Wildrose 'not our enemies,' Kenney says in PC leadership pitch

Progressive Conservative leadership candidate Jason Kenney urged delegates at the party's convention in Calgary not to see the Wildrose as the enemy and to unite undera single conservative party.

"It is time to park the egos, the brands, the labels, and the resentments. Itis time to put Alberta first," Kenneysaid.

"Wildrosemembers are not enemies. They are former Progressive Conservatives."

But hisopponent, Vermilion-LloydminsterMLARichardStarke, told delegates that he was both a progressive and a conservative and he arguedthe party is better off whenmembersremain that way.

"You will have to pry my Progressive Conservative membership card out of my cold, dead, hands," he said.

About 1,700 delegates are eligible to pick the next,and possibly last, Alberta PC leader this weekend. Results of the first ballot are expected around 4:30 p.m. MT Saturday.

Kenney, Starke and Calgary businessman Byron Nelson are vying to replace the late Jim Prentice as permanent party leader.

Kenney, widely believed to be the frontrunner, has run an aggressive campaign that launched last summer, well before the official start of the race on Oct. 1.

• Big shift in Alberta politics expected as Conservatives choose new leader
• Wildrose Leader Brian Jean willing to step down to head united conservative party

Since then, the race has become a divisive battle between Kenney's supporters, many with ties to the Wildrose and federal Conservative parties, and long-time party members who want to continue under a reinvigorated PC banner under either Starke or Nelson.

Kenney wants to become leader only to dissolve it in favour of creating a united conservative party.

But Starke and Nelson want to continue under the PC brand. Nelson said sticking with centrist PCs is the only way to defeat the NDP in the next election.

"I don't want to be saying I told you so, " he told delegates. "I want what's best for Alberta, not by duct taping two broken parties together but by renewing and rebuilding right here, right now, the Progressive Conservative party of Alberta."

More than 'the quickest path to power'

In January, Brian Jean said he would be willing to step aside as Wildrose leader to seek the leadership of a new united conservative party to run against the NDP in 2019.

Jean sent a news release Friday indicating he has invited the new leader to meet with him on Monday. If Kenney wins, presumably those talks will beabout uniting the right.

Jean said he and his caucus told members they want to preserve the Wildrose legal framework into a single conservative party governed by the grassroots.

"While not everyone agrees, there is a common voice that we must not tear down, but build up all that we as Wildrose achieved as a party and for our province," Jean said in the statement.

"That the idea of a united conservative movement must be more than the quickest path to power, but must serve the best interests of current and future generations.

The vote marks the first time the party has chosen a leader through a delegated convention since Don Getty was chosen to replace Peter Lougheed in 1985.