UCP leadership candidate Todd Loewen took to social media on Wednesday to tell followers he's a frontrunner while answering questions from the Western Standard debate..Loewen said: "I wasn't considered one of them for some reason, I guess I can proclaim that I am one of the frontrunners right now. And so what I planned on doing, as I mentioned yesterday, is that I'll answer those same questions that were asked at that debate.".The Western Standard UCP Frontrunners Debate was held Tuesday night in Calgary with the top-three polling candidates Danielle Smith, Travis Toews and Brian Jean..The first question asked in the debateĀ involved the Alberta Sovereignty Act and how the new leader of the UCP would ensure is doesn't undermine the rule of law and investor confidence.."I think the biggest thing with investor confidence is how Justin Trudeau has treated our economy by restricting different projects," Loewen said.."There hasn't been any bigger damage to the investor confidence ... when we look at something like the Trans Mountain Pipeline that a company could spend five years and over a billion dollars invested and then have to walk away from it. That's what's hurting investment in Canada. And we need to be able to stand up and say no to Ottawa, and be able to take a firm stance."."And that's the only way that we're going to increase in investor confidence here in Alberta and across Canada.".With regards to equalization in Alberta Loewen said: "Nothing has been done to make changes."."What I've seen happen is actually nothing...we had a referendum on equalization. Does anybody know what's happened? Absolutely nothing, we can go back to the firewall letter of 2001, where conservative politicians expressed their disappointment," Loewen said.."Confederation actually came up with ideas on how to solve those issues. And what have we seen since 2001? Absolutely nothing. So we need to act, we need to actually do something. Something that hasn't been tried yet. We've done all sorts of options. And there hasn't been any results there."."So we need to move on these issues. We need to move on ... going through any kind of constitutional challenge we [are] able to change the equalization in Canada, that's something that has frustrated Albertans for a long time."."And we have opportunities to do things ... like have our own provincial pension plan to be able to set the stage where we're actually going to be doing something instead of just talking about it which has gone on far too long. We need to act.".When it comes to a fair deal panel in Alberta, Loewen agrees there has been a lot of talk and no action..Loewen said: "We look at the fair deal panel that traveled across Alberta getting input from Albertans and again, so what has happened since then? Again, absolutely nothing."."We need to actually start acting and implementing those things. Again, that would start immediately with Alberta. And that's something that will save about three to four billion a year. So we need to do that immediately and work on that happening immediately," Loewen said.."Another thing I'd like to see is, the Alberta constitution would include property rights for Albertans, but also I'll help create a bit of a firewall between us and Ottawa. So when they start trying to infringe on our rights, we have something that Albertans have approved. That's a bit of a wall between us and them, so that we can say no, and we have something to back it up.".Loewen also said he is against future COVID lockdowns in Alberta.."Well, at the time and then right from the start, I spoke on the vaccine mandates and the vaccine passports and the lockdowns, so I would have done things differently there," Loewen said.."When we look at what's happened as far as people losing their livelihoods, losing their jobs. We've seen jobs threatened and people losing their jobs and there's no excuse for that. We have protections in place that should have been looked at and government shouldn't have done those things ... I spoke first at the start and was against those things."."And it's interesting to see some of the other candidates in this leadership race. They've seemed to have come on board and many of them sat at a cabinet table and some of them in the deep inner circle, while these decisions were being made.".To view the rest of Loewen's answers click here..You can watch the Western Standard UCP Frontrunners Debate here.
UCP leadership candidate Todd Loewen took to social media on Wednesday to tell followers he's a frontrunner while answering questions from the Western Standard debate..Loewen said: "I wasn't considered one of them for some reason, I guess I can proclaim that I am one of the frontrunners right now. And so what I planned on doing, as I mentioned yesterday, is that I'll answer those same questions that were asked at that debate.".The Western Standard UCP Frontrunners Debate was held Tuesday night in Calgary with the top-three polling candidates Danielle Smith, Travis Toews and Brian Jean..The first question asked in the debateĀ involved the Alberta Sovereignty Act and how the new leader of the UCP would ensure is doesn't undermine the rule of law and investor confidence.."I think the biggest thing with investor confidence is how Justin Trudeau has treated our economy by restricting different projects," Loewen said.."There hasn't been any bigger damage to the investor confidence ... when we look at something like the Trans Mountain Pipeline that a company could spend five years and over a billion dollars invested and then have to walk away from it. That's what's hurting investment in Canada. And we need to be able to stand up and say no to Ottawa, and be able to take a firm stance."."And that's the only way that we're going to increase in investor confidence here in Alberta and across Canada.".With regards to equalization in Alberta Loewen said: "Nothing has been done to make changes."."What I've seen happen is actually nothing...we had a referendum on equalization. Does anybody know what's happened? Absolutely nothing, we can go back to the firewall letter of 2001, where conservative politicians expressed their disappointment," Loewen said.."Confederation actually came up with ideas on how to solve those issues. And what have we seen since 2001? Absolutely nothing. So we need to act, we need to actually do something. Something that hasn't been tried yet. We've done all sorts of options. And there hasn't been any results there."."So we need to move on these issues. We need to move on ... going through any kind of constitutional challenge we [are] able to change the equalization in Canada, that's something that has frustrated Albertans for a long time."."And we have opportunities to do things ... like have our own provincial pension plan to be able to set the stage where we're actually going to be doing something instead of just talking about it which has gone on far too long. We need to act.".When it comes to a fair deal panel in Alberta, Loewen agrees there has been a lot of talk and no action..Loewen said: "We look at the fair deal panel that traveled across Alberta getting input from Albertans and again, so what has happened since then? Again, absolutely nothing."."We need to actually start acting and implementing those things. Again, that would start immediately with Alberta. And that's something that will save about three to four billion a year. So we need to do that immediately and work on that happening immediately," Loewen said.."Another thing I'd like to see is, the Alberta constitution would include property rights for Albertans, but also I'll help create a bit of a firewall between us and Ottawa. So when they start trying to infringe on our rights, we have something that Albertans have approved. That's a bit of a wall between us and them, so that we can say no, and we have something to back it up.".Loewen also said he is against future COVID lockdowns in Alberta.."Well, at the time and then right from the start, I spoke on the vaccine mandates and the vaccine passports and the lockdowns, so I would have done things differently there," Loewen said.."When we look at what's happened as far as people losing their livelihoods, losing their jobs. We've seen jobs threatened and people losing their jobs and there's no excuse for that. We have protections in place that should have been looked at and government shouldn't have done those things ... I spoke first at the start and was against those things."."And it's interesting to see some of the other candidates in this leadership race. They've seemed to have come on board and many of them sat at a cabinet table and some of them in the deep inner circle, while these decisions were being made.".To view the rest of Loewen's answers click here..You can watch the Western Standard UCP Frontrunners Debate here.
