So at the announcement of a leadership campaign focused on unifying Alberta’s conservatives, the cap, a symbol of what many have called most divisive major political candidate in recent memory, appeared alongside the logo of an off-shoot political party that overtook Alberta’s PCs in seats last election.
Advertisement
On Wednesday, Kenney announced he’s running for the PCs with a mandate to unite the party with the Wildrose.
Kenney made it clear at a news conference in Edmonton that he isn’t interested in the Progressive Conservatives or the Opposition Wildrose taking each other over.
His idea is that each party would hold a referendum on whether to approve the union before a new party was formed. “If we have done that nationally, it would be a walk in the park to do it in Alberta”.
“This grassroots democracy is absolutely non-negotiable”.
“The Conservative Party of Alberta has a nice ring to it”, he said. The party with the larger bank account (in this case, the Wildrose) would survive while the party with the smaller bank account (the Progressive Conservatives) would have its money seized by Elections Alberta. “That is what has worked for us federally”.
The former Conservative cabinet minister said he would also let his name stand in any race to pick the leader for a newly formed party. He said he anticipates that leadership run would come in the winter of 2017-18.
In an interview, Kenney said he will step down as an MP when the PC race begins on October 1.
Smith told CTV News Channel that convincing Wildrose supporters to pay to join the Alberta Conservatives and vote on the leadership race will be hard, but that earning the support of traditional Conservative voters to endorse the merge could be even tougher.
“Leadership is crucial to putting like-minded Albertans back together and, if you look at Mr. Kenney’s resume and his body of work, he has garnered respect everywhere he has gone and he has not shied away from hard and complex issues”, said McAllister, who has a communications and consulting business. “I’m sure that 99.99 per cent of people who want to go to my website just Google it”.
A mischievous pollster could have a lot of fun by asking Albertans whether they would now rather vote for Rachel Notley or Ralph Klein.
– Electing a new leader for the PCs.
Much of Kenney’s speech appeared aimed at Wildrose supporters and touched on most of that party’s hot-button issues, including parental rights, the NDP’s carbon tax, plans to increase the minimum wage and farm-safety legislation.
– Submitting the framework to the grassroots from both parties for approval.
“This is not a conventional leadership campaign”.
Advertisement
Jason Kenney, now the federal MP for Calgary Midnapore, believes he’s the right person to lead that charge. The election punted the once-mighty Tories into third-party status in the province while prompting concerns that the the right-of-centre parties would need to set aside their differences and join forces if they wanted to prevent the New Democrats from winning again.
