United Conservative Party leadership hopeful Travis Toews was in St. Albert on Thursday in hopes of gaining votes to become the UCP’s leader and Alberta’s premier-designate.
“If we as a conservative movement elect a leader that can bring strong principle and proven leadership — leadership that can unite this party and movement is critical — leadership that can go on and win the election in ’23. Friends, Alberta's best days are ahead. We simply need to seize this opportunity, this moment in time,” he said.
The meet and greet was held at the St. Albert United Church on Sept. 15. Toews shared his thoughts on Alberta and what he would bring to the table if he was voted in as leader.
Around 50 people attended the evening event. Toews gave a 40-minute speech and then answered questions from the audience.
During his speech, Toews spoke about many things, including what drove him to seek office in 2019.
Toews said he wasn’t very politically involved until the province “made a sharp left turn” and elected an NDP government in 2015.
“I was concerned the prosperity, the opportunity, the freedoms that we had been afforded, may not be there for the next generation,” he said.
Toews also spoke about his time as the finance minister and what he sees as a need for continued fiscal discipline.
“The combination of fiscal discipline, making some tough fiscal choices, along with this economic growth, which results in expanded fiscal capacity in the province, that combination gave me the privilege to rise in the legislature in February and present a balanced budget through all three years of the fiscal plan,” he said.
Toews took several audience questions, including one from former St. Albert Progressive Conservative MLA Myrna Fyfe. Fyfe had concerns about St. Albert’s lack of a UCP MLA and she asked Toews if he would commit to working with the constituency association so they could get a conservative MLA in the city.
Toews said yes.
“I've actually committed already to the presidents of our constituency associations … I commit to meeting with the presidents of the CAs regularly, I suggested quarterly. We haven't determined the frequency. But you know, that's critically important,” he said.
Marilyn Wangler told Toews a key issue she thinks the UCP is facing is some of the major divisions and fractures within the party, “which are still present today in terms of what's going on in the campaign, generally, and particularly around the sovereignty issue,” Wangler said. “I'm wondering what you will do as a leader, to kind of bring people together in a way that hasn't seemed possible for many Albertans.”
Toews said unity is a big issue and he has a plan to unite caucus.
“I'm pretty hopeful that we can get the job done here. It means every member has a voice. That means every member is brought in on the ground floor at identifying key policies and initiatives for the government in the next term. In the next session, we're going to do that, by way of caucus retreat,” he said.
Attendee Natasha Boyce Bent voiced concerns about the impact of COVID measures on her family.
Boyce Bent said some of the other candidates spoke about putting protections in place to ensure COVID restrictions and vaccination measures would not happen again. She asked Toews whether those tools would be off the table for him.
“Going forward with COVID, COVID's here, we have to manage with it, it's going to be here for the foreseeable future. Lockdowns are not an option. I am not anti-vax, but vaccinations are a personal choice, full stop … We don't need a sovereignty app to enforce that. That's all provincial jurisdiction,” he said.
Toews is one of seven UCP MLAs in the leadership race. The other hopefuls are Leela Aheer, Todd Loewen, Rebecca Schulz, Rajan Sawhney, Brian Jean, and Danielle Smith.
The UCP will announce the new leader and Alberta’s premier-designate on Oct. 6 at the BMO Centre in Calgary.
According to a press release from the UCP, 124,000 UCP members were mailed ballots on Sept. 2. The deadline to return mail-in ballots is Oct. 3, and the verification process will run from Sept. 22 to Oct. 5.
Those who want to vote in person can do so on Oct. 6 at one of the five voting locations located in Slave Lake, Edmonton, Red Deer, Calgary, and Taber.
