Jason Kenney lays out plan for uniting the right in Alberta

Jason Kenney made it clear Thursday he is not running for the leadership of Alberta's Progressive Conservative partyfor any reason other than uniting the right.

"This is not a conventional leadership campaign. I'm not asking people to vote for me because of a set of policy proposals, because I'm Mr. Congeniality," Kenneysaid in a 40-minute news conference in Edmonton.

"I am asking people to vote on whether or not they support the concept of uniting free-enterprise Albertans."

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The MP laid out in detail how he plans to unite the Alberta PCs and the Wildrose party. Kenneydismissedthat fact thatboth partieshave madeclear they have no interest in coming together under a single banner, sayinghe needstobring in "tens of thousands" of new members to make his plan work.

The five-point plan would begin with him winning the contestto become the nextPCleader,in March 2017.

"If I win the PC leadership, with a clear mandate for it to pursue unity, that means the vast majority of members support it," he said.

Kenneywould immediately negotiate an agreement framework between the PC and the Wildrose. He saidthat would be challenging butsimilar to what he and his colleagues accomplished at the federal level in 2003 when the Canadian Alliance mergedwith the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada.

The parties would then submit the agreement to their members in a referendum, he said.

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If approved, the new party would be constituted in mid-2017 and in2018, the newly-named party would begin recruiting a "dream team" of candidates, he said.

As for the new name for the party, Kenneyoffered hisfavourite,the Conservative Party of Alberta.