He served in the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba from 1999 to 2005 as a member of the Progressive Conservative Party,[1] and campaigned for the House of Commons of Canada in 2006 and 2008 as a Liberal.
[4] There were concerns that the Winnipeg company's autonomy would be undermined by the national bank, but the CIBC initially allowed it to remain fairly independent.
He developed a plan to financially support the province's Olympic athletes in the early 1990s, and helped establish the Winnipeg Thunder basketball team in 1992 with future mayor Sam Katz.
[8] Loewen helped create the Manitoba Entertainment Complex group (MEC) in 1994, in an effort to purchase controlling shares in the Winnipeg Jets hockey franchise and keep the team in the city.
Loewen argued that the National Hockey League and commissioner Gary Bettman undermined his efforts, by presenting unreasonable demands shortly before an official deadline.
[12] Until 2012 John Loewen was the President of Telpay, an electronic payments company which was originally started as a research and development project by Comcheq.
The New Democratic Party won the election, and Loewen became a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) in the Official Opposition.
[16] 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.
[17] Loewen became involved a serious controversy in early 2002, after issuing a media notice that was strongly critical of Manitoba's Crocus investment portfolio.
[18] 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.
[20] Loewen criticized several parties, including the government, opposition and senior Crocus management, when discussing the firm's failure in a 2007 interview.
As a volunteer, he is leading the fund raising efforts for construction of the North End Wellness Centre in Winnipeg.