Major Canadian bank dealing with direct deposit outage on pay day
Scotiabank has acknowledged technical difficulties affecting direct deposits as clients report missed payments Friday morning. On Friday morning, the bank's client services phone line was playing an automated message assuring customers that work was underway to rectify the outage.
Elon Musk's estranged daughter calls out his 'entirely fake' claims about her childhood
Vivian Jenna Wilson, Elon Musk's estranged daughter, publicly refuted several recent anti-trans statements her Tesla CEO and X owner father has made about her.
Reported rate of child pornography increased 52% in 2023, total crime up 3%: Statistics Canada
Last year, reported child pornography cases increased by more than 50 per cent in Canada, in part due to more cases being sent to police by specialized internet child exploitation units, according to a Statistics Canada report.
Justin Timberlake's attorney disputes he was intoxicated when arrested for DWI
A hearing in the case of Justin Timberlake being accused of driving while intoxicated was held Friday, where an attorney for the singer disputed his arrest in June.
What we know about 'malicious' attack on French train network ahead of Olympics opening
French transport was thrust into chaos Friday just hours ahead of the Olympics 2024 opening ceremony after a series of co-ordinated 'malicious acts' upended high-speed train lines.Here's what happened and what we know so far.
When Barbie learned what a gynecologist was, so did many other people, according to new study
A new study published Thursday in the journal JAMA Network Open has found that the ending in the 2023 blockbuster film 'Barbie' had an influence on online search interest in terms around gynecology, the branch of medicine that deals with women’s reproductive health.
Canada Soccer head investigating 'systemic ethical shortcoming' amid spying scandal
Canada Soccer chief executive officer Kevin Blue said he was investigating a potential 'systemic ethical shortcoming' within the program but has not considered pulling the women's soccer team from the Paris Olympics due to a drone spying scandal.
Federal government posts $3.9B deficit in April, May
The result for the April-to-May period compared to a $1.5 billion surplus for the same stretch last year.