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Calgary — Jason Kenney is the new leader of Alberta’s Progressive Conservatives.

Kenney was elected on a promise to dissolve the party and merge with Wildrose to create a single conservative force in Alberta politics.

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He clinched victory against Byron Nelson and Richard Starke at the Calgary Convention Centre, winning roughly 75 per cent of 1,473 ballots.

In his victory speech, Kenney thanked Tories for putting Alberta first.

“Today we have chosen the future, today we have chosen hope, today we have chosen unity. Today it is spring time in Alberta,” Kenney said.

“I invite you to hold me accountable to the vision we have laid out for a brighter Alberta.”

Kenney said the first act of a united conservative party, should it form government after the 2019 provincial election, would be to repeal the carbon tax.

Although he thanked Donna Kennedy-Glans — who dropped out of the race earlier — along with Nelson and Starke, the names of vocally anti-Kenney candidates Stephen Khan and Sandra Jansen, who also left the race, were conspicuously absent from his list.