Despite his high-profile job as Alberta’s finance minister and soaring political ambitions, Travis Toews has kept a remarkably low profile.
Just look at the uninformative media coverage of the announcement when Mr. Toews, Alberta’s minister of finance until yesterday, became the first candidate formally to throw his cowboy hat in the ring to replace the blundering Jason Kenney as leader of the United Conservative Party and premier of Alberta.
There was nary a peep about the MLA for Grande Prairie-Wapiti’s political philosophy – although what evidence there is suggests he’s just as hard-right a market-fundamentalist ideologue and bitter foe of public services as the man he aspires to replace.
Then again, as a trusted member of Mr. Kenney’s inner cabinet, maybe he was just a good soldier who kept his own ideas to himself. That will take a few days to prise out, presumably.
A bit more is known about the man’s religious beliefs, thanks to the efforts of Press Progress, which a few days before the 2019 provincial election that brought the UCP to power published a piece on the first-time provincial candidate’s theological views.
Press Progress discovered that Mr. Toews (his name is pronounced Taves, by the way) had spent several years on the board of the Peace River Bible Institute, an interdenominational evangelical Bible college in the town of Sexsmith that requires students to forswear not only sex outside of marriage, but witchcraft, sorcery, spell casting, Ouija boards, yoga, same-sex massages, and rituals associated with demonic activity.
The school’s handbook explicitly bans any sexual activity outside a “loving marriage relationship between one man and one woman,” Press Progress reported.
At the time, Mr. Toews didn’t offer any comments about his religious beliefs and how they might influence his decisions in government, and it seems unlikely he will now either.
Mr. Toews, 57, launched his campaign with a two-minute video in which he can be heard lamenting the divisions in his lately not-so-united party as a guitar strums soothingly in the background and the millionaire rancher and chartered accountant is seen riding herd on some cattle, presumably his own.
The UCP, he says, was founded “to restore those fundamental values that have served Albertans so well” – viz., “freedom and liberty.” His voice-over adds that “what grieves me most is the division that has formed in our communities, in businesses, churches, families, and certainly in politics” – which sounds like a not-so-subtle dog whistle to the rural voters who resisted COVID-19 vaccination throughout two years of pandemic.
“I believe in servant leadership,” Mr. Toewes narrates soothingly. “I believe in humility as a guiding principle for sound government.”
I don’t know about you, but when I hear a conservative politician talking about “servant leadership” – as Mr. Kenney frequently used to do – I want to bolt the door and break out the Winchesters, metaphorically speaking of course.
Speaking of which, at least there were no scenes in the video of Mr. Toews discharging a firearm, which would have been de rigueur were he running to replace a Republican governor south of the Medicine Line, so I suppose we can count that as a small blessing.
Mr. Toews has one significant advantage almost every other minister in Premier Kenney’s cabinet – he actually sounds like a grownup when he speaks.
Whether that will be enough to compensate for the fact he appears to have Mr. Kenney’s sotto voce endorsement – plus the assistance of at least some Kenney aides – remains to be seen.
Given the liabilities of being too closely associated with Mr. Kenney’s chaotic tenure as premier, former Wildrose Party leader Brian Jean, though he has not yet officially registered his candidacy with the party, must still be considered the front-runner in the race.
Meanwhile, Transportation Minister Rajan Sawhney tweeted yesterday that she has engaged Harper-era Conservative Party apparatchik Ken Boessenkool, nowadays a political consultant, “to test the viability of a leadership campaign … that isn’t just more of the same.”
Social media users were quick to remind Ms. Sawhney of the circumstances surrounding Mr. Boessenkool’s messy departure from the staff of former B.C. premier Christy Clark a decade ago, suggesting that his appointment may have been the first serious blunder of her campaign.
So if you’re looking for more Jason Kenney – repackaged to be somewhat more palatable to what the Kenney camp still imagines the typical Albertan wants in a political leader – then cross your fingers for Mr. Toews.
Just don’t cross them in a magical sort of way!
Albertans never seem to learn, do they? When they support these pretend conservatives and Reformers, nothing that benefits Albertans comes from it. The UCP aren’t like the good leadership Alberta had under Peter Lougheed.
It wouldn’t be surprising if Kenney the control freak is trying the feat of controlling the future from the political grave. However, it might just be crazy enough to work.
Mr. Toews seems to be much like Kenney in political beliefs, both a social and fiscal conservative, but without Kenney’s obnoxious, aggressive and overbearing personality. So Toews could appeal to much of the half of the party that stayed loyal to Kenney and might not be too offensive to at least some of those who were not so loyal, while Smith and Jean fight it out over the rest.
He could also be a northern compromise candidate, somewhat like Stelmach was with the PC’s. Of course, a rural social might ultimately not go over so well in the more urban big cities. Interestingly, the last person to run for premier who had pictures of themself riding horses in the country in Alberta TV election ads actually did not do so well. So maybe Alberta is not so quick anymore to fall for such stereotypes. The Marlboro man image is really a bit dated now.
In any event, Kenney would probably feel fairly comfortable with his legacy in Toews hands and as a bonus it would help him to get revenge on those expected to run who helped bring Kenney down. So much for revenge being best served cold. It could be steaming hot at the upcoming UCP leadership buffet.
Sorry Dave, I don’t think it’s crazy at all. Kenney’s mentor, Stephen Harper, pulled the Cons’ strings for years after he officially quit.
How smart do you have to be to make a sexual predator your first hire? Maybe with the UCP having a ‘strong man’ showing their women the way is a thing?
The Peace River Bible Institute requires its members to forswear dangerous actions. Former board member Mr. Toews was the first to announce his candidacy so I, despite a ritual associated with demonic activity, dug my dusty ouija board out of the closet to predict his chances. The arrows pointed here, there and everywhere until finally the spirts gave their answer. Unfortunately, they agreed with the late pundit Dalton Camp, “first in, first out.”
“to restore those fundamental values that have served Albertans so well”
if by “fundamental values ” you mean hit and run disaster capitalism, fleecing of resources and disproportionate profit
and by “Albertans” you mean elite greedy white evangelist corrupt stakeholders
Then ya.
Personally, I would consider Mr. Toews the front runner, simply because he doesn’t have any baggage from previous times in office. How sad, then, that someone can be a front runner simply by the absence of previous bad deeds, as opposed to something positive.
“…but witchcraft, sorcery, spell casting, Ouija boards, yoga, same-sex massages, and rituals associated with demonic activity.” I had to check the calendar. Yup, it really is 2022. Thought for a minute I had woken up in the Middle Ages!
Roger: The Internet was crap in the Middle Ages. They only had dial-up. The plague was also worse. DJC
Back in my day, all we had was two dial ups at school that only connected to this thing called an APL mainframe. APL stands for “A Programming Language’, developed by Canadian Ken Iverson. It was all greek to me.
Cool: I thought (and rather hoped) you were going to say, “It’s all geek to me.” DJC
Reminded me of my childhood in the sixties!
Having known a number of farmers and ranchers in my time, I question Mr. Toews’ smooth, soft accountant hands. I mean, what kind of farmer/rancher has hands like that? I cannot understand how an actual rancher/farmer is able to keep his hands free of callouses and chapped skin, especially when he seems to ride the range without leather gloves. Amazing! I hope he will share his skin care regime with the voters of Alberta. Is horsepower the new blue pickup truck?
Off-topic, but this is a truly absurd bit of theatre from Alberta’s Assclown-in-Chief:
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/slippery-slope-alberta-s-kenney-questions-federal-b-c-drug-decriminalization-plan/ar-AAXWd2V?ocid=entnewsntp&cvid=548b8349bbee4b1886ccd2413d18a976
Mr. Kenney is arguing that BC should not be allowed to make changes to how it handles the overdose crisis without consulting Alberta first, never mind that provinces have clear jurisdiction over health care within their own borders. Should Alberta have had to consult with BC before declaring it the “Most Doorknob Lickingest Summer Ever?” What a pathetic fool. If not for the antics of Mr. Poilievre, he would surely be the least substantive noisy person in all of Canadian politics (stick-tap to Mr. Moe, who has well earned an honourable mention). Kenney would squawk like a stepped-on chicken if Alberta had needed BCs permission to shut down safe injection sites. Absurd and shameful antics from an absurd and shameless person.
I’m from Grande Prairie and I can tell you that, before his election as GP-Wapiti MLA in 2015, Toews wasn’t on a lot of radar screens.
It’s not that he was necessarily an unknown around GP; the Toews family is huge in the area, and almost considered royalty (especially among local hockey-playing circles) but he kinda came out of left … OK, right … field. He never sat on a County of Grande Prairie council or (public) school board. Indeed, other than that stint as president of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association (which I can imagine would have been a pit of vipers), there’s nothing in Toews’ CV that screamed “public service” at all. When he was elected to replace the retiring Wayne Drysdale (a kind and decent man), his was a name you never saw in the local newspaper, or heard on the radio.
Maybe that was because, professionally, he was busy working, instead of turning himself into a professional politician. Toews has the kind of real-world resume that completely overshadows that of Danielle Smith or Brian Jean… and most of the people in Cabinet, never mind the UCP caucus.
But, ah yes. The Peace River Bible Institute. Or “PRBI” as it’s known by acronym in Grande Prairie. Not located in the Town of Peace River … or near any river, really … but rather out in Sexsmith, a charming bedroom community 21km north of Grande Prairie. Walter Paszkowski, arguably the most accomplished provincial politician the Grande Prairie area ever produced, hails from Sexsmith (or just outside of it).
PRBI’s been in Sexsmith for decades but, like Travis Toews, it’s mostly flown under the local radar. It’s been a while since I’ve driven past it; as memory serves the original campus consisted of a repurposed older building (an old high school building, or possibly even an old convent?). I’ve heard the campus has been expanded, possibly with some new buildings, but make no mistake, PRBI is nothing like the grander, glistening bible-school campuses you can see from afar travelling the highway between Edmonton and Calgary. You can drive around Sexsmith – which ain’t that big – and miss it.
If you grew up in GP in the 1980s or 1990s, the only time you ever heard about PRBI was during local newscasts at the top of the hour on the two local radio stations – specifically, during their sportscasts. PRBI, which has high school and some early college-level courses, regularly fields teams in local men’s and women’s basketball leagues, soccer circuits and, yes, even beer-league hockey. When you played a game versus PRBI, you might end up playing before 50 or so cheering fans bused in from the school to root for their team playing in a glorified recreation league. PRBI, for many people in Grande Prairie’s athletic, was annoying but fairly innocuous.
Outside of those circles? Yeah, PRBI’s various “mission statements” and “sworn oaths” are troubling – and probably even a good reason why it’s had to fly under the radar. If Toews aspires to be our next premier, the media’s going to have to ask him some tough questions about his beliefs because PRBI is exactly the kind of place you send your kid if you’re troubled by the values of the modern world (i.e. anything after, say, 1960). If he becomes premier and swears in a Cabinet, those mandate-letters to the Ministers of Education, Children’s Services, Culture, Health, and Advanced Education (among others) could be quite … ahem … alarming.
Pundits have also pointed out that Toews’ loyalty to Kenney might do him in, but I wonder if Toews’ fatal flaw isn’t also the same one that Ed Stelmach had – he’s not from Calgary. The power circles in Calgary always seem to want one of “their own” leading the way. Anyone from out in the sticks (read: the areas where the oil and gas and the cattle are) need not apply.
Ironically, Toews is probably more “Calgary” than any of the MLAs from Calgary … and 99 per cent of the raucous urban cow-persons who attend the Stampede. He’s an oilfield business owner, a big-time cattle rancher, and a university graduate and certified professional. And he’s also a family man and that means he’s had an actual life away from work and politics, unlike the fellow whom Toews seeks to replace. But the big question is … how concerned should we all be about that life of his? We need to find that out because, as I say, the folks up in Grande Prairie probably can’t tell you very much about him.
Pretty clear you have some idea of what happens in sexsmith but not much. PRBI now has a modern campus with modern amenities and many new buildings, it’s an exceedingly well funded and well run (financially) school. Also they don’t teach high school courses it’s accredited college level religious education. While it’s non denominational it’s much closer to being an evangelical school than anything else, they turn out a lot of missionaries and church planters. The music program is very good, many folks from the surrounding area send their children their for lessons.
They also have a required volunteer component for their students to work in the community in an outreach capacity.
Religious institutions in general aren’t great, but there are much worse ones in ALBERTA, than the bible college in Sexsmith.
Having said that, Travis Toews definitely represents a shift within that community in general to a more prosperous, more belligerent, dominionist position (American Jesus) and he shouldn’t be trusted as far as one can throw him.
Fair enough. It’s been several years – 20, at least – since I passed by PRBI (it was probably on the way for post-softball beers at The Alamo). I remember thinking at the time that it wasn’t as big as I had imagined it to be, although I swear they offered high school courses (I stand corrected on that). I had a look at its website earlier today and it’s pretty slick. Definitely looks like they’ve added a new building or two and their gym and music programs would be the envy of any private Christian school.
Again, my “experience” with them was playing against their various teams in various adult recreational sports leagues through the summer and winter. They were often quite good and their fans were always quite noisy.
And there’d be no doubt PRBI would be well run and funded. Lots and lots of money up there and not a lot of private Christian schools for college-aged kids. Plus, the Alliance Church is huge in GP and it’s basically the feeder for all of that.
Toews was obviously involved with the school council because his kids went there, so it’s hard to say how much of a fanatic he is. I suspect he’s a capitalist red-in-tooth-and-claw. I’ve never picked up much of an overt religious vibe from him, but PRBI is PRBI and someone’s going to maybe want to run a few questions by him.
But in terms of marketable real-world experience, he’d be the best person the UCP could put up – for better or worse.
PRBI also has a transfer agreement with Trinity Western University in Langley BC for entry into a Master’s programme at TWU. For those who don’t know it, TWU is an evangelical university that somewhat famously went to court over the refusal of a number of provincial law societies across Canada to recognize its law degrees for admission to the bar, due to issues around 2SLGBTQ+ rights.
For those who want to know what PRBI is about, here is their website.
https://www.prbi.edu/
More of the same. Travis “spending problem” Toews, the man who would reduce nurses pay while handing billions of dollars of public money to wealthy corporations. His time in cabinet will be remembered for loyalty to Kenney and being tied to MacKinnon’s apron strings. Expect his campaign messaging to include little in the way of specific visions or possible plans for the Province. Those are kept under wraps until time for unleashing.
Toews is another one of those Kenney acolytes who is loyal enough and electable enough, in a SoCON sort of way, to challenge Brian Jean’s leadership bid. If anything, he can sell himself as a Ginger Kenney clone, which will certainly keep the rural wolf packs from ripping down Kenney’s version of the UCP. What is really concerning is that Toews, unlike Kenney, can really live the SoCON mantra and find the courage to implement such an agenda. He has no interest in going to Ottawa to seek higher public office and has no aspirations to indulge in a run for the PMO. (At least for Kenney, for the time being, realizing his boyhood dream of becoming Dead Byfield’s favourite prime minister is still in the cards.) If Toews is the type of candidate that is has the best chance of making an appearance in the leadership race, the UCP has no intention of offering a candidate who can be called the anti-Kenney.
Does this sound very good for the NDP? Yes it does. But it also doesn’t bode well for voters looking for a candidate that is inclined to pursue a more progressive policy course. While Rachel Notley presents a stable Lougheed-like style of government to counter Kenney’s chaotic government by ADD, there maybe little to please those who want to see the worst parts of Alberta’s political and social cultures blasted from the face of the Earth. During her tenure, Notley sought labour reform, but she had a tendency to give up on the full of workers’ rights in favour of appeasing Kenney’s usual gang of “wealth creators”. Appeasing a constituency who had no intention of supporting her politically with what they want sounds like a Munich Agreement type of compromise. Notley sold out her principles many times, but it’s the compromise on the minimum wage and protections for farm labour that were her most egregious transgressions against principle.
It is indeed a little odd that the finance minister, Travis Toews, does not have the profile or the name recognition of his cabinet peers or many back benchers. Perhaps he is just as advertised, a person who keeps his head down and tries to pursue his work with humility. That surely is a contrast to the crazies and pugilists that are overrepresented in the UCP. Why, just the other day, Shane Getson posted a meme about Trudeau from the TV show Yellowstone that was an implicit death threat (https://twitter.com/StaySaif/status/1531753383610028032). Hard to top that.
Toews’ demeanor and personality contrasts with many other UCP members; his campaign video makes some additional contrasts:
https://tinyurl.com/2pkhfdam
For example, the video starts by his stating he and his wife are lifelong Albertans with children and grandchildren. Although he may be silently supported by Bumbles, that video opening stands out in sharp relief to Bumbles who can only claim, at best, to be adjacent to Alberta. And, let’s consider the emphasis on wife and family. That also stands out in sharp relief to Bumbles, whose family and private life is, let’s say, a bit of a mystery. We still don’t know where Bumble’s disappeared to last summer, do we?
And, it is pretty clear from the video that Toews has both the hat and the cattle, unlike Bumbles who was all hat and no cattle. The video gently but clearly invites that comparision.
But, as Jason Markusoff points out, Toews does draw a similarity between himself and Bumbles with his desire to embody “servant leadership”. I am not sure what this ambiguous phrase means. It is one of those political phrases, devoid of specific meaning, that politicians use with the awareness that the audience will fill in the meaning with the thing they desire. For Christians, it could mean, he intends to lead as a servant to Christ; for others, a servant to the UCP grassroots, etc.
I find the phrase a little disturbing given his association with a regressive religious school that has strict policies based in superstition and ignorance that attempt to impose strict controls on its students.
The video also stresses Toews support for “freedom” and “liberty”. Again, more ambiguous phrases that are, in effect, dog whistles to the right, whose definition of these terms usually means freedom for conservatives to do as they want, including removing the freedoms of the “woke”, progressive crowd and elavating corporate interests over those of the citizens.
Let’s not forget that the UCP is engaged in internecine warfare and is dominated by a bunch of extreme, right-wing cranks who can’t distinguish the map from the territory. Even a soft-spoken guy like Toews is going to have to kowtow to this group to have any hope of unifying the party. That his video message implies that he is ideologically aligned with some of the extreme right-wing elements in the UCP should give cause for concern. No one should be fooled.
Servant leadership is a dominionist concept, they believe they are chosen by god to “serve” (god) by “leading” us. He’s framing it as a religious calling, yes it’s a dog whistle; they’re dominionists.
Kenney’s “private life” isn’t a mystery to those of us who are part of the “community”. And we don’t want him, and have made that clear. Some of were around when he was asked by kd lang “You’re Gay, aren’t you?” Priceless.
I’m not going to dox myself here but I know a LOT about this guy and the religious community he hails from. He’s a dominionist, which is a lot closer to fascism than liberty. I guarantee you his social conservative bonafides are much the same as kenneys, likely even more so.
This is a major reason I am so happy to be exiting Alberta. Kenney was just the first run at this. Harper will have his christo-fascist dream world come hell or high water…. or lakes of fire.
https://watershedsentinel.ca/articles/harper-evangelical-capitalism/
You would have to be a damn fool to support a guy who as treasurer of this phoney conservative government cut $9.4billion off corporate taxes to benefit the rich , promised to cut 11,000 health care jobs, has treated our doctors, nurses, teachers and students like third class citizens. Add in the fact that he shows no sympathy for deaths attributed to the way they handled the COVID pandemic , scraping of Peter Lougheed’s coal protection, the trying to privatize our provincial parks, or kick out the RCMP yet brags about balancing the budget on the backs of Albertans while helping the rich steal our oil and tax wealth. When Ralph Klein was playing this game the MLAs I knew told me that he was forgiving far more than he was collecting on behalf of the people and you can bet Toews is no different. Looking after their rich friends, using the peoples wealth to buy votes is all they care about and why would Toews be any different?
Whee! Another Harry Strom tribute act! If history is to be repeated? I always new Rachel was a Lougheed gal! Please baby Jebus, let her run against a cotton-mouthed gay burning closet case!
My great aunt —my paternal grandmother’s sister—was the epitome of the sweet, little ole spinster, country gal, and Methodist church lady y’all ever seen—but such was near every lady ‘round abouts Jarret’s Corners, Upper Canada (as my uppers often called Ontario in remembrance of our ancestors who crossed the Niagara River ‘round abouts 1780).
This woman who was without moral blemish was also pretty handy with the Ouija board. Indeed, she left a cookie tin full of correspondences with people we’d never heard of who wanted to know how their sons (mostly) were doing after being killed in The Great War (both her and her sister —whom she lived with all their lives and outlived by about half a year—lost their fiancés in that War, and neither married). One time she spelled out the english translation of my first girlfriend’s Italian name years before we’d met, for one of many examples. Her sensitive telegrapher’s hand was, nevertheless, calloused by farm work she did her entire life (well, during her 40+ years keying code for the railway, it was mostly working in her huge, Rouge Hill garden on Saturn’s Days—and every day, retired, as a Briggs&Stratton garden-tractor mechanic and all-round family apothecary). But that might (underline “might”) have been the only thing she had in common with the Stetsoned key-puncher, Toews (whose accounting fingers must be pronounced “faves”). Her Ouija would have also favoured “good news” over “evangelism,” for one of many other distinctions. I’m not sure she ever visited Alberta, either.
I remember her very fondly. I was a young, acid-dropping university student in Victoria the night she died, back to Rouge Hill, Ontario: swear I saw her face looking in through the black-night windowpane of my housekeeping room (whatever it was, I aced the Russian exam next morning, losing only 2% for spelling my own name wrong—it’s okay, I’m completely norbal now).
As I cast my mind through the rainbow-edges of my back pages, I can almost see one of her cryptic Ouija messages appearing before my eyes right now. Yes…it’s coming into view… given Jason Kenney reckons hisself a “movement conservative,” n Taves believes in “servant leadership,” it’s that mysterious statement the planchette scraped across the spirit board:
“TAVES SERVES KENNEY’S MOVEMENT TO ALBERTANS.”
It didn’t make any sense at the time (almost sixty years ago), but as sure as Toews must distance himself from Kenney and the dead speak to the living, it sure makes sense now.
But, as I’m sure the most recent applicant for premiership over the Wild Rose province will soon discover, the devil’s in the details.
Scotty: Oddly enough, despite my father’s Anabaptist upbringing, I was raised in a variety of Methodist church, that is to say the Free Methodist variety, doctrinally unpolluted by reform theology like the Methodists who made up the bulk of the United Church of Canada with, quelle horreur, Presbyterians! The FMs certainly didn’t approve of Ouija boards. Implement of the Devil, like playing cards. On the other hand, old-school Methodists were pretty liberal, and the early trade union movement in England often met in Methodist chapels, which is why locals in many British unions and even are few Canadian ones are called “chapels” to this day. Indeed, the local president had the title “Father of Chapel,” starting a debate in some circles lately about whether if the woman who is elected to that role should be known as “Mother of Chapel.” DJC
As I recall, my great aunts did not have playing cards in their Rouge Hill house, neither the four-house deck nor Tarot —I just never thought of it until you mentioned it. But Crokinole? —look out!
Ida was always her own person, really a lovely person. She calmed mosquito irritation by quietly demonstrating the utility of a short sprig of hemlock tree and put witch-hazel all over everything and a saucer of decaying cottonwood leaves by the cellar door (took me years to figure that one out). For all her religion, she was fascinated with astrology and would rather interpret from a musty old book she had than read the forecast in the newspaper (had a friend who put himself through Ryerson writing daily astrology —for the Telegraph, if I recall—He basically just made it up by referring to some dime-store zodiac books) which was almost always out of date when the only one they read was the Saturn’s Day edition—with the funnies (my dad used to ask them: “remember the Yellow Kid?” And they’d giggle in simple mirth about some Katzenjammer Kids’ misadventure). She also held to the Farmer’s Almanac —but, then again, she was a walking almanac, herself. If she strayed from her native Methodism, it was probably just her nature—and not so much contamination from Presbyterian relatives like us (she attended my maternal grandfather’s funeral in Anglican rite to which his dear friend Healy Willan played the organ—an affair which would otherwise be altogether too “catholic” for her and her sister, but which she was too discrete to ever mention).
Thnx
Boring, frugal, “market fundamentalist”: what’s not to like?
Raising someone’s religious beliefs crosses a line, but I expect no less from the trolliest of troll websites like PP. Should Rachel Notely’s group value associations with organized labor disqualify her from public service? A least religion is a voluntary association unlike coerced association with labor unions.
The UCP needs a lower profile and less internal dissent. Toews could be the right leader for the times. With the gusher of O&G royalties likely be Alberta’s last, the province cannot afford to allocate the surplus to anything other than debt reduction. This combined with keeping wage settlements well under the rate of inflation could unexpectedly turn the province’s finances around in a meaningful way. Toews may not be craftly enough to outflank his opponents. The likes of the ATA, AUPE, HSAA and AFL are extremely well funded, highly motivated, exceptional at organization and skilled in communications. Toews could pull it off with the right campaign team.
Of course the man’s religion is relevant and crosses no lines at all beyond the disingenuous rhetoric used by the right wing in hopes of ending debate about the predatory policies and unsavoury beliefs. Right wing Christians, which is most evangelicals now days, fully intend to impose their religious beliefs on the rest of us. Banning contraceptives is only a step behind banning abortion, persecuting gays, and the rest of their damnable agenda right now. Press Progress should be thanked for their revelation.
I think there is one key word in this statement that makes it clear who Toews identifies as his support base. ““It’s time to lay aside our differences to focus on our shared vision — a hopeful future for our children and grandchildren, on the foundation of a free and prosperous Alberta,” he said.”
https://edmontonjournal.com/news/politics/alberta-finance-minister-travis-toews-officially-running-for-ucp-leadership
Alberta: Don’t Toews me bro!
Leaving aside the politics for a moment, don’t you find it interesting that ¾ of the declared candidates are from the North? And 1/2 are from the Peace Country? And by North, I don’t mean Edmonton, which despite its conceit about being “Northen Alberta” is actually in the southern half of the province, as defined by the 54° 30′ parallel — halfway between the province’s southern border along the 49th parallel and its northern along the 60th. That line of latitude runs roughly through the hamlet of Fawcett, in Westlock County, according to Google Earth.
Of course, Brian Jean is from Fort McMurray, aka the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo. Mr Toews is from the Beaverlodge area, about 40 km West of Grande Prairie, along Highway 43 from just West of Edmonton to the BC border, en route to Dawson Creek and the Alaska Highway. Mr Loewen is from Valleyview, also along Highway 43 but about an hour or so East of Grande Prairie, at the intersection of Highways 43 and 49 up to the Town of Peace River.
So, thus far, the only candidate from Calgary is Danielle Smith. Hmmm … given her history, I am dubious of her chances.
Commentors are very knowledgeable and wise to define these “Evangelicals”, as Domininists. The Dominionist rotters in the USA fully embraced Duhnald Trumpanov, resulting in Black Evangelicals to officially break away and disassociate themselves from their White Brethren. The most prominent White Evangelical leader, Franklin Graham, the son of Billy Graham, along with Mike Pence traveled to Russia to meet the Head of the Russian Orthodox Church, knelt down to kiss the ring of the Russian Orthodox Leader, who has blessed the Terrorist Attack on Ukraine by Putin. Travis Toews’ passive outward persona is disguising a Wolf in Sheeps’ Clothing, which for me is much more dangerous than a disingenuous goofball such as Bumbles Kenney, who unconsciously demonstrates who and what he is.
It’s 2022 and we’re still allowing boomers that are stuck in the 70s to rule the country?