Alberta PCs gather to elect new leader

Alberta’s Progressive Conservatives gather in Calgary Saturday to pick a new leader, capping a potentially watershed campaign defined by the existential question of whether the party should even exist.

Leadership candidate Richard Starke said the exchange of ideas was eclipsed in the race by debates over the plan put forward by rival candidate Jason Kenney to wind up the party and seek a new coalition with the fellow right- centre Wildrose to defeat the NDP in the next election.

“There has been very little talk about policy, and that’s frustrating to me,” said Starke in an interview.

“It’s politicians that think about the next election and that’s where their focus ends. People who are nation builders think not just about the next election, they think about the next generation.”

Candidate Byron Nelson said he was surprised at the extent to which Kenney’s plan dominated the campaign.

“The unity issue was the single l argest ballot box question (when it came to picking voting delegates),” said Nelson.

Kenney, through his campaign team, declined an interview.

The 48- year- old ex- MP and Conservative cabinet minister under former prime minister Stephen Harper has been the centre of attention since he launched his campaign last summer, months before the race officially opened. His team says he has enough delegates to capture the leadership.

A victory for Kenney will accomplish the first step on a timeline he released last July to unify conservatives.

The next step would be to negotiate a framework agreement with the Wildrose to create a new party. Alberta election rules forbid two parties from merging. Instead they must fold up and surrender their assets. After that, goes the plan, members in both parties would approve the new entity later this year and then candidates and constituencies would be put in place in 2018 to fight the next election, scheduled for the spring of 2019.

Nelson said it’s a road map with no road but a lot of potential detours, adding that the party leader is but one voice on the executive.

There’s also the Wildrose. Party leader Brian Jean has said he is open to a merger, but on Wildrose terms.