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Right-leaning Canadians descend upon Ottawa to discuss state of conservatism

Things are going well for conservative Canadians.

Right-leaning political parties are ruling in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Newfoundland and Labrador and, of course, in Ottawa.

But can the good times continue?

That's a question that conservatives from across the country will be asking themselves at the sixth annual Manning Networking Conference — organized by the Manning Centre — which gets underway on Thursday evening at the Ottawa Convention Centre.

"We constantly monitor [the conservative movement] — where the strengths are," the centre's namesake, Preston Manning, told Yahoo Canada News during a telephone interview on Wednesday.

"I think a strength of the conservatives...is on the economic front. But I think a worry there is that some of the polling shows that while Canadians hold these conservative economic values — the values of balance budgets, keeping taxes moderate, expanding trade — they don't necessarily translate to support for Conservative parties or governments.

"The link between those values and the [public] and the parties needs to be strengthened which is partly a communications exercise."

During his presentation on Saturday, Manning is also expected to raise alarm bells about the lack of conservative politicians at the country's City Halls.

"Many of the left-wing groups and public service unions are getting involved in enhancing their ideas at the municipal level and conservatives have been slow to do so," he said.

Other speakers at the event include cabinet ministers James Moore, Jason Kenney and Pierre Poilievre, Premier Brad Wall of Saskatchewan, provincial leaders Tim Hudak and Danielle Smith and writers Mark Steyn and Ross Douthat.

[ Related: Are Canada’s mayors crying poor or crying wolf? ]

One conservative whose not going to be in attendance, however, is right-leaning political consultant and analyst Gerry Nicholls.

In a recent article for the Hill Times, Nicholls wrote that the Manning Centre is more focused on getting re-elected rather than promoting a true conservative agenda.

"They're engaging in partisan politics," Nicholls told Yahoo.

"My view is that the Conservative party and the conservative movement are two distinct entities and they have to remain separate. The Conservative party is about winning elections. The conservative movement should be about winning the war of ideas which I think is more important."

[ Related: Preston Manning launches new Senate reform initiative ]

Moreover, Nicholls isn't very bullish about the state of conservatism in Canada.

"Ideologically, the conservative movement is indeed in trouble. We're losing the war of ideas. Government is getting bigger, government is getting more costly. All the things we are supposed to care about as conservatives, we're losing those battles," he said.

"To me that should be setting off alarm bells. That's what the Manning Centre should be focussing on. Not how can we get the Conservatives elected but how can we get our ideas across to the Canadian public."

It's certainly an interesting debate.

A full program for the conference can be found on the Manning Centre's website here. It ends on Saturday.

(Photo courtesy of the Manning Centre)

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