'I'm confident,' says Jason Kenney as PC party looks at complaint
Jeff Rath says merger vision runs counter to the PC party's constitution
Alberta Progressive Conservative leadership candidate Jason Kenney is calling a bid to disqualify him from the race an attack on democracy.
Kenney has campaigned on a promise that he will seek to unite the PCs with the Wildrose Party so a new unified party can take on the NDP in the 2019 election.
That's prompted a formal complaint by a party member, who says Kenney is breaking the rules by harming the party's brand.
"I believe there are people in the party who have reasonable questions or doubts about our unity plan, and I respect that," Kenney told CBC Calgary News at 6 on Friday.
"And they should demonstrate their view in the voting process, in the democratic process, not by trying to quash an election and shred ballots."
The party's leadership election committee will discuss the complaint at a meeting Sunday, but the candidate is confident that he won't be pulled from the ballot before the March 18 vote.
"I think this would be a total repudiation of the basic principles of democracy, and I'm confident the party won't take that kind of step," said Kenney.
The party member and lawyer who filed the complaint, Jeff Rath, has argued that Kenney's vision runs counter to the PC party's constitution.
"He's not running to be the leader of the Progressive Conservative party. He's running to destroy the party so that he can then form a new party that he's going to run and become leader of," Rath said.
Rath is a volunteer on PC leadership candidate Richard Starke's leadership campaign, but says he's doing this independently.
With files from CBC Calgary News at 6