A Conservative Party faction opposed to creating a formal youth wing mounted an aggressive campaign, including a flier featuring children playing in a sandbox and a website, NoYouthWing.ca.
A proposal to create a youth wing in the governing Conservative Party was soundly defeated at its policy convention in Ottawa.
The party has resisted the idea of a separate vehicle for young Conservatives since the merger of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservatives in 2003.
The show-of-hands vote against the idea came during a closed-door meeting of Tory delegates but sources familiar with the decision estimated it was 90 per cent against.
The latest effort to establish a formal Young Tory wing for party members under 30 years old triggered a high-profile backlash among Conservatives.
A co-ordinated campaign against the proposal, led by younger Conservatives, had argued the proposal would ghettoize their age group.
The "No Youth Wing" campaign - with its own website - featured a picture of kids playing in the sand as a means of derisively rejecting the idea.
"Don't put Conservative youth in a sandbox!," the opposition campaign argued.
Those opposed to the youth wing included senior Tories like Ray Novak, principal secretary to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Jenni Byrne, national campaign manager for the 2011 election, and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney.
Other opponents included: Lynne Yelich, minister of Western Economic Diversification, Senator Doug Finley and Peace River MP Chris Warkentin.
Steven Chase