OTTAWA – A chronic east-west struggle within the Conservative ranks over leadership rules has resurfaced in advance of the party convention in Calgary this month.

Two resolutions up for debate would fundamentally alter the way leaders are chosen, and theoretically favour future contestants from Western Canada by giving each party member a vote.

When the Canadian Alliance and Progressive Conservative parties merged in 2003, the parties agreed that each riding association would be given an equal say in a leadership vote.

The idea was that the riding associations in Western Canada and Ontario with thousands of members would not be able to swamp the smaller ridings in areas such as Quebec and Atlantic Canada.

Quebec and Atlantic MPs, and former red Tories such as Defence Minister Peter MacKay, are strongly opposed to changing the concept of equal ridings, and helped to soundly defeat the same sorts of motions in 2011.

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney and Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird came down on the side of one-member, one-vote during the last convention.

MacKay, Kenney and Baird are all names that come up as potential candidates to replace Prime Minister Stephen Harper.