EDMONTON — Alberta Finance Minister Travis Toews has resigned from cabinet as he starts his campaign to replace Jason Kenney as United Conservative Party leader and premier.

Toews, in a statement issued Tuesday, said he wants to focus on healing rifts in UCP, on listening to Albertans and on returning to the party’s core values.

"I'm running to lead our party back to the foundations that united us. It's time to lay aside our differences to focus on our shared vision," said Toews.

Kenney said he had received a resignation letter from Toews earlier in the day and had not decided on a replacement.

Cabinet ministers wishing to run to replace Kenney must resign their posts and he has emphasized he will not be advocating for a particular candidate.

"(Toews) has done a fantastic job in that (finance) role," Kenney said.

"I will not be endorsing any candidates for the leadership. It will be for the members of the United Conservative Party to assess the candidates once they have a full field."

Toews, 57, is a first-term member of the legislature from the constituency of Grande Prairie-Wapiti and has been finance minister since the start of Kenney's government in April 2019.

Toews is a certified professional accountant and certified management accountant, is past president of the Canadian Cattlemen's Association and has a family-run cattle operation.

Those rawhide roots are prominent on his campaign web page, which features a photo of him in a cowboy hat and open-necked, dirt-flecked shirt on his ranch near Beaverlodge in northwest Alberta. 

There's also a video of Toews tall in the saddle, rounding up cattle, having dinner with his family, pushing grandkids on the swing and echoing Kenney's signature phrase: "I believe in servant leadership."

Toews steered the budget through multibillion-dollar deficits and unprecedented negative energy prices during the COVID-19 pandemic. Those woes were followed by a dramatic reversal in February when rocketing oil and gas revenues helped deliver a modest $500-million budget surplus.

Toews was viewed as one of the steady hands in Kenney's cabinet. He eschewed the high-decibel enthusiasm of some ministers and avoided messy controversies that engulfed others.

There has been criticism, notably over Toews promising no tax increases, then in 2019 de-indexing income tax from inflation, effectively pushing taxpayers into higher brackets. 

He has been the point person for government changes to auto insurance, including lifting the rate cap in 2019. He has acknowledged public concern over rising premiums but says changes by the province have made insurance sustainable, flexible and affordable over the long haul.

Toews has also been front-and-centre in contract talks. He initiated legislation in 2019 to unilaterally alter legally binding deals with public sector unions. He later sought to claw back wages for nurses in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A number of cabinet ministers are still mulling leadership bids, including Children's Services Minister Rebecca Schulz and Transportation Minister Rajan Sawhney.

"I do have an internal timeline (to decide) and I'm just not ready to talk about that yet," Sawhney said Tuesday at the legislature on her way into a cabinet meeting.

Asked about Toews's candidacy, she said: "Travis is a wonderful man, but what this race needs right now is just not more of the same."

UCP backbencher Brian Jean and Danielle Smith — both former Wildrose Party leaders — have said they will run for Kenney's job.

The party is working out the logistics of a vote and has not announced a date or any other details. 

Kenney received lukewarm support of 51.4 per cent in a leadership review two weeks ago. He said the vote revealed rifts in the party that need to be mended, especially with an election just one year away.

 This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 31, 2022.

Dean Bennett, The Canadian Press