Wildrose open to merger

Wildrose Leader Brian Jean has opened the door to uniting with the Progressive Conservatives to end more than a decade of bruising political infighting between Alberta's centre-right parties.

But Jean said if it's going to happen, the Wildrose members have to say yes, and it will be done under the Wildrose umbrella and under Wildrose rules.

"While I am confident that Wildrose would defeat (Premier Rachel Notley's) NDP on our own in the next election, consolidating and uniting like-minded conservatives under a single banner is the best chance that we'll be successful," Jean said Thursday in a video statement released online to the media and to party members.

Jean also said if the party votes to merge, he will step down as leader and run in a leadership race to be held this summer.

"Let me be clear on this point — I plan to be Alberta's next premier," said Jean.

"It is my vision and my plan to make Alberta a place of unparalleled greatness, leading the strongest period of job creation in our history."

He said he is acting on the wishes of a majority of party members who have told him over the past year he should pursue unity but only in a way that honours the Wildrose commitment to grassroots democracy.

He said he and other caucus members will now fan out to engage in a series of town hall meetings to gauge the interest and attain a "clear mandate" to hold such a vote "if the PC members select a dance partner that we've been looking for."

The Progressive Conservative party is currently in a leadership race that has two of the four candidates running on a promise to seek a deal with the Wildrose.

Candidate Jason Kenney says if he wins the March 18 delegated vote, he will seek a mandate to dissolve the party and merge it with a dissolved Wildrose party to create a new conservative entity, possibly titled the Conservative Party of Alberta.

He has put forward a timeline to have party rank-and-filed make the major decisions, with a united party in place ready to fight the next scheduled provincial election in the spring of 2019.

Earlier Thursday, PC leadership candidate Richard Starke, a staunch critic of Kenney's unity plan, reversed course and said he, too, would seek some kind of accommodation with the Wildrose, although he didn't give details on what that might look like.

The other two PC candidates, Calgary lawyer Byron Nelson and former PC MLA Stephen Khan, are running to not merge but rather rebuild the party, which finished third in the last election after governing Alberta for more than four decades.

Kenney's campaign has polarized debate within the party. Critics say he is moving the PCs to the fringe and away from the political mainstream by embracing the Wildrose brand of social conservatism.

Two leadership candidates, Sandra Jansen and Donna Kennedy-Glans, quit the race last year, saying progressive voices were being forced out. Jansen, a Calgary MLA, has since joined Notley's caucus.