With the first leader to soon be selected for the new United Conservative Party (UCP), candidate Jason Kenney is returning to Cochrane, Oct. 18.

In one of his last major stops before voting takes place, Kenney will be at the Cochrane branch of the Royal Canadian Legion for an evening that starts with a meet and greet at 6 p.m., followed by a meeting at 7 p.m. Kenney will also be taking questions from the floor and mingling with attendees. Emcee is Morgan Nagel.

Owen Neal, co-captain for the Banff-Cochrane Jason Kenney Campaign Team, suggests people come at 6 p.m. to assure a spot. The last event in July was a packed house and there's only room for 140 people.

"We should bring the roof down with the enthusiasm amongst the faithful," says Owen. " It should be a pretty rip-roaring event."

Neal says Kenney holds in high regard Cochrane's involvement in the reinvention of Alberta conservatives.

"He always refers to the fact that Cochrane was where the movement started," says Owen. "He's said that many times."

Members of the UCP will be voting Oct. 26 to 28 to select its first leader and Kenney and Brian Jean are the frontrunners. Voting registration cutoff is this Friday and only those obtaining UCP memberships by Sept. 29 are eligible to vote.

Right now he say's there are over 110,000 members in the party and that's over four times the membership of either the previous Progressive Conservative or Wild Rose party.

He says Cochrane has one of the strongest UCP membership bases and ranks as the first or second highest per capita of any Alberta community. In sheer numbers it has less than100 fewer members than the much larger City of Airdrie.

Admission is free to the Oct. 18 event.