The sound of chants and cheers echoed through downtown Calgary Sunday afternoon as thousands gathered to rally for public education and show support for the more than 51,000 Alberta teachers preparing to strike Monday.
The large crowd spilled out from the McDougall Centre courtyard onto surrounding sidewalks, prompting Calgary police to close 4th Avenue S.W. between 4th and 7th Streets. Many in attendance wore red —a show of unity dubbed “Red for Ed” by some attendees.
Alberta Teachers’ Association president Jason Schilling addressed the Calgary crowd just hours after speaking to thousands at a similar rally at the Alberta legislature in Edmonton earlier in the day. Both rallies fell on World Teachers’ Day and were organized to show solidarity with educators ahead of the planned provincewide job action.
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“Teachers are standing up for themselves, for their classrooms and for their students because the chronic underfunding that we’ve seen in Alberta is not serving the purpose of what public education is for,” Schilling said. “We need to have government invest in public education in the future in a way that is going to sustain it moving forward.”
Although schools will close during the strike, teachers will not picket. Instead, the union is urging the public to show support by wearing red and attending community rallies, the ATA said in a media release.
Part of a huge crowd at a rally in support of public education for World Teachers’ Day at McDougall Centre in Calgary on Sunday, Oct. 5, 2025.
In Calgary, attendees stood shoulder-to-shoulder as they listened to speakers calling for better public education funding, improved classroom conditions and more support for teachers. At different points, the crowd erupted with chants such as “fund our schools,” “public education matters,” and “this is what democracy looks like.”
Earlier in the day, Schilling told reporters in Edmonton that the union remained at the bargaining table but said no meaningful progress had been made as of noon Sunday. Even if a tentative deal were reached, he noted, it would take time for members to ratify it.
Some of the hundreds of supporters and teachers at a rally in support of public education for World Teachers’ Day at McDougall Centre in Calgary on Sunday, Oct. 5, 2025.
The rallies came one day after Premier Danielle Smith said there was no indication the strike would be called off.
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“I have been given no indication that the ATA has called off their strike and so I guess we’ll see what happens Monday,” Smith said on her regular weekend radio broadcast.
“We’ve said, ‘Call off the strike, let’s get back to the table, we don’t think we’re that far apart. Let’s avoid a lose-lose-lose situation.’
“They are the ones who put an arbitrary strike notice on the table and unfortunately at the moment they haven’t come back to us to let us know what it would take to get a deal that their members would support.”
Part of a huge crowd at a rally in support of public education for World Teachers’ Day at McDougall Centre in Calgary on Sunday, Oct. 5, 2025.
The province has also rejected the ATA call for classroom size caps for the province’s three-quarters of a million schoolchildren.
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Finance Minister Nate Horner has told Postmedia the province can’t meet the teachers’ demand for a “hard cap” of 30 students per classroom because they don’t have the brick-and-mortar space. They have allocated $8.5 billion for 130 schools that would eventually add 200,000 student spaces.
Teachers and parents weigh in
Paige Thomson is a Calgary public school teacher who works in complex needs classrooms with students in Grades 1 to 6, including children with autism, Down syndrome and various disabilities.
She said the strike is “disappointing” but argued better supports for classroom complexity are needed.
“A lot of us are really sad that we had to close our doors on Friday and hand in our keys,” she said. “There’s just a lot of students with various needs that need additional support, and we don’t have enough adults to support those students. We need more funding to support Complexities in our buildings.”
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Teacher Jonathan Ardon and his wife Emma attended Sunday’s rally with their three children. With the strike beginning Monday, Ardon said he’ll be home teaching his own kids.
“I can be home with them. Unfortunately, there’s lots of parents that can’t,” he said.”As a parent with (three) kids, it’s important for me to see that they grow, that they have the sufficient education they need to function in society.
“If they can’t do that in the classroom, then I’m going to do that with them at home.”
Ardon, who teaches Grades 10 to 12 at a Calgary Board of Education school, said class sizes have ballooned over his 15-year career, and he now sees more than 40 in some of his classes. “Public education right now is not sustainable,” he said.
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His wife, Emma, said the government has lost touch with the realities Alberta families are facing.
“As a parent, I am disappointed (with) the government,” she said. “They are focused on other agendas and they are disconnected with the reality (that) everyday families live.”
Nenshi slams Smith over strike
Alberta NDP leader Naheed Nenshi praised the strong turnout at Sunday’s rallies but said a provincewide teachers’ strike could have been avoided.
“This is amazing that all these people are out here, but this was so preventable,” he told Postmedia.
The opposition leader accused the Premier of deliberately provoking a strike.
“The government could have made a deal months ago, and what is increasingly clear to me is they didn’t want to make a deal,” he told Postmedia. “Danielle Smith wanted to provoke a strike.”
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“We’re the richest province and we spend the least on public education. That’s a choice Danielle Smith made, and this is that choice coming home to roost,” he added.
He argued the large crowds show that the UCP governments approach has angered Albertans across the board.
“This could have been settled months ago with calmer heads, and now the government has infuriated parents and teachers as well as students,” he said. “(The Premier) has made a very, very bad choice.”
The province has announced temporary financial support for families ahead of the Oct. 6 teachers’ strike.
Under Alberta’s Parent Payment Program, parents or guardians are to receive $30 per day, or $150 per week, per student under 12 for the duration of labour action, funded from the salaries of striking teachers.
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Schilling argued the government should be putting those funds into classrooms. He also questioned the timing of the plan being rolled out soon after teachers rejected the province’s last proposal.
“The next day, (the province) had all of this ready to go,” he said. “So I question the seriousness of their approach to actually find a deal that’s going to work for everybody.”
Schilling told Postmedia Calgary that informal talks about a return to the table began on Friday.
“We’re having these exploratory conversations just to see about – what would be a path moving forward in terms of bargaining,” he said.
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Schilling emphasized the union’s goal remains to reach a negotiated agreement that works for its members.
“Ideally, we would love a negotiated settlement,” he said. “But government needs to be serious about the concerns that they’re hearing from tens of thousands of Albertans across this province.”
— With files from Eric Bowling, Edmonton Journal
One of the many clever signs at a rally in support of public education for World Teachers’ Day at McDougall Centre in Calgary on Sunday, Oct. 5, 2025.
[SRC] https://ca.news.yahoo.com/thousands-rally-downtown-calgary-ahead-001548188.html
