Todd Loewen is running for party leader and was in town yesterday to share his platform with Airdronians. 

“MLA Angela Pitt invited me today and I thought it was a good chance to come and meet people from Airdrie and the area to talk about the future of Alberta. We have this leadership race going on. On October 6, we will have a new premier. I hope that the people of Alberta will choose myself.” 

Although candidates are only two weeks into their campaign, Loewen is happy with how it's going so far. 

“The response has been good all across Alberta, lots of work yet to do. I keep kind of joking, we're two weeks into it and we just got just three months left to go. There's lots of ground to cover, lots of people to talk to and lots of discussions to have.” 

ToddLoewen having a conversation with an Airdronian.

Loewen also shared his thoughts on Airdrie and what kinds of things the government should be looking at for the city moving forward. One of the major concerns surrounding Airdrie is not having a hospital, Loewan mentioned he plans on addressing the situation. 

“I think there are some serious issues with our healthcare system, we see AHS not being as responsive as we would like to the concerns of Albertans. I think that discussion needs to be happening.” 

With Airdrie being the fifth largest community in the province, Loewen says being so close to Calgary shouldn't be an excuse. 

“It's a large community and I think the idea that it's close to Calgary that we don't need one here, I don't know if that's a good enough excuse. We will look at ambulance wait times and the concerns that we have with ambulances, that definitely need to be taken into consideration as well.” 

Loewen went on to talk about what he would be focusing on as the new party leader, for Albertans in the future, 

“We need to rebuild the trust of Albertans within the UCP partners, UCP party and UCP government, that's the biggest thing right now. When we look at the other issues we have, again we have health care issues, we have issues when dealing with Ottawa and how we're treated within Confederation. There are a lot of big issues that we need to tackle and I think that this is a good time to be talking about them and listening to Albertans.” 

Airdrie East MLA Angela Pitt extended the invitation to Loewen because she wants Airdronians to get a chance to meet the candidates before the leadership vote,  

“I think it's really important for all of the candidates seeking the premiership of this province to come and talk to the people that live, work and play in Airdrie. And it's really great to have Todd Loewen as one of our UCP leadership candidates out here.” 

Pitt also said it’s important because Airdrie contributes significantly economically in this constituency and certainly matters in the larger scope of Alberta. 

Loewen was originally chosen as a Wildrose Party candidate in 2015 and afterwards re-elected as a UCP candidate in 2019. Prior to then, he ran in two unsuccessful Wildrose campaigns and was defeated by the Progressive Conservatives. 

Up next for Loewen is a stop today in Calgary and Olds. 

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