OTTAWA - Ontario Progressive Conservatives will spend the weekend in Ottawa preparing for next year's provincial election and discussing ideas they hope can propel new party leader Tim Hudak into the premier's office in October 2011.

One key problem the once mighty Tories face is getting elected in big cities, something they failed to do again Thursday when the Conservative candidate came a close second to Liberal Bob Chiarelli in a provincial byelection in Ottawa West-Nepean.

A win would have been a huge boost to kick off the Ottawa meeting. Now Hudak is left putting the best face on the fact that the Tories narrowed the gap with the Liberals from the last election.

"That was a tremendous jump from being 19 points in the hole from the last election to coming within a squeaker of four per cent," Hudak said after arriving at the convention to cheers from delegates.

"(There is) tremendous momentum for the PC party as more and more voters are turning to us as an alternative to (Premier) Dalton McGuinty's high taxing, big spending government."

The Conservatives did hold onto the Brockville-area riding of Leeds-Grenville in Thursday's other provincial byelection, but it's one they've held for nearly three decades.

The weekend meeting is a chance for Hudak to fire up the troops and try to appeal to potential star candidates, which he desperately needs -- especially in urban ridings -- to freshen up a caucus that is seen as mostly old white guys left over from the Mike Harris era.

Hudak himself was a cabinet minister under Harris, who remains a polarizing figure in Ontario politics but a revered hero within the party. The new leader must shed his image as an acolyte of the neo-conservative Common Sense Revolution of the 1990s.

One new feature of this year's annual general meeting that generated immediate, positive buzz for Hudak is a daycare for delegates' families called Miller's convention, named after the leader's young daughter.

It's a nice touch and helps to portray Hudak, 42, as the champion of middle-class voters like those in his hometown in the small Niagara community of Fort Erie -- an average dad with a young family.

"Our goal is to make this a big more fun, family friendly and modern than PC conventions have been in the past," said Hudak.

"I'm just sensing a great energy and renewal in the Ontario PC Party."

Since taking over as leader last July, Hudak's attacks on the government's plan to introduce a 13 per cent harmonized sales tax July 1 have failed to catch on with voters, and haven't done any real damage to McGuinty's government.

The Conservatives failed to unseat the Liberals in two recent Toronto byelections, despite their hammering away at the HST as a "greedy tax grab" and warning voters it will drive up the cost of everything from gasoline and electricity to home heating fuel and haircuts.

Now Hudak is on an all-out race for the general election less than 20 months away. But he still has to find the issue or policy that will give the Conservatives the break they need in the cities if they hope to form government again.

Hudak, a 14-year veteran of the legislature, already spends most of his time travelling across the province and meeting with local community organizations, a move designed to bolster his image outside of Queen's Park.

Attacking the government over wasteful spending, scandals at eHealth Ontario and the province's lottery corporation, the Tories have told people why they shouldn't vote Liberal again, but haven't told them why they should vote Conservative.

Actual policies won't be set by the Conservative delegates this weekend, but there will be an election readiness seminar. There will also be a tribute to party veteran Bob Runciman, who resigned his Leeds-Grenville seat after being appointed to the Senate by Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Another Conservative senator, former broadcaster Mike Duffy, will lead Hudak through a Tory version of "Inside the Actor's Studio" Sunday morning with "In the Leader's Studio" to wrap up the convention.