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CALGARY

Ok, now what?

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As expected, Jason Kenney won the leadership of the Progressive Conservative party Saturday.

And he did it handily, capturing 75 per cent of the votes cast by almost 1,500 delegates at the party’s leadership convention in Calgary.

“Today we have chosen the future,” declared Kenney in his victory speech. “Today we have chosen hope. Today we have chosen unity. Today, it’s springtime in Alberta.”

Kenney’s next goal is merging the PC party with the Wildrose to form a new conservative party in time for the 2019 provincial election.

Saturday’s vote makes him PC leader but the party still has to hold a grassroots vote sometime in the future to approve that merger.

In other words, his landslide leadership win is just the first step in what promises to be a complicated journey.

The next step – making the merger a fact – will be a doozy.

First, Kenney will meet with the PC’s 50-member board of directors Sunday at noon. Some of those directors are still convinced Kenney’s plan is a really bad idea, mostly because it will spell the death of the PC party.