Provincial Politics
Loewen entered political life in Manitoba's 1999 provincial election, winning election for the newly-created south Winnipeg constituency of Fort Whyte. Running as a Progressive Conservative, he defeated New Democrat Bidhu Jha by 3,665 votes. The New Democratic Party won the election, and Loewen became a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) in the Official Opposition. 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 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 rather than the right-wing Canadian Alliance 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. In the same year, he criticized the provincial New Democratic government of Gary Doer 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 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.
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