The Wildrose Party has officially accepted an opportunity to 'Unite The Right' along with the provincial PCs following Thursday's announcement from party leader Brian Jean.

Jean even went on to say he'd step down as leader of his party and run for the leadership of the party formed, whatever their new name would be.  

Wildrose Highwood MLA Wayne Anderson says the merger has been on the table for quite some time.

"The question always pops up 'What about unite the right?' ", he says. "As a caucus group we had talked about it for some time, the main concern for Albertans is that they don't want to see this NDP government get a foothold here and stay in a second term, they want the NDP out."

The PC's were the powerhouse of Alberta politics for four decades before their falling out in 2015 when the NDP won the majority vote winning 55 of the 87 seats at the legislature, while the Wildrose became the official opposition with 22 seats and the PC's ending up with eight.

Anderson says since the election the PC's are not who they were back in 2015 when they lost the election on Albertans having enough of their past tendencies.

"That protest vote was against the back room dealing the underground, the little bit of corruption that was going on with the Redford/Stelmach regime so a lot of us left the party in 06-07 and in 09-10 we started the Wildrose as the true conservative alternative."

Federal MP Jason Kenney threw his hat into the ring to run as the leader of the PC's in 2016 but with the merger on the horizon, Anderson says that changes everything for his attempt at being a political leader in the province.

"The PC Party as it sits today has not endorsed his mandate and nor did the Wildrose directly endorse his mandate. We've always said we're open for Conservatives to work with us. His plan is to dispose both parties and put us in a poor financial position where our plan is pretty straight forward, we've got some money in the bank and let's keep that going and let's keep fundraising, but let's work under a Conservative banner and if you want a name change we'll talk to the constituents."

Anderson says Jean taking the risk of re-running for leader of the party, when he could have just stayed put, says plenty about his character and looking at the bigger picture in the future for Albertans.

"He is a stand-up guy, he's saying 'Look folks, I'm putting everything on the line and I'm doing this for the sake of Albertans' because we know people in Alberta right now are hurting and we can't afford this NDP government to get a foothold here and move forward in a second term and that's really what it's all about."

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