Canada's two conservative parties are now legally one, and it will be headed up by Quebec Senator John Lynch-Staunton until a new leader is chosen, Stephen Harper and Peter MacKay told a joint news conference.

CTV.ca News Staff

Canada's two conservative parties are now legally one, and it will be headed up by Quebec Senator John Lynch-Staunton until a new leader is chosen, Stephen Harper and Peter MacKay told a joint news conference.

"(The Conservative Party of Canada) was registered last night with Elections Canada. It is now legally in existence and we are moving forward," Canadian Alliance Leader Harper told reporters in Ottawa.

"It is official ... the new Conservative Party of Canada exists. It lives and breathes as of today," said Progressive Conservative Leader MacKay.

Aside from announcing Lynch-Staunton as leader, the pair announced the formation of a 12-member committee to work on the logistical issues involved in amalgamating the two parties. As well, they announced the establishment of a trust fund to oversee the consolidation of the two parties' assets.

"We are putting in place the infrastructure and laying in place much of the track that is going to carry us forward," MacKay said.

Staunton has served in the Senate as a member of the Progressive Conservative Party since 1990. He was appointed Leader of the Opposition in the Senate in 1993.

"I'm very honoured that he has accepted to play that role and to fill that position in the new party," MacKay said.

A parliamentary leader has yet to be named and the pair told reporters they expected the full parliamentary transition to be completed "in a couple of months."

With each retaining control over their caucus for now, MacKay and Harper brushed off questions about whether the party effectively has two leaders. "If the Liberal government can have two leaders for two years, then I think we can have two for two months," said Harper.

Earlier, MacKay told CTV's Canada AM he's "very interested" in making a run for the leadership of the new party.

"I'm gauging that support, I'm looking at the policy, the people that I will need to have on my team to provide a competitive leadership contest from my perspective. It's something I'm very interested in doing, so I'm going to make a decision on that quite soon," MacKay said.

"I'm very interested in doing this," he added.

As his caucus meets for the first time since voting for the merger with the Canadian Alliance Party by an overwhelming majority, MacKay says his priority right now is bringing the two parties together.

"We're going to try to get to that comfort level that I think people are looking for and to reassure people that this is the direction, this is the will of the party and also try to bring people together," he said. "This is a unifying exercise -- first and foremost we have to unify people, remind them that this is not only what our party wanted but what the country wanted. They've looked for a strong national conservative alternative now for 10 years. We are on the eve of providing that."

According to a report in The Globe and Mail, many of the technical details of the merger -- including critic posts -- will be ironed out at a retreat which will be held before the middle of January.

"The whole process of merging the caucuses within Parliament is a very tricky issue," Harper told Canada AM. "It involves not just appointing people to various positions, it involves budgets, negotiations with other parties."

Even without the details in place, MacKay said both parties are already in "pre-election mode" ahead of a federal election that's expected to be called for the spring. But he's admitted that the Conservatives won't be fully merged until a new leader has been chosen.

Like his Progressive Conservative counterpart, Harper is waiting to declare his candidacy.

"I said I'll withhold judgment on that for a few days," he said. "I don't expect the race to begin in a true sense until January but we're certainly aiming in that direction. I've got a little more consulting to do before I make a final, final decision."

So far, Calgary businessman Jim Prentice, who formerly sought the Progressive Conservative leadership, is the only person to formally declare their candidacy. He announced his intention to run on CTV's Question Period Sunday.

"My intent is to seek the leadership of this new party," he said.

"I think Canadians want to see leadership, they want to see change, and I intend to bring both to Canadian politics."

The Conservative Party of Canada will pick its new leader at a March 21, 2004 convention.