With his party electing delegates to cast ballots in the unite-the-right vote next week, Progressive Conservative MP Joe Clark is speaking out against the move -- suggesting it's akin to political suicide.

"I think we're now at a stage where literally the life of a vital Canadian national institution is at stake," Clark told CTV's Question Period on Sunday.

"This is really life and death."

Absent from campaigns against the merger so far -- Clark said he didn't want to be seen second-guessing his successor, Peter MacKay -- the former Tory Party leader is now coming out swinging.

"I think what's at issue here is a fundamental question of attitude," Clark said, explaining his view that the proposed new party's branding as the Conservative Party of Canada, for example, is a direct jab at policies he holds paramount.

"This proposal is to deliberately put aside the idea of being a progressive conservative party," he said.

"I think that the name indicates that breadth of reach that you have to have to be competitive. And I was quite startled, frankly, when the first thing that was traded away in this negotiation was the name."

According to Clark, without the broad appeal of an alternative "progressive" platform on the right, the Liberals will be afforded a cakewalk in the next election.

"We're putting all of that at risk and I think that the price we're going to pay, and the country is going to pay, is that we won't have a competitive political system," Clark said.

"I think, in fact, that this new joint party will come back after the next election with fewer seats than the Alliance and the Progressive Conservative parties have now."

But Clark's pleas seemed to have little effect in his riding of Calgary Centre Saturday, where Tories voted in favour of the merger.

Across Canada, Tory riding associations elected pro-merger delegates in about a third of the 301 federal ridings. Voting continues through Tuesday. Delegates will vote Dec. 6, on the agreement-in-principle reached between MacKay and Alliance Leader Stephen Harper

But the veteran politician said he's not going to be pried from his convictions, nor the party he cherishes.

"I was elected as a Progressive Conservative, and I'm going to sit as a Progressive Conservative," Clark said, describing his intention to remain in the house as a self-identified PC.

"I'm going to stay what I am. I'm not leaving my party. The proposal is that my party leaves the political scene. And the new party that is being created is frankly not something that I will be comfortable with."

Former Tory leadership contender David Orchard says that's why he's launched a suit trying to ensure the party will survive the process.

"Our court case is not seeking to stop the vote," Orchard told Question Period. "It's just seeking to have the declaration that whatever hapens in the vote... the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada will remain intact and we will continue to build that party."

Until that's decided, however, Clark says he's hoping the rest of the PC party will come around to his point of view.

"I hope in these last ten, 12 days as decisions are being taken, sober second thought will prevail and that people will decide it keep in competition the only other party that's ever won a national election in Canada."