Calgary Herald

Wildrose, Tories remain tight-lipped as unificatio­n talks progress

- JAMES WOOD jwood@postmedia.com

Talks on uniting the Wildrose and Progressiv­e Conservati­ves are moving forward but those around the table aren’t ready to go public.

In March, Wildrose Leader Brian Jean and PC Leader Jason Kenney announced a unity discussion group with MLAs and other representa­tives from each party.

In a joint release put out by each party, the group said it had held five meetings, with another scheduled for Friday.

“While progress has been made, there still remains much to discuss,” read the release.

When the group was announced on March 24, it was tasked to report to members within four to six weeks.

Friday’s release said the group is “confident we will be able to report back to members of both parties in the weeks to come.”

PC party interim executive director Janice Harrington said the group has given no indication it will not meet its original timeline for reporting, which would entail a May 5 deadline.

She said the group, which includes Wildrose MLAs Pat Stier and Jason Nixon, and Tory MLA Ric McIver, have committed to not speaking publicly about its work until it is ready to report.

Jean and Kenney, who do not sit on the committee, have refused to comment on the talks.

The group announced Friday that energy executive Tanis Fiss has been serving as an independen­t chair to schedule and organize meetings.

Uniting parties is a complex task. Elections Alberta says there is no mechanism for parties to merge and provincial law forbids the transfer of assets between parties.

Any agreement on bringing the Wildrose and Tories together is expected to be put to the membership of each party for approval.

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Brian Jean

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