A united conservative alternative is the only way to defeat Alberta’s NDP government, Brian Jean — the leader of Alberta’s Wildrose Party — told the annual Manning Centre conference in Ottawa Saturday morning.

“For us, it’s about consolidating conservatives. I have challenged the members both in November and December in two speeches in Calgary that it is time to consolidate conservatives and make sure that we have those discussions between ourselves,” he said.

“I will tell you as well that (interim PC leader) Ric McIver is in the room and we sort of feel like we’re doing it one hug at a time. And we’ll continue to do that.”

Jean’s remarks come the morning after interim federal Conservative Leader Rona Ambrose, who was in the audience Saturday, hosted a private reception for federal and provincial conservatives at Stornoway in an effort to help the two parties unite.

Both Jean and McIver were there, and Ambrose’s name has been floated as a possible leader of a united party.

According to the Ottawa Citizen, both McIver and Jean were invited to stay at Stornoway while in Ottawa for the conference, but only McIver accepted the invitation. Both behind the scenes and publicly, conversations are taking place, but fundamental questions — like whether to create a new party — still need to be answered.

“There’s a lot of federal Conservatives that would like one conservative party provincially. … That’s one of the topics that’s regularly being discussed,” McIver told the Citizen.

“Those that think they can just force everybody to do this, you’ll end up with three or four parties on the right, rather than the two that exist now.”

Last May’s provincial election brought Alberta its first NDP government — a majority no less — as the electorate relegated the Progressive Conservative dynasty to third place and left the Wildrose as the official opposition.

In recent years, the PCs had given Albertans good reason to want them out of office, Jean argued Saturday. But the hatchet needs to be buried and the conservative vote reunited.

“Alberta’s situation today is a grim reminder of what happens when we don’t. There were admittedly reasons why Alberta’s conservative vote split. For more than 40 years, Alberta had enjoyed, mostly, solid governments from Alberta’s PCs. Nevertheless, things had not been done very well in later years,” Jean said.

“Our Wildrose party arose from a legitimate grassroots reaction to PC Party leaders who had lost touch with core conservative values. And the circumstances are still hotly debated.”

But that’s not a debate conservatives can afford to have, he added.

“Unity is critical…and for this reason, under my leadership and more importantly — at the direction of Wildrose MLAs and members — our party has begun reaching out to other Albertans, to those who voted PC last time. Politically, some may truly feel homeless. Yet they should not,” Jean said.

“In three years, when Alberta returns to the polls, we will seek a mandate from Albertans. If, and only if, we present a united conservative alternative, can we be assured of winning.”