Noteworthy: What’s in a name? Apparently enough to file a lawsuit over it

By Bruce Penton on November 19, 2025.

The name game in Alberta politics is getting nasty.

Two disgruntled former caucus members of the United Conservative Party recently joined forces with the middle-of-the-road Alberta Party and decided to call the new entity the Alberta Progressive Conservative Party.

Hey, said the UCP brass. You can’t do that. We still own the Progressive Conservative name. Filing of a lawsuit followed.

The UCP, which is the child of the Lougheed-Klein Progressive Conservatives and the upstart Wildrose Party, whose members thought the PCs didn’t offer governing principles far enough to the right, has now been in power in Alberta since 2019 under Jason Kenney and now Danielle Smith.

Confusion about which party is which is a legitimate concern, and forms the basis of the lawsuit filed by the United Conservative Association, the umbrella organization of the UCP.

A UCP spokesman quoted in the Globe & Mail said, “Rebranding the Alberta Party as PC will cause confusion among voters” and could result in a number of Albertans “inadvertently” voting PC instead of UCP.

Here’s the solution: Every party dumps its current names and goes by simple names: The Left (currently the NDP), the Centre (the new party that wants to be the Alberta Progressive Conservative Party, and the Right (the current government). End of confusion.

Still unclaimed on the political name spectrum would be the Far Left and the Far Right, but knowing politics in Alberta, it’s probably just a matter of time.

– There are a number of valuable institutions in Medicine Hat and I’d put the Medicine Hat Public Library in the top 10.

Besides being a terrific educational facility, with more books than a person could possibly count, the library offers a variety of programs for people of all ages, live music performances and serves as a pickup point for Wild 94.5’s Christmas food drive for the Root Cellar and Wellness Hub.

The library, said a recent newsletter, plans to order T-shirts for sale, with a public poll asking what text should be on the front of the shirt. My favourite was “My weekend is all booked” but the other leading vote-getters were “It’s A Great Day To Read A Book”; “Shhh. I’m Reading” and “I Like Books, Dogs, And Maybe Three People.”

If you’re a fan of the library (and I’m guilty of being one), you might want to support it by picking up a T-shirt for that special someone.

– If you have so much money that you don’t know how or where to spend it, you could always do what Los Angeles Dodgers’ first baseman Freddie Freeman did. He hired a ‘family manager.’

A woman named Carol Freeman-Branstine, who was a contestant on a TV show called The Golden Bachelor, listed her occupation as family manager for Freeman, who has a wife and three kids. Carol is Freddie’s aunt.

An AI overview simply said she “handles day-to-day responsibilities for Freddie Freeman.”

So what might a family manager do? Set up a grocery-buying schedule for Mrs. Freeman, which probably involves Mrs. Freeman getting her hair or nails done at a salon while the family manager buys the groceries. The family manager might handle arrangements for hosting a sleepover for Freddie’s kids. Maybe the manager would make sure the car payments were made. (Does someone making $27 million a year have car payments?) Would she cut the grass at the Freeman mansion? Not likely, but she’d be responsible for hiring the mowing company.

The family manager probably doesn’t get her hands dirty, but she probably pulls down a pretty handsome salary.

In Medicine Hat, the only family managers who exist go by alternate names: Mom and Dad.

– Short snappers: Now here’s something that might make your skin crawl: Researchers discovered approximately 111,000 spiders living in a huge web inside a cave between Albania and Greece. … If you’d like four minutes and 28 seconds of pure entertainment, go to YouTube and find ‘Chris Bliss juggling finale’ or ‘Chris Bliss juggling to the Beatles’. You won’t be disappointed. … Why isn’t there more global rage against the U.S. administration’s military strikes on boats in the Caribbean allegedly carrying drugs, believed to be U.S.-bound? So far, there have been more than 20 strikes on boats and 80 people killed. Does the U.S. justice system no longer believe in a suspect being presumed innocent? … I like one of investment mogul Warren Buffet’s mantras: “Whether you are religious or not, it’s hard to beat The Golden Rule as a guide to behaviour.”… Randy Bachman and Burton Cummings, the foundation of Winnipeg rock group The Guess Who, will tour Canada next year. “When Randy and I are together, it’s two hours of hit records,” said Cummings. Unfortunately, Medicine Hat is not one of the tour stops.