In their first mass gathering, many declared and prospective Liberal leadership candidates say they cannot unite the embattled party without the support of Albertans.

"Alberta is the key to the renewal of our party, there's no question about it," candidate Michael Ignatieff told reporters Saturday in Edmonton at the annual federal Alberta Liberal meeting.

"You can't be a national institution unless you have representation in Alberta."

Sixteen leadership hopefuls attended the meeting in the Prairie province, a place that didn't send one Liberal MP to Ottawa in the Jan. 23 federal election, and returned former Liberal deputy prime minister Anne McLellan back to private life.

They were there for a 90-minute session to introduce themselves and say why they might make a good federal Liberal.

"If you're a Liberal in Alberta, you're a real Liberal," expected candidate Gerard Kennedy said during the three minutes each speaker was allotted.

Kennedy told reporters he's made "a significant down payment" by giving up his post as Ontario's education minister, a job he says he loved.

One hopeful, Toronto's Joe Volpe, made a verbal error when he referred to Fort "McMurtry." He meant Fort McMurray.

Former Ontario Premier Bob Rae, who submitted his application to join the party a few days ago, spoke to the 400 delegates as well.

Rae addressed his stormy tenure as Ontario's NDP premier during the first half of the 1990s.

"Believe me, governing in a recession is no fun. It's a difficult, tough thing to do. A bunch of us had to do it in the early 1990s and I did," he said.

He later spoke to reporters about his intentions.

"I'm going to have to decide in the next short time as to yes or no. I'm here obviously, very engaged in the discussion," he said.

Possible candidates tried to explain what Liberals had to do better in order to return to power.

Scott Brison, who joined the Liberals from the Conservatives, told people: "And it's not good enough just to attack values of other parties. We've done it for two elections; it's gotten us into opposition."

Ontario MP Joe Fontana, a former cabinet minister, said: "Okay, no more bull from the top, right? A party cannot be the private club of any leader."

Toronto MP Carolyn Bennett, another former cabinet minister, said: We're fed up with platforms that have not even been run by the party membership. We're fed up with the fact that (campaign) ads can be approved by focus groups on Bay Street instead of by Liberal party members."

Ruby Dhalla, a Toronto-area MP, said: "Our enemy is not Liberals, it's not each other. It's Stephen Harper and his Conservative government."

John McCallum, a former defence and veterans affairs minister, said his mission is to "take Canada to the next level" on immigration, trade, prosperity, research and innovation.

Delegates were impressed with what they heard from the podium.

"I thought the panel was very exciting, and I felt that thought there was such togetherness with those candidates," said Beth Lennard.

The first of five official debates will take place in Winnipeg June 10.

The leadership race officially began Friday with the party issuing a call for an early December convention in Montreal.

The new Liberal leader will be chosen at that convention.

Others possible contenders who gathered in Edmonton included Hedy Fry, John Godfrey, and Martha Hall Findlay, Maurizio Bevilacqua, Paul Zed and Montreal physician Clifford Blais.

Denis Coderre and Ken Dryden, who are also considering bids, couldn't attend due to previous commitments.

Tony Ianno, who lost his Toronto seat to the NDP's Olivia Chow, told The Canadian Press on Saturday that he now intends to seek the party presidency, not its leadership.

With a report from CTV's Roger Smith and Carmen Leibel