Jason Kenney eschewed the staged microphone and desk set up for his presentation at the Seniors Drop-In Centre in Boyle Oct. 17.
Instead, the former Conservative federal minister stood for over an hour, pitching the idea of a united Progressive Conservative and Wildrose Party to about 35 locals.
After speaking about his role in creating the united federal Conservative Party in 1997, his rural Saskatchewan upbringing, and his federal minister roles, Kenney segued into his decision to enter provincial politics.
“I just thought, something has to be done about this because, if we sleepwalk our way into a vote split in the next election, the NDP could win a second term,” he said.
He pitched the crowd with a united right party, which would bring together the Conservatives and the Wildrose to defeat the NDP in the 2018 election.
Kenney said he respected the Progressive Conservatives who built “the Alberta Advantage.”
“I think, at the same time, those of us who are Progressive Conservatives must admit, in all humility, that in recent years, some mistakes have been made that have lost the confidence of Albertans,” he added. “And that’s why hundreds of thousands of our fellow Albertans who had supported the PCs for four decades decided to go and create and support their own political views with the Wildrose.”
He noted that while the NDP netted 620,000 votes in the provincial election – compared to 360,000 votes for Wildrose and 410,000 for the PCs – around 1.2 million Albertans voted for the Conservatives in the federal election.
“What I’m proposing is a broad, diverse, tolerant, principled free-enterprise coalition like they’ve got in Saskatchewan, like we did federally, that focuses on what unites us, not what divides us,” Kenney said.
He proposed a five-point plan to unite Alberta around what he called “our traditional values.”
“Firstly, I’m seeking a mandate from the Progressive Conservative party to pursue unity,” Kenney said. “I’ll be very honest about this, no hidden agendas. Should I get that mandate at the PC convention next march, I would then take that to begin a discussion on an agreement with the Wildrose Party, on creating one broad party.”
The third step, he said, would be to hold a referendum with “grassroots members” of both parties.
“I call this my ‘grassroots guarantee,’ because we must never repeat the kind of backroom horse-trading that led to those floor-cross seats,” he said. “That was rejected by everyone, that was the wrong way to do this.”
If the members ratify the agreement, Kenney said, he would set up the party in the latter half of 2017 at a big democratic convention and elect a new leader.
After his pitch was complete, he took questions from the crowd. One person asked if he would remain as an MLA if he was voted in for his riding, but not as a party leader.
He answered in the affirmative, saying that his ultimate goal was to “get the ball rolling” on a conservative merger.
