Progressive Conservative Party of Canada

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada (PC) was a Canadian centre-right conservative political party that existed from 1867 to 2003. Although the party officially ceased to exist after 2003, several members of the Canadian Senate continued to sit as members of the Progressive Conservative caucus, and the conservative parties in most Canadian provinces still use the Progressive Conservative name. Progressive Conservatives were colloquially known as Tories. (Many Canadians also simply referred to the party as the "Conservatives").

Related Topics:
Canadian - Conservative - Political party - 1867 - 2003 - Canadian Senate - Tories

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Though Canada's first prime minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, was a Conservative and the federal Tories governed Canada for forty one of the country's first seventy years of existence, the party spent the majority of its history in opposition as the nation's number two federal party, behind the Liberals. The party suffered a decade-long decline following the 1993 federal election, and was formally dissolved on December 8, 2003, when it merged with the Canadian Alliance to form the new Conservative Party.

Related Topics:
John A. Macdonald - Liberals - 1993 federal election - December 8 - 2003 - Canadian Alliance - Conservative Party

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Between the party's founding in 1867, and its adoption of the "Progressive Conservative" name in 1942, the party changed its name several times. It was most commonly known as the Conservative Party.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Several loosely-associated provincial Progressive Conservative parties continue to exist in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador. As well, a small rump of Senators and party loyalists opposed to the merger, continue to sit in Parliament as independent Progressive Conservatives. The Yukon association of that name was renamed in 1990 as the Yukon Party.

Related Topics:
Alberta - Saskatchewan - Manitoba - Ontario - New Brunswick - Nova Scotia - Prince Edward Island - Newfoundland and Labrador - Rump - Senator - Parliament - Yukon - 1990 - Yukon Party

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The party adopted the "Progressive Conservative" party name in 1942 when Manitoba Premier John Bracken, a long-time leader of that province's Progressive Party, agreed to become leader of the Conservatives on condition that the party add Progressive to its name. Despite the name change, most former Progressive supporters continued to support the Liberals or the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation, and Bracken's leadership of the Conservative Party came to an end in 1948.

Related Topics:
1942 - Manitoba - Premier - John Bracken - Progressive Party - Liberals - Cooperative Commonwealth Federation - 1948

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

A major weakness of the party since 1885 was its inability to win support in Quebec, estranged significantly by that year's execution of Louis Riel. This problem was exacerbated in the Conscription Crisis of 1917. Even though the Quebec Conservative Party dominated politics in that province for the first thirty years of Confederation at both the federal and provincial levels, in the 20th century the party was never able to be a force in provincial politics, being out of power starting in 1897, and ultimately dissolved into the Union Nationale in 1935 which took power in 1936 under Maurice L. Duplessis.

Related Topics:
1885 - Quebec - Louis Riel - Conscription Crisis of 1917 - Quebec Conservative Party - Union Nationale - 1936 - Maurice L. Duplessis

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In 20th century federal politics, the Conservatives were often seen as insensitive to French-Canadian ambitions and interests and were never able to win more than a handful of seats in Quebec with a few notable exceptions:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

• the 1930 election, in which Richard Bedford Bennett surprisingly led the party to a thin majority government victory by securing twenty-four seats in rural Quebec.
• the 1958 election, in which John Diefenbaker led the party to a landslide victory with the assistance of the Union Nationale's electoral machine; and
• the elections of 1984 and 1988, when the party leader Brian Mulroney, a fluently bilingual Quebecker, was able to build an electoral coalition that included Quebec nationalists.

It never fully recovered from the fragmentation of Brian Mulroney's broad coalition in the late-1980s, the fragmentation resulting from English Canada's failure to ratify the Meech Lake Accord. Immediately prior to its merger with the Canadian Alliance, it held only 15 of 301 seats in the Canadian House of Commons and never held more than 20 seats in Parliament between 1994 and 2003.

Related Topics:
Brian Mulroney - Meech Lake Accord - Canadian House of Commons

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

 
Progressive Conservative Party of Canada: Ideology ►