Article content

Proponents of the unity agreement between the Wildrose and Progressive Conservative parties are pointing to a record number of new Wildrose memberships as a positive sign for the deal, despite ongoing dissension in each party’s ranks over unification.

Wildrose had just over 40,000 members by the midnight Sunday deadline for Albertans to buy a party membership to be eligible to vote on the unity deal at the July 22 special meeting of the party. The membership number is an order of magnitude higher than Wildrose has ever had before, said party president Jeff Callaway.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Leaders confident in unity deal after 'explosion' in membership sales Back to video

Wildrose Leader Brian Jean said the party has added more than 20,000 members in the past few months.

“I’m excited. I think it overwhelmingly means . . . the support is towards unity,” Jean said in an interview at Saturday night’s federal Conservative Stampede barbecue at Heritage Park with new leader Andrew Scheer.

“I continue to be very optimistic. I am, of course, aiming for as many yes votes as possible in the unity process.”