2016 Conservative convention: How should we describe Tories now?

If you had to pick between the two policy conventions last weekend, you may have assumed the more celebratoryaffair would have been in Winnipeg, given the Liberals won the federal electionsevenmonths ago.

But Vancouver's Conservative gathering in Vancouverwas also a party. No longer burdened with the responsibility of governing, Conservatives seemedmorecarefree.

They're a year away from decidingon a new leader. They're three years away from needing anew election platform and campaign team. They can exhale.

Here are 10words that candescribethe Tories, who wrapped up their convention Saturday:

Democratic

The roots of the Reform Party were profoundly democratic. And earnestly so, to an impractical fault.

Butingovernment, the mergedpartyHarper led wascriticized asundemocratic,heavy-handed and authoritarian.

This convention was, as one former Reform Party strategist put it, areturn to "how we used to be."

Contentious matters came forward. People spoke passionately. But then the vote was called, the result respected and people moved on.

Open

Journalists were welcomeat this convention. That's not to say some skepticism didn't linger.

"You hate us, don't you?" one delegate asked at a hospitality suite after a couple of drinks. Assured that wasn't the case, he seemed genuinely surprised.

That this conversationhappened at all was a departure from previous years. Media wereallowed at not only official convention events, but also informal venueswhere thereal political persuasion happens.

Policy-wise, there were signs ofopen-mindedness.

The party that mocked the Liberals for havingsoft, tolerantattitudes about pot turned around and had a reasonable debate on a proposal to allow peace officers to ticket, rather than criminally arrest, individuals found in possession of small quantities of marijuana.

Ex-police chief and cabinet minister Julian Fantino asked delegates to endorse it. And they did.

Self-Aware

On Friday afternoon,the party's executive director held a session to discuss what went wrong in the party's unsuccessful re-election bid. Reports from the room suggestthis party isn't deluding itself about howit fell short.

Party stalwart and now-retired senatorMarjory LeBretonwho putsa positive, defensivespin on nearly everything was blunt about the dysfunctionaldisconnect betweencandidates, the leader and the war room. She said ahard-hitting account of its failures was necessary.

This convention haddissent. But the overall tone seemed constructive.

Undecided

Delegate after delegate, MP after MP, leadership contender after leadership contender ... all saidthe same thing: "It's too soon."

Leadership wannabes were on display.Tires were kicked and mostlysoft questions asked.

But aside from the three MPs who saw strategic benefit to jumping into the leadership race early Maxime Bernier, Michael Chong and Kellie Leitch most kept their future intentions mum.

The May 27, 2017, election will feature a ranked ballot, so second and third choices will carry weight. No need to limit yourself to just one hospitality suite.

United

One of the arguments against voting to strike the traditional definition of marriage from the party's policy on Saturday was that it was organized by a "faction" of the party:the LGBTory group. The party shouldn't have factions, one speaker said.

But when that "faction" carried the vote, the other side didn't storm out. MPs like Brad Trostjustseemed resigned.

The differences between the two original parties tothe Conservative mergerthePCs and the Reformers-turned-Canadian Alliance still surface. (Delegates again rejected a pure one-member-one-vote leadership selection process. But some keep trying.)

But it's getting harder to identify the genetic lineage ofConservatives.

Uniting was a path to power. During the next election in 2019, Harper's farewellspeech reminded delegates, Canada willbe looking for a strong, united party that'sready to govern.

Young

A proposal to create a youth wing was rejected in Vancouver. (It wasn'tthe first time.)

But according to stats circulated by the party, a record number of youth delegates attended.

Visually, the crowd in Vancouver didn't look grey. Many party members appearedfar short of retirement age.

Happy

Who would have thought the party that lost last fallwould close its convention dancing to thePharrell Williams's song Happy?

Although stage-managed entertainment can feel forced, delegatesseemed genuinely upbeat. Happy-ish, at least.

"We needed this," Lisa Raitt said about some of the organized rah-rah.

Fun

As one observer snarked on Twitter, the "WTF is strong at #cpc16."

Chinese dragons danced to the K-pop classic Gangnam Style.

At the Tory Talks session a main stage event billed as a TED Talks-stylechancefor Tories to make a two-minute pitch fora radical ideaserious innovation gave way to silly.

A young Alberta MP imagined leadership debates as rap battles.

MP Marilyn Gladu came out dressed as the grim reaper, then threw off her costume andencouraged delegates to "shake it off" and dance with her to Taylor Swift.

Some made fun. But whenrecovering from defeat, being able to poke fun and have fun isn't a bad thing.

Free

"Freedom"turnedout to be more than Maxime Bernier'scampaignpitch.Delegates spoke their minds.

"The past is no place to linger," Harpertold delegates.

And he won'tlinger. His future influence will be limited to the board of the Conservative Fund.

One former staffer watching on televisionsaid Harper's speech gavethe convention whatparty members needed to hear in order to move on.

Proud

Conservatives didn't run fromwhat they did in office and kept talking about howstrongthey remain in opposition.

Some votesreinforced oldplatform planks,like incomesplitting for families. (The first Liberal budgetcancelled that.)

Thevote in favour of no longer defining marriage as a union between a man and a womanwas a reversal.But other votes weren't.

This party supportsconscience rights for medical practitioners, opposes sex-selection abortions and now enshrines a belief inthe "value anddignity of all humanlife" inits constitution.

It also did not strike its opposition to medicallyassisted dying. That parliamentary battle resumes this week.