The House: Tory delegates face leadership vote change

Canada's Immigration Minister says Conservative electoral district associations with more card-carrying members should hold more weight than smaller associations as delegates at the Tory convention are setto vote on an amendment to rules forchoosing future party leaders.

In an interview airingSaturday on CBC Radio's The House, Jason Kenney saidhe believes it is unjust for ariding with five or 10 members gets the same weight as a riding with 5,000 members.

"There is a real lack of equity there and there is no incentive for the riding withfive or 10 members to grow, to recruit, to sell new membership," he told host Chris Hall.

Party members are in Ottawa Saturday for the Conservatives' first convention since last month's election victory amid the beginnings of a power struggle between the party's former Progressive Conservatives and ex-Canadian Alliance members.Under the current system, every ridingassociation is allocated 100 points, no matter how many members it has.

The most prominent supporter for maintaining the status quo is Defence Minister Peter MacKay, who comes from Nova Scotia and was leader of the Progressive Conservatives when they merged with Stephen Harper's Canadian Alliance. MacKay negotiated the rule because the PCs were a much smaller party than the Alliance.Its supporters fear achange would marginalize Conservatives from less populated ridings and provinces.

But Conservative MP Scott Reid has been pushing for what he calls a "balanced leadership" approach, a compromise that would give bigger associations more points, up to a maximum of 400.

"I think that having a weighted system like Mr. Reid proposes would create a positive incentive for the smaller constituencies to recruit more people, sell more memberships," said Kenney, the MP for Calgary Southeast. "I think that's a step in the right direction."

"I think there's a reasonable argument to be made for the single-member vote, a reasonable argument for equality of ridings," he said.

"Why don't we try to blend the best of both systems with a compromise? For me that's kind of self-evident."

Reid's proposal was defeated during a policy session but obtained enough signatures to move directly to today's plenary session for a full vote later Saturday.

In an email to supporters this week, MacKay said the party doesn't compromise on its principles, and pointed to the Liberals as an example of what happens to parties who do. The Liberal Party bent its rules in 2008 to allow former leader Michael Ignatieff to take over from Stphane Dion without a race.

"If the Conservative party makes compromises on this important founding principle, it will be a slippery slope back to opposition," MacKay wrote.