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The race to succeed Stephen Harper at the head of the party unofficially began the moment the television networks called this election for his rival Justin Trudeau.

The Conservative Party of Canada was formed in 2003 through the merger of the Canadian Alliance (the successor to the Reform party) and the Progressive Conservatives. It united socially conservative prairie populists with more progressive Red Tories from the old PC party, and soft Quebec nationalists.

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In some ways Harper’s leadership, and the success that followed, was the glue that held the alliance together. The potential fissures the party will now need to manage are evident in the starkly different backgrounds of the leadership hopefuls. Here are some possible contenders:

Brad Wall

Polls show the 49-year-old Saskatchewan premier is consistently the most popular first minister in the country, and he has won two sweeping majorities in that province since 2007. Though he has played down his interest in federal politics in the past, he has the credentials to make the jump to the national stage. His reputation as a prairie populist is impeccable, bolstered by his stances on senate abolition and rethinking equalization payments. Wall also has experience reining in a party’s right flank to win urban votes — he has done it successfully with his Saskatchewan Party for a decade — and he’s exponentially more charismatic than Harper. With Saskatchewan’s next election scheduled for April 2016, the timing is perfect for Wall to step aside for a shot at the big job.