OTTAWA — The Conservative policy convention in Vancouver this week is a chance for the party's leadership and its MPs to take the temperature of the membership. It seems to be running a bit hot. Scathing comments on how the party is run; accusations from both rural and urban members that they are being ignored; and calls to curb the power of the leader — these are among the top concerns raised in nearly seven dozen amendments to the party's constitution put forward by riding associations across the country. "We have grassroots concerns and it's important that the convention hear those concerns,'' said Harold Albrecht, an MP whose riding association has suggested several of the amendments, mostly aimed at opening up the closed door of the party's executive.

Dimitri Soudas was eventually forced to step down as Conservative Party executive director because he was interfering in the efforts of his partner. (Photo: CP) It's the first time party members will gather since the Conservatives lost power last fall when Stephen Harper stepped down as party leader. He is the only leader the party had ever known up until that point and a number of proposed amendments suggest frustration with the way he and the party's executive exercised their control. Albrecht's Kitchener-Conestoga riding association had a few harsh words about how Dimitri Soudas, a former director of communications for the prime minister, became the party's executive director. Harper handpicked him for the post — and under the terms of the party's existing constitution, that's how the position is filled. But Soudas was eventually forced to step down after interfering in the efforts of his partner, then-Conservative MP Eve Adams, to secure the party nomination for an Ontario riding. (The duo would go on to leave the Conservative party and Adams joined the Liberals. She lost her bid to run for them in the last election.) Leaders chosen through an unfair system "The leader's pick for executive director was an absolute disaster,'' the riding association writes in its proposal to put the national council in charge of choosing the executive director's job. With the party set to choose its next leader in 2017, the membership appears to be looking for more control of the process both before and after the vote. The current system sees leaders elected through a points system. Each riding is worth 100 points and how many points each candidate gets reflects their percentage of the vote in that riding. It's an unfair system, one proposal suggests.