By Ashley Wiebe CHAT News (@CHATTVawiebe on Twitter)

PC leadership candidates debate unity, carbon tax

Feb 2, 2017 | 5:13 AM

MEDICINE HAT — Alberta PC leadership hopefuls met in Medicine Hat Wednesday, Feb. 1.

A formal debate between Jason Kenney, Richard Starke and Byron Nelson was held at the college.

Kenney spoke again about why the PC party should merge with the Wildrose.

“The Wildrose and PC parties agree on pretty much everything right now,” he said. “There’s no good reason to risk a second NDP term because of a vote split.”

Starke disagrees, saying the merger was ‘torpedoed’ by Wildrose leader Brian Jean.

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“To continue talking about a plan that is already dead on arrival is pointless,” he said. “What I proposed last week, and didn’t give a great detail on, was some form of cooperation.”

Starke suggests a coalition or a form of agreement to cooperate with the Wildrose.

But Nelson said now isn’t the right time to discuss merging.

“I’m not offended if we talk about uniting, but realistically there’s zero chance that we can go down a path that leads to one conservative party before the next election and time to actually ramp up before the next election,” Nelson said.

This marked the final debate before a new leader is chosen on March 18th.