British Columbia Conservative Party

The British Columbia Conservative Party (also known as "the Tories") is a conservative political party in British Columbia, Canada. Its current leader is Wilf Hanni.

The BC Progressive Conservative Party

The tensions between Conservative and Liberal factions mounted over time, and after ten years, the coalition disintegrated. The Conservatives refounded their party in 1951 calling themselves the "Progressive Conservatives" as the federal party had changed adopted the "progressive" prefix in 1942.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

W. A. C. Bennett, a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA), ran for the leadership of the Tories and lost. Bennett had been elected and re-elected as a BC Conservative MLA in the 1941, 1945, and 1949 provincial elections. After losing the BC Conservative leadership, Bennett left the party and joined the small Social Credit League, becoming its leader. Bennett dropped the party's social credit monetary reform policy, and adopted a populist conservative platform.

Related Topics:
W. A. C. Bennett - Member of the Legislative Assembly - Social Credit League - Social credit

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The coalition government, whose raison d'etre had been to keep the CCF out of power, had introduced a Single Transferable Vote system for the 1952 election in the hope that Conservatives and Liberal supporters would list the other party as their second choice and keep the CCF out of power.

Related Topics:
Raison d'etre - Single Transferable Vote - 1952 election

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

This worked to the benefit of Social Credit, who were able to take advantage of divisions between the Liberals and Conservatives, as well as the desire for change. Bennett's party was able to win a slim minority government with 19 Social Credit MLAs compared to 18 CCFers, 1 Labour, 6 Liberals, and 4 Tories.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

It was clear to those who wanted to keep the CCF out of power that only the Social Credit Party would be able to accomplish that task. In the 1953 election, Liberal and Tory supporters transferred their support to Bennett's party, sweeping it to power with 28 out of 48 seats. Having a majority government the Social Credit government changed the electoral system back to first past the post in order to cement their base. Social Credit became, in effect, the new centre-right coalition party, and both the Liberals and the Tories became marginalised.

Related Topics:
1953 election - Majority government - First past the post

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Progressive Conservatives won only four seats in 1952, one in 1953, and were completely shut out of the legislature between 1956 and 1972 as conservative-minded voters moved to Social Credit. The Tories managed to win two seats in the 1972 election, and one in the 1975 election. The last BC Conservative MLA elected was Victor Albert Stephens -- in a 1978 Oak Bay by-election.

Related Topics:
Legislature - 1956 - 1972 - 1975 election

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~