Progressive Conservative Party (PC), Canada The
Conservative Party emerged from the Liberal-Conservative government in Upper Canada of Sir John A. Macdonald (b. 1815, d. 1891) in 1854. After the creation of the Canadian Confederation in 1867 it was the principal party of government until 1896 (though it was briefly out of government, 1874–8). Its support was based on a coalition between the establishment of
Anglicans in Ontario and the Roman
Catholics in Quebec. The party originally advocated protective tariffs for Canadian goods, a close link with the
British Empire, and a strong federal government. Given the latter emphasis, the Conservatives neglected provincial government, which enabled their rivals, the
Liberal Party, to build up grass-roots support there. The Conservative Party was in disarray after Macdonald's death, but was rebuilt by
Borden, who defeated
Laurier by emphasizing Canadian patriotism linked to Britain. His majority was extremely weak, and from 1917 he could govern only with the support of Liberal defectors who joined him in a Unionist government to realize the controversial conscription for overseas service. Though the issue divided both Liberals and Conservatives, it was the latter who were responsible for it and other wartime measures, and this earned the party the lasting hostility of the French Canadian electorate.
In the 1920s Meighen tried to rebuild broad conservative support, but his task was complicated by the formation of the
Progressive Party in 1920, which attracted significant support in the west, Ontario, and New Brunswick. With the Conservative Party unable to win much support in Quebec either, it only came third in the 1921 elections. Under
Bennett's leadership it won the 1930 elections, albeit under the extreme conditions of the Great
Depression, which
Mackenzie King had failed to tackle. Unable to find a coherent response to the economic crisis either, it lost the elections in 1935. It changed its name to the
Progressive Conservative Party in 1942, following the defection of several Progressive members. This failed to translate into more support, since it became once again the principal proponent of conscription during World War II.
The party, which was increasingly dominated by Ontario interests, failed to win an election until
Diefenbaker's victory in 1957. His programme was based more on rhetoric and charisma than on substance, so that Conservative support quickly declined again, his government collapsing in 1963. Outpaced by
Trudeau, the Conservatives spent the following two decades in the political wilderness, despite a brief minority government under
Clark. They only managed to become a serious party of government under the leadership of
Mulroney, who revived Conservative support in his native Quebec and elsewhere through his personal charisma and his control of party organization. He remained party leader and Prime Minister until 1993, when
Charest lost the leadership battle to the hapless
Campbell. After a disastrous election campaign the party was routed in the 1993 elections, when only two candidates won seats in the House of Commons. It was unable to recover its role as the nation's predominant conservative party. Led by the veteran Joe
Clark from 1998, it obtained only twelve seats in the House of Commons in the 2000 elections. With its last strongholds remaining in the maritime provinces, the PC's future as a separate political force remained in doubt, as it failed to make headway against its much larger conservative rival, the
Canadian Alliance.
http://www.pcparty.ca; http://www.conservative.ca