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RED DEER, ALTA. — The pall of Western alienation hung heavy over a regional gathering of right-wing political activists on Saturday, as they gathered at a conference in Red Deer, Alta., to map out whether there is a road to victory for conservatism in Canada, or whether the West needs to go its own way.

The federal Conservatives’ inability in the recent election to break through in Ontario and Quebec, allowing Justin Trudeau’s Liberals to secure a minority government and a second term, was the matter most on the minds of those gathered at the Alberta Manning Networking Conference, which was themed “What Next?” It was put on by the Manning Centre for Building Democracy.

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Conservatives have been successful at the provincial level recently — in Manitoba and Alberta this year, and Ontario last year — and federal Conservatives kept Liberals from winning a single seat across Alberta and Saskatchewan in last month’s election. But those victories have been overshadowed by Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer’s loss in the federal election — “the worst possible result as far as Alberta’s concerned,” said Preston Manning, founder of the Reform party and of the Manning Centre. That in turn has stoked already simmering embers of separatism in Alberta and Saskatchewan.