CLARKWATCH: Follow news and updates regarding sanctions on Mayor Clark.

Local members say Alberta PC leadership vote will determine party’s future

Mar 17, 2017 | 4:36 PM

CALGARY — After nearly one full year of campaigning, the Progressive Conservative Party of Alberta will have a new leader.

The party is gathering in Calgary starting today for its leadership convention. Former Conservative Party MP Jason Kenney, Vermillion-Lloydminster MLA Richard Starke and Calgary lawyer Byron Nelson are running to replace Interim Leader Ric McIver.

Local members of the party say the weekend is of utmost importance for the future of the party.

“From my perspective, it’s a make-or-break weekend, in terms of what direction we’re going to go,” said Bill Grady, past-president of the PC Party’s constituency association. “Depending on if Mr. Kenney gets to be the leader, he wants to go one direction, and others in the party – and I’m one of them – don’t want to go that way. We’d rather stay the course where we’re at.”

“It’s going to indicate the direction the delegates want to go for leader, and then that will obviously indicate the direction of how the leader wants to take the party down the road,” said Blake Pedersen, president of the Medicine Hat riding constituency association, over the phone from Calgary.

Kenney, who started his campaign last July, is considered the front-runner for the campaign. His team says he has enough delegates to win a majority and capture the leadership of the party.

Kenney is running on a platform to unite the Progressive Conservative and Wildrose parties. If he is elected leader, his next step is to speak with Wildrose Leader Brian Jean about a merge, a discussion Jean says he is open towards, but on Wildrose terms.

Alberta election rules forbid two parties from merging. Instead they must fold up and surrender their assets.

After a potential merger, Kenney’s plan states 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.

Whoever the new leader ends up being, both Pedersen and Grady say they have a key first priority of determing a direction of the party.

“The most important thing will be to try and bring some kind of calm back into the party,” said Pedersen. “There’s certainly been some unrest, and I think, some difficult times over the last number of months, just basically, different directions, and different ideas and a different vision for what each leader is proposing.”

“I think the priority is going to be to come out with the stamp of where we want to go as Progressive Conservatives, and how we’re going to get there,” said Grady. “I think that has to be established right off the bat.”

Voting for leader runs Saturday, and a winner could be known as early as 4:30 p.m.

-With Files from The Canadian Press