WINNIPEG — Prime Minister Stephen Harper will kick off what's expected to be a low-key, feel-good Conservative party convention Thursday evening before jetting off to a big meeting of world leaders in Washington.

Harper will make only a brief appearance and speech at the three-day policy convention, the party's first in almost 3 1/2 years.

His comments will come before the anticipated 2,000 delegates roll up their sleeves for workshops Friday on proposed policy amendments -- the ostensible point of the exercise.

Policy resolutions were delivered to potential delegates only last weekend after being vetted by party officials in Ottawa.

"The election slowed everything down considerably," said party president Don Plett.

Because the Conservatives won the Oct. 14 federal election, there is no leadership review required for Harper, who won the endorsement of 84 per cent of delegates at the 2005 convention.

Each of the 308 Conservative riding associations can send up to 12 delegates to Winnipeg, but organizers don't expect a full turnout.

Post-election fatigue and pre-Christmas conflicts are two factors. But equally germane are the rules governing political donations, which count the $850 convention fee against an individual's $1,100 annual maximum donation. For partisans who already maxed out their contribution in this election year, the convention fee would put them over the contribution limit.

Although Conservatives haven't met to hash out party policy since their founding convention in Montreal in March 2005, some observers predict this weekend's event won't focus on rocking the policy boat.

Harper has run an extremely disciplined, top-down government during his first 2 1/2 years in a minority administration. Many of his government's initiatives -- such as cutting the GST and taxing income trusts -- were not part of specific resolutions in the 2005 policy document adopted by party delegates.

Faron Ellis, a political scientist at Lethbridge College who has studied the Conservative party and its Reform party and Canadian Alliance predecessors, says policy debates are no longer the fundamental purpose of party conventions.

Ellis, who will be in Winnipeg as a delegate, said the convention offers a good opportunity for the party to celebrate its second successive election win and to build national connections in regions where the party is only now beginning to grow.

He said there's little evidence old-school Reformers resent the move away from grass-roots policy populism.

Conventions, said Ellis, "are necessary, they are welcome."

"We need the money -- and boy! they give money, which is another indication of how unsatisfied the members are. If (party members) were that unsatisfied, they wouldn't be doling out the cash like they have."

The Conservatives have been the most successful fundraising party at the federal level by far for several years.