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Under Alberta law, you can’t simply unite two parties. Or at least, you can’t transfer the money from one party to another. It would be a case of the bigger dog swallowing the smaller dog. The party with the larger bank account (in this case, the Wildrose) would survive while the party with the smaller bank account (the Progressive Conservatives) would have its money seized by Elections Alberta.

That’s the law. It would take an act of political kindness for the NDP government to change the law to allow a true merger. But that’s not going to happen. And, anyway, there are never mergers in politics, just takeovers.

In this case, because Kenney has historical ties to the Wildrose, both personally and ideologically, it would be the Wildrose swallowing the PCs but with Kenney at the helm, not Brian Jean.

Jean, obviously not a fan of a Kenney-led takeover but not wanting an outright fight with a former federal colleague, issued a passive-aggressive news release Wednesday afternoon saying, “It would be wrong to speculate further on the leadership race for the third-party until this is resolved.”

“Progressives” in the PC party aren’t welcoming Kenney’s entrance to the race. They look with dismay at his history — from years ago when he was an anti-abortion advocate to more recently when he fought against women wearing a niqab in citizenship ceremonies.

And they point to the PC convention in May where delegates voted against any merger with the Wildrose.