The battle for the Conservative Party presidency is being fought between two longtime backroom politicos with distinctly different political and geographic roots.

While both Don Plett and Brian Mitchell preach party unity, they are seen as being from the different sides of the merged entity.

One is a Tory from urban Quebec, the other a rural prairie Tory who defected to the Canadian Alliance.

The Alliance side, which was the larger of the two, has its strength in the West. The old Progressive Conservatives were largely clustered in Atlantic Canada at the end.

Plett, the current interim council chair of the Conservatives, has shepherded the party since the merger of the former Tories and the Canadian Alliance in December 2003.

The 55-year-old is a unilingual Mennonite who owns a small plumbing store in Landmark, Man. He is former Progressive Conservative who left years ago to work for the Alliance.

In the 2000 federal election, he was the campaign manager for Vic Toews, the current Conservative justice critic and MP for Provencher in southeastern Manitoba.

Plett's challenger in the election to be held this weekend is Brian Mitchell, a corporate lawyer in downtown Montreal. He is bilingual, gay and -- at 46 -- almost a decade younger than Plett.

He was national treasurer of the old Progressive Conservative party and endorsed Stephen Harper as leader of the merged party.

Mitchell and his supporters say he'll be able to help the party make much-needed gains in Ontario and Quebec, which is crucial if the Conservatives ever hope to form a government.

The Tories won 24 of 103 seats in Ontario during last year's federal election. It didn't capture even one of Quebec's 75 seats. In comparison, the Liberals won 75 in Ontario and 21 in Quebec.

Mitchell tries to sell his enthusiasm for the party as one reason he should be elected.

"I've been a constant cheerleader of this political party and I've tried to criss-cross this country to ensure and celebrate the successes of this party," he told CTV News. "And I see the role of the chair for this party to be part of that celebration."

Although identified with the "Red Tory" side, Mitchell positions himself as someone who has worked since the merger to bring all sides together.

"We never said we were social Conservatives or Red Tories or Blue Tories or gay Tories. We were simply Conservatives. And we had one common enemy, which was to ensure that the Liberal local member of Parliament was defeated, and that's the message I try to send out," he says.

Longtime Newfoundland MP Loyola Hearn -- who came to the new party from the Progressive Conservatives -- supports Mitchell. "I have no doubt about the fact that Brian could easily bring all the factions of the party together in a centre-right position so that we could build rather than destroy," he says.

Scott Reid, of the Lanark-Frontenac-Lennox & Addington riding in eastern Ontario, supports Plett. He was first elected as a Canadian Alliance MP and is a close associate of leader Stephen Harper.

"He's been able to take the people, half from the PCs, half from the CA and make them an effective, functioning whole," Reid said of Plett.

"I am a consensus and unity builder. I believe I did that before the merger, I was there from the very first days of the merger talks," says Plett. "I was one person who went coast to coast promoting the merger both before and after and clearly have kept a tight rein on our party as such."

The presidency will be decided this week during the Conservative Party Convention in Montreal. The event begins Thursday and the voting will take place on Friday.

With a report from CTV's David Akin