Conservative MP and former federal cabinet minister Jason Kenney announced today that he’s running for leadership of Alberta’s Progressive Conservative Party with plans to unite the province’s Conservative and Wildrose parties.

Kenney made the announcement Wednesday afternoon at a Calgary hotel, flanked by supporters from both right-wing parties.

“We must come together to form a single free enterprise party and we must do so before the next election. Because, to coin a phrase, Albertans can’t wait,” Kenney said, standing before a banner that read “Unite Alberta.”

“Friends, that is why I have decided to seek the leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party of Alberta.”

Kenney currently represents the Calgary Midnapore riding in the House of Commons and served as a cabinet minister under former Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

The announcement officially ends speculation that Kenney could run for the federal Conservative leadership, a role currently held by interim leader Rona Ambrose. Kenney acknowledged that he considered the job, but “after a great deal of reflection” decided to pursue the provincial leadership race instead.

In a wide-ranging speech that quoted conservative leaders such as Ronald Reagan and Winston Churchill, Kenney criticized Alberta’s “ideological” and “accidental” NDP government for shutting down the coal industry and increasing taxes – particularly the new carbon tax announced last year.

“Albertans I meet cannot believe that we have a government that is systematically destroying the Alberta advantage that made this province a magnet for risk-takers and wealth-creators,” Kenney said. “And they are disturbed to find that we have both federal and provincial governments that seem today to be ashamed of our huge engine of wealth and opportunity: our oil and gas industry.”

The Progressive Conservatives finished third in the May 2015 provincial election, ending four decades of PC rule and ushering in a new NDP government under Premier Rachel Notley. Since then, Kenney has been highly critical of the NDP government, accusing it of destroying Alberta’s economy and not supporting the energy sector.

Speaking of his ambitious plan to unite Alberta’s Wildrose and Conservative parties, Kenney pointed out how the federal Conservative Party and the Canadian Alliance merged in 2003.

“It’s what we have done already together in something called the Conservative Party of Canada. This isn’t difficult. This isn’t new. This isn’t reinventing the wheel,” he said.

“This is about a lot more than a merger between two political parties. It’s about uniting Albertans of all backgrounds and walks of life.”

Kenney also praised Canada’s record on immigration and spoke of people “from every corner of the Earth” being drawn to Canada as a “land of opportunity.” But Kenney rejected the idea that Canada is a post-national state without a “core identity,” and instead suggested that “ordered liberty” in the legal system and business sector is responsible for the country’s success.

“I am a Conservative because I believe we have an obligation to transmit and renew these traditions of ordered liberty that have helped to make Canada the envy of the world,” Kenney said.

PC members will elect a new leader on March 18, 2017.

Former Wildrose leader Danielle Smith, who tried and failed to unify the two parties in 2014, said she thinks Kenney has a “50/50 chance” of winning the Conservative leadership race.

Smith told CTV News Channel that convincing Wildrose supporters to pay to join the Alberta Conservatives and vote on the leadership race will be difficult, but that earning the support of traditional Conservative voters to endorse the merge could be even tougher.

“The biggest challenge that I see he faces is he has to win over the rank-and-file members of the Progressive Conservative Party,” Smith said Wednesday afternoon.

“The speech that I saw him give today … it was very clearly designed to win over traditional Wildrose supporters, to get them to go out and buy PC memberships to support him. I don’t know that he had much in there for the traditional progressive supporter who is currently making up most of the boards and committee and even the MLAs in the current Progressive Conservative Party.”

Kenney is considered both a fiscal and social conservative, and his voting record on social issues – such as his opposition to abortion in the past -- is a concern for some within the party. Conservative MLA Sandra Jansen said she opposes the idea of a blended caucus and is concerned about Kenney’s values.

“Jason’s record speaks for itself. Certainly in the past he’s been anti-abortion, the federal Conservatives certainly on the niqab issue upset a lot of Muslim who live in my constituency. The barbaric practices tip-line certainly didn’t go over well either. Those are not the values of Albertans,” Jansen told CTV News Channel on Wednesday.

“We have to get back to the centre of the political spectrum. We know we have work to do … but at the same time, taking us farther to the right is not going to help our party or live up to the ideals that are part of the reason I joined (the party) 31 years ago,” she said.

Alberta Premier Rachel Notley responded to Kenney’s leadership bid by reaffirming the differences between NDP and Conservative values.

“There’s a lot of different opposition leaders out there for a lot of different parties. He’s not even the leader. At this point, my focus is different than many of the so-called Conservative party leaders – party leader wannabes. My focus is on moving forward on the values we talked to Albertans about in the last election,” Notley said Wednesday.