Premier Jason Kenney and now former UCP MLA Todd Loewen during a campaign video shot at Historic Dunvegan during the 2019 election campaign (Photo courtesy of the United Conservative Party)

By Jeff Henson

ucp leadership review

Loewen among critics of last-minute changes to UCP leadership review voting process

Mar 28, 2022 | 11:48 AM

Premier Jason Kenney’s leadership of the United Conservative Party (UCP) will be up for review next month.

But party executives have made some late changes to the voting process for the review, going from an in-person vote in Red Deer on April 9th to a mail-in ballot.

The MLA for Central-Peace Notley was one of several MLAs with ties to the United Conservative Party that called out the party late last week for making the late changes to the rules.

Todd Loewen, who now sits as an independent in the legislature after being booted out of the party caucus, is afraid the changes could lead to the possibility of voter fraud.

“Now we see this situation change where there are people now that may not know that they have a membership in the party, and they may not even know that they vote, because the mail-in ballot removes that opportunity for them to show up in person and prove who they are,” he explained.

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“By having the mail-in ballot, there is an opportunity for people to get a hold of that ballot and fill it out for somebody and send it in.”

Loewen actually feels neither the in-person Red Deer vote or the mail-in ballot options are what many party members actually wanted.

“(I think) the members would have like to have had every member have one vote, and everybody be able to vote in their community or constituency.,” he said. “And that would have been the most fair way to do it, but the party chose to have the one day, one vote in Red Deer, $99 situation, which basically restricted people from coming.”

“And now, halfway through that process, they have changed the rules again and have gone to the mail-in ballot.”

Ballots will be mailed to party membership holders after April 9th and must be returned to an independent auditor by May 11th, with the results being announced on May 18th.

Loewen feels the changes have had a huge impact on some party members.

“I know many people that would have loved to renew their membership, but realized that they could not make it (to Red Deer) on the 9th or could not afford to go there – with travel distances from the Peace country and far southern Alberta would have made it difficult for people to attend because they would have had to get hotel rooms overnight and things like that. So they did not renew their memberships.”

“Now, they realize that it has changed and they did not have that opportunity (to buy a membership after the rule changes were announced).”