Progressive Conservative party

Home > History > United States and Canada > Canadian History

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 former Canadian political party, formed in 1942 by the merger of the Progressive and Conservative parties. Beginning with the first Canadian prime minister, John A. Macdonald in 1867, the Conservative party dominated Canadian politics for much of the first three decades after confederation in 1867. The Conservative party's commitments to a strong confederation, national economic development, and close ties to Britain were continued by subsequent Conservative prime ministers, John J. C. Abbott , John S. D. Thompson , Mackenzie Bowell , and Charles Tupper . Reactions to the pro-British direction of Conservative policy and the execution of French-Canadian rebel Louis Riel led to a decline in Conservative party fortunes in Quebec, and the start of a long period of Liberal party dominance.

In the 1920s, Conservative prime ministers Robert Borden and Arthur Meighen managed to forge a coalition of groups alienated by Liberal party policies, but opposition by Quebec to the conscription policy during World War I led to a decline in Conservative support. During the Great Depression Richard B. Bennett formed a Conservative government, though the persistence of the depression led to its eventual collapse. In 1942, incorporating elements of the old Progressive party, the Conservative party adopted the label Progressive Conservative party and advocated a more reform-minded program, but this did little to change the party's national fortunes.

In John Diefenbaker , prime minister from 1957 to 1963, the Progressive Conservative party found a charismatic figure who helped forge a new base for the party in the western provinces. The growing problem of Quebec autonomy contributed to another two decades of Liberal government; Joe Clark , party leader from 1976 to 1983, was briefly prime minister in 1979. From 1986, the Progressive Conservative party under Prime Minister Brian Mulroney attempted to resolve the delicate constitutional issues of provincial status in the failed Meech Lake Accords and unsuccessful constitutional proposals, and negotiated a free trade agreement (1987) with the United States. The unpopularity of his economic policies, however led Mulroney to resign in 1993.

Kim Campbell , the party's and Canada's first female leader, briefly governed and led the party (1993) before she and all but two of the party's parliamentary candidates were rejected at the polls. She was succeeded as party leader by Jean Charest , who led the national party to a partial recovery in the 1997 elections, but the party's full recovery was hampered by the emergence of the Reform party (later the Canadian Alliance ). Joe Clark again became the party's leader in 1998. In 2000 the party won only 12 seats in Parliament, making it the smallest of the five represented parties. although it garnered the third largest bloc of popular votes. Peter MacKay succeeded Joe Clark as party leader in 2003, and subsequently led the national party into a merger with the Canadian Alliance to form the Conservative party of Canada.

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.