TOEWS SAYS HE'S GAINING ON SMITH FOR UCP'S TOP JOB
Travis Toews, travelling the province in search of UCP leadership votes, sees no certain victory for Danielle Smith on Oct. 6.
“We agree it's a two-horse race between Danielle Smith and myself,” says the former treasurer. “We really get that.
“But there's a sense that our campaign is picking up momentum in the past couple of weeks.
“People are coming off summer holiday and thinking about what's really important in this leadership race, and which leader can best unite the party movement and go on to win the election in 2023. I'm confident I can supply that kind of leadership.”
Toews proudly stations himself as a reliable, reasonable moderate in the UCP world. He promises to defend Alberta ardently in all dealings with Ottawa but considers Smith's Sovereignty Act proposal a poison pill for the UCP.
Smith insists it will give Alberta the power to nullify federal law, while at the same time being fully constitutional. Toews argues that's an impossible contradiction — and a deadly trap for the party.
“If it's brought in in such a watered-down form, it will completely underdeliver relative to what it's billed to do,” he says.
Lt.- Gov. Salma Lakhani has already said she would not give royal assent to an unconstitutional bill.
“So we get all the uncertainty that's created by even the discussion of the Sovereignty Act,” says Toews. “If it's then implemented in a benign fashion, it's going to create a lot of disillusioned Albertans who believe it can do something, when it can't.”
The anger that follows could cost the UCP the 2023 election, in his view.
“I don't want to diminish the importance of positioning Alberta for strength within Canada. I understand the frustration and anger that's out there. I'm a lifelong Albertan. But the Sovereignty Act isn't the way to go.”
His views are pretty much in line with every other candidate, except anti- Ottawa hardliner Todd Loewen. Rebecca Schulz, Rajan Sawhney, Leela Aheer and Brian Jean all oppose the sovereignty plan.
Smith promises to introduce the act the first day the legislature sits under her premiership. What would Toews make his first order of business?
“The first thing I'm going to do is order an emergency review of the criteria our (professional) colleges are using with respect to foreign-trained health-care professionals.
“We have thousands of foreigntrained professionals in Alberta,” he says, “and we have to have a safe and efficient way of bringing them on board. We are not doing this as well as we should.”
He's referring mainly to doctors, nurses and allied professionals. All are in short supply across the country. Job vacancies are a key reason for the cancellations, delays, closures and wait times.
Typically, Toews focuses on a real, immediate problem rather than emotions over sovereignty. He thinks enough party members will recognize the sense in his approach to win him the premier's office.
In a split with government policy, Toews also promises to reindex benefits from AISH and other social programs for the disadvantaged.
Premier Jason Kenney recently announced that provincial income tax would be reindexed to inflation, but excluded the social side.
Toews says supports for the needy are the highest in Canada and were never cut by the UCP, but he feels inflation is imposing new hardships that must be taken into account.
Toews believes he's in a tight race with Smith. Her camp says she's ahead, based on polling by her campaign.
But this contest is unstable by its very nature, whatever the polls say. If one candidate fails to get 50 per cent on the first vote, anything can happen.
Both Ed Stelmach (2006) and Alison Redford (2011) were surprise PC premiers after finishing far behind on the first round of leadership voting. They picked up secondary choices in later rounds until they finally squeaked out majorities.
Nobody was more surprised than those two politicians. Albertans could yet be surprised on Oct. 6.