VANCOUVER—Little could be more different than the post-election conventions the New Democrats and the Conservatives have held this spring.

The first featured the summary execution of leader Thomas Mulcair at the hands of party members and an unresolved divisive battle for the soul of the party. The New Democrats left Edmonton in early April in disarray and in poorer spirits than when they arrived.

The weekend’s Conservative convention had almost celebratory undertones. No one is ever happy about losing an election and the delegates had plenty to say about the party’s last campaign. But they spent Stephen Harper’s decade in power under a cone of silence and they were determined to make the most of what some called the party’s ‘glasnost’.

It was the most open Conservative convention in more than 10 years and, for the most part, its participants left Vancouver feeling good about their party’s prospects.

A yearlong leadership contest could still bring long-standing fault lines back to the surface, but for now at least the Conservatives — even though they fell from a greater height in the last election — are on a faster track to recovery than the New Democrats.

Here are some reasons:

The party that Harper is leaving behind is a different, more mature creature than the collection of fractious factions that came together under his leadership in 2003. A decade in power has made its members more inclined to pragmatism than to protest. Some of that was on evidence on the weekend as the Conservatives belatedly aligned party policy with Canadian legal reality on same-sex marriage and endorsed the partial decriminalization of marijuana.

The federal NDP has never experienced the transformative discipline of power. Its dominant opposition culture has long been at odds with that of the provincial New Democrats, who have spent time on the governing side of politics. Many federal activists see the role of permanent underdog as more virtuous than that of top dog. They were always suspicious of Jack Layton and Mulcair’s efforts to make the party a more viable governing alternative.

Harper’s political career ended just as abruptly as Mulcair’s, but it was voters who wielded the knife. The election defeat spared the Conservatives the kind of behind-the-scenes regicide attempts that leave hard-to-heal divisions within a political family.

The issue of Mulcair’s leadership split the Edmonton convention right down the middle. The New Democrats left town after their convention with virtual blood on their hands. It was an unprecedented episode in the history of the federal party that will overshadow his succession.

The upcoming Conservative leadership campaign will feature ideological differences but it will not be a battle of ideologies. The party views itself as a government-in-waiting and it is looking for a leader with a profile to match that overriding goal. This weekend the Conservatives signalled they are willing to ditch parts of Harper’s legacy that could hold them back. They primarily want to fight the next election on the economic battlefield.

There is no consensus within New Democrat ranks as to what kind of leader the party needs going forward. The leadership campaign is lining up to be a battle for proxy over the very purpose of the federal NDP and its place in the political universe.

The Conservatives overwhelmingly share the notion that Justin Trudeau is taking Canada in the wrong direction. It is no accident that the party has raised more money than its rivals in the months since the election. The hope of driving the Liberals from office acts as powerful incentive on the party base.

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So far a majority of New Democrats are relatively happy with the Liberal rule. They neither hold a grudge against the prime minister who beat them last year nor do they feel particularly threatened by his agenda. It is harder to keep the peace within a party tent absent a major threat outside it.

All that being said, many Conservatives know in their hearts of hearts that most incumbents are re-elected for a second mandate. Anecdotal evidence at the Vancouver convention suggests too many of them continue to underestimate Trudeau’s skills. But for better or for worse they are at least in general agreement as to what their party — post-Harper — is about. The opposite is true of the post-Mulcair NDP.

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