United Conservative Party leadership hopeful Brian Jean made a stop in Lethbridge on Saturday to host a meet and greet. He met with supporters at the Lethbridge Senior Citizens Organization to discuss his platform and vision for the UCP.
“The UCP is there to serve Albertans,” he Jean said. “I would like to make Albertans the happiest and the healthiest, most free and the most prosperous people on the planet.”
Jean’s platform is focused on freedom and autonomy for Alberta.
“I think Albertans need to be in an opportunity to have freedom to choose for their body — their body, their choice, that’s personal autonomy,” he said. “Financial autonomy is making sure that Albertans own things. They have houses, they own businesses — they don’t rent.
Jean said creating more affordable housing for average Albertans does not include regulating markets, but rather banks have to be competitive to offer first-time buyer opportunities.
“Regulation does not work. All that happens is some people get very rich and some people get very poor, and there’s not enough homes out there. And there’s not enough places for people to have homes,” he said.
As part of autonomy and freedom, Jean said he wants to make sure Alberta’s Bill of Rights is supreme over federal law. “We think we might have a way to do that. So we’re going to pass legislation that gives people more rights entrenched in the Bill of Rights in Alberta,” he said.
For healthcare, Jean said there needs to be new solutions and more doctors in the province.
“It’s unacceptable. What’s happening right now, we’re spending more money than we’ve ever spent on our healthcare system. And we’re getting some of the worst outcomes in the world,” he said. “It’s the operations, it’s not an issue of money, take the money off the table. Let’s not worry about it. We have the money, let’s fix the system.”
One idea he proposed was a mobile service where patients can get medication and treatment without leaving their homes.
A new leader will be chosen for the UCP on Oct. 6.
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