With two months of campaigning before United Conservative Party members pick their next leader, the seven candidates for the job took the stage in Medicine Hat to pitch their vision of the province.
Vying for the UCP leadership are former Wildrose leaders Brian Jean and Danielle Smith; former members of outgoing Premier Jason Kenney’s cabinet Travis Toews, Rebecca Schultz, Rajan Sawhney and Leela Aheer; and exiled independent MLA Todd Loewen.
The debate didn’t focus on rural- or agricultural-specific issues. The candidate list is dominated by former and current MLAs from outside Alberta’s major centres. But Calgary-based Sawhney appeared to raise the topic more than the rest.
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“We know that there is a huge food insecurity issue. Look at what is happening in Ukraine,” Sawhney told the crowd in response to a debate question referencing economic diversification. “Here, in Alberta, we have everything that we need to create agri-food corridors.”
The Calgary North-West MLA referenced her efforts to build up the agri-food corridor along Highway 3 running from Medicine Hat to Lethbridge while minister of transportation.
The hot topic of the supply and cost of fertilizer was also raised, with Smith stating she would invoke her proposed sovereignty act to prevent Ottawa-imposed restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions.
Referencing the 1867 Constitution Act’s section 95, which outlines provincial jurisdiction on matters of agriculture, Smith said when it comes to reducing fertilizer production to meet emission targets, “we will not enforce that.
“We’ll make sure our farmers have a steady supply of fertilizer so we can feed the world.”
Smith said earlier in the debate that her views have changed since she was leader of the Wildrose party and she is now a believer in climate change.
Schulz was overall a skeptic of Smith’s position on a sovereignty act, but she did agree with the need for the province to push back on regulations targeting emissions reductions for fertilizer.
“But we should be careful in other areas of making promises we can’t keep,” said Schulz.
On the topic of health care, Toews said the current system is failing rural Albertans.
“AHS (Alberta Health Service) needs complete restructuring and we have to decentralize its decision-making structure,” he said during the debate.
In a post-debate scrum with media, Toews questioned the UCP government’s own 2020 AHS review, which found the organization’s management positions relative to number of staff is in line with industry averages.
For Jean, the number of AHS’s middle managers has long dominated his view on health care.
Asked about years of promises on the topic and past commitments to address the issues, Jean said, “when they elect me as premier, I will fix that problem.”
The UCP plans to hold a second debate in Edmonton in August before the results of the vote by party members are announced on Oct. 6.
