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Leaders of the province’s two main opposition parties took the stage at the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association conference in Edmonton on Friday morning. Both spoke of the importance of partnerships and vowed to stand up to the NDP, but had different things to tell the crowd.

Ric McIver, Progressive Conservative interim leader

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Between his time as an alderman, spending nine years on the AUMA board and being a government MLA for many years, the conference was a familiar stomping ground for Ric McIver. Harking back to four decades of PC rule, McIver told the crowd his party was “proud to have built some strong relationships over the years,” but acknowledged his government “left room for improvement” and “did not get everything right.” McIver’s main target of the morning was the NDP, accusing it of being a disrespectful government that has failed to consult with municipalities. Afterwards, pointing to the next election in 2019, it sounded almost as though he was talking about an on-again, off-again relationship. People are shopping around for a new government, he said, “but lots of them have also said, ‘We’re not quite ready yet.’ They’d like to give us another chance, but we need to demonstrate we’re ready to be the next government.”