Douglas Todd Loewen (born September 16, 1966) is a Canadian politician and the Member of the

Legislative Assembly of Alberta The Legislative Assembly of Alberta is the deliberative assembly of the province of Alberta, Canada. It sits in the Alberta Legislature Building in Edmonton. Since 2012 the Legislative Assembly has had 87 members, elected first past the post f ...

for

Central Peace-Notley Central Peace-Notley is a provincial electoral district in Alberta, Canada. The district was one of 87 districts mandated to return a single member (MLA) to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta using the first past the post method of voting. I ...

. Loewen was first elected in

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

as a member of the

Wildrose Party The Wildrose Party (legally Wildrose Political Association, formerly the ''Wildrose Alliance Political Association'') was a conservative provincial political party in Alberta, Canada. The party was formed by the merger in early 2008 of the Alb ...

for the electoral district of

Grande Prairie-Smoky Grande Prairie-Smoky was a provincial electoral district in Alberta, Canada, mandated to return a single member to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta using first-past-the-post balloting from 1993 to 2019. The riding was created in 1993 when fro ...

. He was afterward elected in Central Peace-Notley as a member of the

United Conservative Party The United Conservative Party of Alberta (UCP) is a conservative political party in the province of Alberta, Canada. It was established in July 2017 as a merger between the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta and the Wildrose Party ...

and briefly sat as an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

until being welcomed back by premier

Danielle Smith Marlaina Danielle Smith (born April 1, 1971) is a Canadian politician, former lobbyist, and former columnist and media personality who has been serving as the 19th premier of Alberta and leader of the United Conservative Party (UCP) since 20 ...

. On June 1, 2022, Loewen registered his candidacy in the

2022 United Conservative Party leadership election The 2022 United Conservative Party leadership election was held on October 6 in Alberta to select a new leader of the United Conservative Party and Premier of Alberta. The leadership election was triggered following the May 18 leadership rev ...

, which was held on October 6, 2022. He finished fifth.

Early life

Todd Loewen moved to the Valleyview area at a young age, in 1967, with his parents and two brothers where he lived on a farm and homestead. In 1989, Loewen purchased his own farm and started a small business. Loewen is a member of

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Restorationism, restorationist Christianity, Christian Christian denomination, denomination and the ...

Political career

Early failure (2008-2015)

Todd Loewen first contested a seat in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta in the

2008 Alberta general election The 2008 Alberta general election was held on March 3, 2008, to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. It was expected to be called early because the governing Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta, Progressive Conservat ...

in the

electoral district as a member of the

Wildrose Alliance The Wildrose Party (legally Wildrose Political Association, formerly the ''Wildrose Alliance Political Association'') was a Conservatism in Canada, conservative provincial political party in Alberta, Canada. The party was formed by the merger i ...

, finishing third with 13 per cent of the vote behind Progressive Conservative incumbent

Mel Knight Melvyn Reginald Knight (born July 30, 1944) is a Canadian politician who served as the Minister of Energy of Alberta from 2006 to 2010 and as a Progressive Conservative member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta for the riding of Grande ...

and

Liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * Generally, a supporter of the political philosophy liberalism. Liberals may be politically left or right but tend to be centrist. * An adherent of a Liberal Party (See also Liberal parties by country ...

John Croken. Loewen, following his defeat, served as the Northern Director for the Wildrose board for two years and as one of the three members of the board on the Wildrose leadership nominating committee in 2009. Loewen again stood as the candidate for the renamed Wildrose Party in the

2012 Alberta general election The 2012 Alberta general election was held on April 23, 2012, to elect members of the 28th Legislative Assembly of Alberta. A 2012 Alberta Senate nominee election, Senate nominee election was called for the same day. During the 2011 Progressive C ...

in Grande-Prairie-Smoky finishing second with 41 per cent of the vote behind Progressive Conservative and former Reeve of County of Grande Prairie Everett McDonald who captured 46 per cent of the vote.

MLA of 29th Alberta Legislature

In the

2015 Alberta general election The 2015 Alberta general election was held on May 5, following a request of Premier Jim Prentice to the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Donald Ethell to dissolve the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, Legislative Assembly on April 7. This election el ...

Loewen was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta for Grande Prairie-Smoky capturing 33 per cent of the vote. Loewen 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 ...

candidate Todd Russell (31 per cent) and incumbent Everett McDonald. After the election, Loewen was appointed as the Official Opposition's critic for Environment and Parks, a position he retained when the Wildrose Party merged with the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta in 2017 to form the

(UCP). During the 29th Legislature Loewen came under public scrutiny when he insinuated New Democrat

Rod Loyola Rodrigo Alonso Loyola Salas (born February 28, 1974) is a Canadian politician who was elected in the 2015 Alberta general election to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta representing the electoral district of Edmonton-Ellerslie and re-elected on ...

received illegal election contributions from South America.

MLA of 30th Alberta Legislature

Loewen was elected in the newly formed

electoral district in the

2019 Alberta general election The 2019 Alberta general election was held on April 16, 2019, to elect 87 members to the 30th Alberta Legislature. In its first general election contest, the Jason Kenney-led United Conservative Party (UCP) won 54.88% of the popular vote and 63 ...

capturing 75 per cent of the vote, defeating former New Democrat Minister of Energy Marg McCuaig-Boyd to sit in the 30th Legislature. In February 2021, Loewen argued for a regional based reopening strategy during the end of the second wave of the

COVID-19 pandemic in Alberta The COVID-19 pandemic in Alberta is part of an COVID-19 pandemic, ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), an infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The Provinces and te ...

. In April 2021, Loewen was one of 18 United Conservative members to sign an open letter to Premier

Jason Kenney Jason Thomas Kenney (born May 30, 1968) is a former Canadian politician who served as the 18th premier of Alberta from 2019 until 2022, and the leader of the United Conservative Party (UCP) from 2017 until 2022. He also served as the member o ...

criticizing public health measures aimed to reduce the spread of

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

. On May 13, 2021 Loewen posted an open letter calling for Premier Jason Kenney to resign, and in the letter Loewen resigned his position as caucus chair, but did not resign from the United Conservative Party. Loewen's letter criticized Kenney's government for weak negotiations with the federal government, ignoring caucus members, delivering contradictory messages, failures in negotiations with doctors over billing, and the controversy regarding coal mining in the Eastern Slopes of the

Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in great-circle distance, straight-line distance from the northernmost part of Western Can ...

. On May 13, 2021, Loewen and fellow UCP MLA

Drew Barnes Drew Barnes (born May 21, 1961) is a Canadian politician who was elected in the 2012, 2015 and 2019 Alberta general elections to represent the electoral district of Cypress-Medicine Hat in the 28th, 29th and 30th Alberta Legislatures, respect ...

were kicked out of the UCP caucus by a caucus-wide vote after both criticized the UCP government response to COVID-19. On June 1, 2022, Loewen registered his candidacy in the

, which was scheduled for October 6, 2022. On October 6, 2022, Loewen received 7.7% of the vote. A total of 6,496 votes were cast for him in the

. The following day, he was readmitted into the UCP caucus.

MLA of 31st Alberta Legislature

In 2023 Loewen was elected to the

31st Alberta Legislature The 31st Alberta Legislative Assembly was constituted after the 2023 Alberta general election, general election on 29 May 2023. The United Conservative Party (UCP), led by incumbent Premier of Alberta, Premier Danielle Smith, won a majority of se ...

. He received a mandate letter for the Ministry of Forestry and Parks from Premier

in July 2023. On 1 November 2023 Loewen was interviewed at the

Jasper Park Lodge The Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge, formerly and commonly known as Jasper Park Lodge, is a 442-room hotel on a site along Lac Beauvert in Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada. The hotel was established in 1921 by Canadian National Railway and is o ...

as part of the Alberta Forests Products Association annual general meeting. He lamented the fact that the year was a record breaker for forest fires. He promised a departmental review of the wildfire response and emphasized the value of the forestry management process in deterring catastrophic wildfires. At the time 17,000 Albertans were employed directly by the industry.

Electoral history

2008 general election

2012 general election

2015 general election

2019 general election

2023 general election

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Loewen, Todd Wildrose Party MLAs Living people Farmers from Alberta United Conservative Party MLAs Politicians affected by a party expulsion process 1966 births 21st-century members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta