Central Peace-Notley MLA Todd Loewen (Facebook)

By Curtis Galbraith

Following removal from caucus

UCP Central Peace-Notley Constituency Association backing Loewen

Jun 4, 2021 | 11:56 AM

The UCP Central Peace-Notley Constituency Association board has passed a resolution saying it will continue to recognize Todd Loewen as the party’s MLA.

Association president Samantha Steinke says they were not consulted when the decision was made to remove Loewen from caucus.

“There were some folks on our board that felt like we needed to do something to show support for what our MLA had done. This is what the board came up with as a whole and we put it to a vote and the motion successfully passed.”

Loewen and fellow MLA Drew Barnes were voted out of the UCP caucus by the other members last month. That came less than a day after Loewen had resigned as caucus chair and had called for Premier Jason Kenney to resign as well.

Steinke says the association supports what Loewen has done so far.

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“He is taking the advice of his constituents. I know that he doesn’t come to any decisions that he makes lightly or on his own,” said Steinke.

“He does much consulting before he does anything. I believe that he still upholds the party and the constituents. Everyone on our board felt it was necessary to let Todd know that we do still support him.”

The resolution also asks that Loewen be re-admitted to the UCP caucus. Steinke doesn’t believe that will happen, but says it is important that grassroots members should be able to voice their concerns. She is also hopeful the Premier can contact them to explain why Loewen was voted out of the party caucus.

In a Facebook post about the resolution, the association also confirmed it was one of the boards that endorsed having a leadership review for Premier Jason Kenney.

Steinke says their motion calls for a special general meeting to have such a review.

“The provincial board has said they are going to go ahead with a leadership review in 2022 and our members in this constituency feel as if that’s too late, so we went ahead and passed that motion forward,” said Steinke.

“I guess my best hope would be that the premier would be encouraged that people want to get involved and they want to be active.”

Steinke says they had a chance to meet with Kenney on March 8. She says one issue they have is that they feel the Premier is not doing enough to stand up to the Trudeau government and get a better deal for Alberta. She adds many members feel the Fair Deal report was “a fraud”.

Steinke says she at least hopes there is a leadership review at the party’s 2021 annual general meeting. That is scheduled for November. It usually takes place in October but has been pushed back because municipal elections are also set for October.