Conservative party (Canada)

Conservative party in Canada. 1 Former Canadian political party that merged with the Progressive party to form the Progressive Conservative party . 2 Officially the Conservative party of Canada, political party formed in 2003 by the merger of the Progressive Conservative party (PC) and the Canadian Alliance (CA). In 1993 the Progressive Conservatives, who had held a parliamentary majority, were savaged at the polls as many voters in W Canada deserted the PC for the young Reform party (the predecessor of the CA). The PC failed to recover from the losses, and in 2003 agreed to unite with the larger CA against the Liberal party , which had secured three successive victories (1993, 1997, 2000) facing a divided conservative opposition. However, a number of prominent PC members, including former party leader Joe Clark , did not support the union. Former CA leader Stephen Harper was elected Conservative party leader. In the 2004 elections the party's social conservatism failed to resonate with enough voters to force the Liberals from power, despite voter unhappiness with the Liberals. By the 2006 polls, however, the Liberals had been further hurt by scandal, and the Conservatives secured a plurality of the seats in parliament; their plurality increased after the 2008 elections.

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

Progressive Conservative Party (Fr. Parti Progressiste-Conservateur du Canada, formerly Liberal-Conservative Party) Canadian political party formed by John A. Macdonald in 1854. The party adopted its present name in 1942. Between 1948 and 1978, the Progressive Conservative Party held office only once (1957–63), under John Diefenbaker. Joe Clark formed a short-lived government (1979–80), but the Liberal Party soon returned to power. In the 1984 general elections, the Progressive Conservatives led by Brian Mulroney won a landslide victory. In 1988, Mulroney was re-elected with a smaller majority. In 1993, Kim Campbell, Canada's first woman prime minister, succeeded Mulroney. Later the same year, Campbell was heavily defeated by a resurgent Liberal Party led by Jean Chrétien.