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Alberta’s Progressive Conservatives are going back to the future as they attempt to rebuild the party.

Tories attending the party’s annual general meeting in Red Deer on Saturday backed a plan to choose the party’s next leader through a delegated convention, rather than the one-member, one-vote system used for the past quarter-century.

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Final details still need to be ironed out, but the plan approved Saturday will see party members from each of the province’s 87 constituencies vote for 15 delegates who will collectively elect the leader at a convention. The delegates can be backers of a specific candidate or independent.

Former premier Dave Hancock, who as PC party president oversaw the move to the one-member, one-vote system in the 1990s, said returning to having elected delegates select the leader is the right move for the Tories “for the time we’re in now.”

He said a delegate system will strengthen the party’s organization at the constituency association level and ensure leadership candidates have to pay attention to all ridings in the province, as opposed to simply selling large batches of memberships in areas such as Calgary and Edmonton.