John Loewen
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

John Loewen (; born December 21, 1949) is a businessman and politician in
Manitoba Manitoba is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population ...
, Canada. He served in the
Legislative Assembly of Manitoba The Legislative Assembly of Manitoba () is the deliberative assembly of the Manitoba Legislature in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Manitoba. Fifty-seven members are elected to this assembly at List of Manitoba genera ...
from 1999 to 2005 as a member of the Progressive Conservative Party, and campaigned for the
House of Commons of Canada The House of Commons of Canada () is the lower house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Monarchy of Canada#Parliament (King-in-Parliament), Crown and the Senate of Canada, they comprise the Bicameralism, bicameral legislature of Ca ...
in 2006 and 2008 as a Liberal. He is the nephew of
Bill Bill(s) may refer to: Common meanings * Banknote, paper cash (especially in the United States) * Bill (law), a proposed law put before a legislature * Invoice, commercial document issued by a seller to a buyer * Bill, a bird or animal's beak Pl ...
and Shirley Loewen, prominent entrepreneurs and philanthropists in
Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Manitoba. It is centred on the confluence of the Red River of the North, Red and Assiniboine River, Assiniboine rivers. , Winnipeg h ...
.


Early life and career

Loewen was born in Elkhorn, Manitoba, and raised in
Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Manitoba. It is centred on the confluence of the Red River of the North, Red and Assiniboine River, Assiniboine rivers. , Winnipeg h ...
. He received a
Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...
degree from the
University of Manitoba The University of Manitoba (U of M, UManitoba, or UM) is a public research university in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Founded in 1877, it is the first university of Western Canada. Both by total student enrolment and campus area, the University of ...
in 1973. Tall and athletic, Loewen was a prominent member of the
University of Manitoba Bisons The Manitoba Bisons are the athletic teams that represent the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The football team plays at Princess Auto Stadium, the soccer team plays at the outdoor soccer field on campus, track and field te ...
basketball team. He joined the payroll services company Comcheq Services Ltd. (now called Ceridian) in 1973. He later served as company president from 1984 until 1998. In 1993, Loewen oversaw Comcheq's transformation into a subsidiary of the
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC; ) is a Canadian Multinational corporation, multinational banking and financial services corporation headquartered at CIBC Square in the Financial District, Toronto, Financial District of Toronto, Ont ...
(CIBC). There were concerns that the Winnipeg company's autonomy would be undermined by the national bank, but the CIBC initially allowed it to remain fairly independent. Loewen attempted to reacquire the company in 1998, but was unsuccessful. Loewen has for many years been a prominent figure supporting Manitoba's
sports Sport is a physical activity or game, often competitive and organized, that maintains or improves physical ability and skills. Sport may provide enjoyment to participants and entertainment to spectators. The number of participants in ...
community. He developed a plan to financially support the province's
Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece bet ...
athletes in the early 1990s, and helped establish the Winnipeg Thunder basketball team in 1992 with future
mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...
Sam Katz Samuel Michael Katz (born August 20, 1951) is a Canadian businessman and former politician who was the 42nd mayor of Winnipeg, Manitoba from 2004 to 2014. He is the owner of the Winnipeg Goldeyes of the American Association, as well as the ...
. He has also provided financial assistance to several athletic programs. In 1994, a newspaper columnist in Winnipeg described Comcheq as "probably the most generous private-sector supporter of elite athletes in the province". Loewen helped create the Manitoba Entertainment Complex group (MEC) in 1994, in an effort to purchase controlling shares in the
Winnipeg Jets The Winnipeg Jets are a professional ice hockey team based in Winnipeg. The Jets compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division (NHL), Central Division in the Western Conference (NHL), Western Conference. The te ...
hockey franchise and keep the team in the city. Loewen chaired the MEC, and participated in plans to build a new arena for the team. Despite his efforts, the Jets were forced to leave the city in 1996. Loewen argued that the
National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...
and commissioner
Gary Bettman Gary Bruce Bettman (born June 2, 1952) is an American sports executive who serves as the NHL commissioner, commissioner of the National Hockey League (NHL), a post he has held since February 1, 1993. Previously, Bettman was a senior vice preside ...
undermined his efforts, by presenting unreasonable demands shortly before an official deadline. In 2006, he indicated that the major-level investors necessary for maintaining a
National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...
franchise simply did not exist in Winnipeg in the mid-1990s. Loewen has been a board member and chairman of Economic Development Winnipeg, a council member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Manitoba, a board member and president of the Big Brothers and Sisters Association of Winnipeg and president of both the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra and the Linden Woods Community Association. He has also been involved with the
United Way United Way is an international network of over 1,800 local nonprofit organization, nonprofit fundraising affiliates. Prior to 2015, United Way was the largest nonprofit organization in the United States by donations from the public. Individual Un ...
of Winnipeg, serving on the United Way Cabinet from 1994 until 1999 as Chair of the Major Corporate Division and Deputy Chair of Business. He is a founding Director of the Business Council of Manitoba. There were rumours that Loewen would run for
Mayor of Winnipeg The mayor of Winnipeg is a member of Winnipeg City Council, but does not represent a ward. The position of mayor was created in 1873 following the incorporation of Winnipeg. Since 1998, the term of office has been for four years. The 44th and ...
in 1998, but he declined. Until 2012 John Loewen was the President of Telpay, an electronic payments company which was originally started as a research and development project by Comcheq. Telpay is the largest independent payment processing company in Canada having processed over 23 million payments worth over $14 billion in 2009.


Provincial politics

Loewen entered political life in Manitoba's 1999 provincial election, winning election for the newly created south Winnipeg constituency of
Fort Whyte Fort Whyte is a provincial electoral division in the Canadian province of Manitoba. It was created in 1999, after the provincial electoral boundaries commission determined that southwestern Winnipeg had experienced enough population growth to d ...
. Running as a Progressive Conservative, he defeated
New Democrat New Democrats may refer to: * New Democratic Party, a social democratic party in Canada * New Democrats (United States), the ideological centrist faction of the Democratic Party ** New Democrat Coalition, the related caucus in the United States H ...
Bidhu Jha by 3,665 votes. The New Democratic Party won the election, and Loewen became a
Member of the Legislative Assembly A Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) is a representative elected to sit in a legislative assembly. The term most commonly refers to members of the legislature of a federated state or an autonomous region, but is also used for several nation ...
(MLA) in the
Official Opposition Parliamentary opposition is a form of political opposition to a designated government, particularly in a Westminster-based parliamentary system. This article uses the term ''government'' as it is used in Parliamentary systems, i.e. meaning ''t ...
. He was appointed as his party's critic for Intergovernmental Affairs, and was later promoted to Finance Critic. Considered a rising star in his party, there was some speculation that he would run to succeed
Gary Filmon Gary Albert Filmon (born August 24, 1942) is a Canadian politician from Manitoba who served as the 19th premier of Manitoba. He was the leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba from 1983 to 2000, and served as the premier from ...
as party leader in 2000. He decided against this when the party establishment united behind Stuart Murray. He was a moderate in the Manitoba Progressive Conservative Party, and supported the centre-right
Progressive Conservative Party of Canada The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada (PC; ) was a Centrism, centre to centre-right List of federal political parties in Canada, federal political party in Canada that existed from 1942 to 2003. From Canadian Confederation in 1867 unti ...
rather than the right-wing
Canadian Alliance The Canadian Alliance (), formally the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance (), was a centre-right to right-wing federal political party in Canada that existed under that name from 2000 to 2003. The Canadian Alliance was the new name of the ...
at the federal level, even though many of his colleagues backed the Alliance. In 2001, Loewen was the only member of the provincial PC caucus to attend a Winnipeg fundraiser for federal PC leader
Joe Clark Charles Joseph Clark (born June 5, 1939) is a Canadian businessman, writer, and retired politician who served as the 16th prime minister of Canada from 1979 to 1980. He also served as Leader of the Official Opposition (Canada), leader of the ...
. In the same year, he criticized the provincial New Democratic government of
Gary Doer Gary Albert Doer (born 31 March 1948) is a former Canadians, Canadian politician and diplomat from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. He served as Canada's List of Canadian ambassadors to the United States, ambassador to the United States from 19 Octo ...
for not going far enough in extending rights to same-sex couples. Loewen became involved a serious controversy in early 2002, after issuing a media notice that was strongly critical of Manitoba's Crocus investment portfolio. He wrote that the company held investments "in a number of Manitoba companies" that were "in financial difficulty", and requested that the government ask the
Auditor General An auditor general, also known in some countries as a comptroller general or comptroller and auditor general, is a senior civil servant charged with improving government accountability by auditing and reporting on the government's operations. Freq ...
to review the valuation of the fund. His statement was met with strong opposition from Crocus, which threatened legal action. Loewen was subsequently demoted from his position as Finance Critic by Stuart Murray, and was required to make a formal apology to the legislature in April 2002. Almost three years later, Crocus stopped trading and was forced into receivership. Many believe Loewen's concerns were vindicated by the trust's eventual failure. Loewen criticized several parties, including the government, opposition and senior Crocus management, when discussing the firm's failure in a 2007 interview. He was re-elected in the 2003 election by a slightly reduced margin. In late 2003, he introduced a bill to phase out Video Lottery Terminals from the province.


Federal politics

The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada merged with the Canadian Alliance in early 2004 to create the
Conservative Party of Canada The Conservative Party of Canada (CPC; , ), sometimes referred to as the Tories, is a Government of Canada, federal List of political parties in Canada, political party in Canada. It was formed in 2003 by the merger of the two main Right-wing ...
. Loewen initially supported the new party, but announced on September 23, 2005 that he would seek the federal Liberal nomination for
Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia Winnipeg West (formerly known as Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley) is a federal electoral district in Manitoba, Canada, that has been represented in the House of Commons of Canada since 1997. Following the 2022 Canadian fede ...
in the upcoming federal election. In making the announcement, Loewen said he was uncomfortable with the
social conservatism Social conservatism is a political philosophy and a variety of conservatism which places emphasis on Tradition#In political and religious discourse, traditional social structures over Cultural pluralism, social pluralism. Social conservatives ...
of Conservative leader
Stephen Harper Stephen Joseph Harper (born April 30, 1959) is a Canadian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Canada from 2006 to 2015. He is to date the only prime minister to have come from the modern-day Conservative Party of Canada, ser ...
, and that he "never believed in the policies of the former
Alliance An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or sovereign state, states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not an explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an a ...
and
Reform Reform refers to the improvement or amendment of what is wrong, corrupt, unsatisfactory, etc. The modern usage of the word emerged in the late 18th century and is believed to have originated from Christopher Wyvill's Association movement, which ...
parties" which he described as "dominat ngthe onservativeparty". He resigned from the provincial legislature on September 26, 2005, and subsequently beat Gennarino Conte for the Liberal nomination. He lost to Conservative incumbent Steven Fletcher in the 2006 federal election, as the Conservatives gained twenty-five seats to form a
minority government A minority government, minority cabinet, minority administration, or a minority parliament is a government and cabinet formed in a parliamentary system when a political party or coalition of parties does not have a majority of overall seats in ...
. Loewen acknowledged that the national trend worked against his candidacy. After the election, Loewen returned to the board of TelPay, formerly a division of Comcheq. He is also a partner in Payworks, an internet based payroll service. As a volunteer, he is leading the fund raising efforts for construction of the North End Wellness Centre in Winnipeg."Low on cash, but hopeful", ''Winnipeg Free Press'', 7 March 2006, B5; "TelPay Incorporated", ''Globe and Mail'', 14 August 2007, B3. In 2007, Loewen was acclaimed as the Liberal candidate for
Winnipeg South Winnipeg South () is a electoral district (Canada), Canadian federal electoral district in Manitoba, Canada, that has been represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1917 to 1979, and since 1988. It covers the southernmost part of the ...
. He lost to Conservative incumbent
Rod Bruinooge Rod E. Bruinooge (born May 6, 1973) is an Indigenous Canadian politician, businessman, and filmmaker. He was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Winnipeg South in the 2006 federal election, and was the Parliamentary Secretary to the ...
in the 2008 federal election.


Electoral record

All electoral information is taken from
Elections Canada Elections Canada () is the non-partisan agency responsible for administering elections in Canada, Canadian federal elections and Referendums in Canada, referendums. History Elections Canada is an agency of the Parliament of Canada, and reports ...
and
Elections Manitoba Elections Manitoba () is the non-partisan agency of the Government of Manitoba responsible for the conduct and regulation of provincial elections in Manitoba. Its responsibilities are to operate free of political influence; conduct Manitoba's ...
. Provincial expenditures refer to candidate expenses. Italicized expenditures refer to submitted totals, and are presented when the final reviewed totals are not available.


Footnotes

Some biographical information is taken from Loewen's website. {{DEFAULTSORT:Loewen, John Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba MLAs Candidates in the 2006 Canadian federal election Candidates in the 2008 Canadian federal election 1949 births Living people Liberal Party of Canada candidates for the Canadian House of Commons 20th-century members of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba 21st-century members of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba