Kenney upbeat on prospects of unity among conservatives

The self-imposed deadline for a roadmap of how the Progressive Conservative and Wildrose parties will unify under a single conservative banner rolled right on by on Friday.

A last-minute news conference with PC leader Jason Kenney Friday morning posed a glimmer of unite-plan possibilities, but that faded when it became clear Wildrose Leader Brian Jean wasn’t coming.

Instead, as the NDP marked two years since the 2015 election that shot them into power, Kenney slammed the government for what he called two years of “ideological, socialist” rule.

“This is the reason why free-enterprise Albertans need to unite — to ensure the defeat of this government next election — and we’re working hard on that,” Kenney said.

It was six weeks ago that Kenney stood in the same spot in front of the Alberta Federal Building in Edmonton and declared his optimism there would be a roadmap to unity in four to six weeks.

On Friday, Kenney said that had been more of an aspirational goal than anything.

Unity is getting close, Kenney said, with the differences between the Wildrose and PCs narrowing considerably.

He wouldn’t weigh into what those differences are, saying he won’t negotiate in public, but said there are dozens of issues to sort out, from legal and governance questions to developing a statement of principles.

“I’m optimistic we’ll come in close to our timeline here,” he said, but would go no further than the word “soon.”

Jean has also bandied that word around, doing so again in a YouTube video posted online Friday.

“The news I have is encouraging,” he said.

“The unity discussion group has made significant headway and I’m very optimistic they will come out of this with a proposal for our members to review.”

Like Kenney, Jean has been hesitant to weigh into negotiations publicly, although he reiterated this week that he’s still behind the idea of a new united party being built on the Wildrose framework.

Jean’s argument in the past has been it would preserve his party’s strong legal basis.

It would also allow Wildrose to keep its significant war chest, since Alberta elections law doesn’t allow the transfer of assets between parties.

The PC leader received some criticism last week when he showed up in Vancouver, where a provincial election is currently being fought.

On Friday, Kenney denied he was campaigning for the Liberals, saying he was there mostly for a conference, but also attended one event with some “personal political friends” and one with the Vancouver Centre Conservative Party of Canada constituency association.

Kenney said a new conservative force might look a lot like the

The unity discussion group has made significant headway and I’m very optimistic they will come out of this with a proposal for our members to review.

B.C. Liberal Party, but that doesn’t mean he agrees with the Liberals on every policy.

No matter the nature of a proposed unity agreement, Kenney is targeting — and expects — a majority vote far greater than 50 per cent plus one.

“At the end of the day, the members are in charge of the direction of the party, and 75 per cent of the members gave me a mandate to go in the unity direction,” he said.

“I’m going to be shooting for the biggest number we can get.”