About Conservative Party of Canada
The Conservative Party of Canada is also colloquially known by the name Tories. In the French language, the party is known as Parti conservateur du Canada. It is a federal political party in Canada. The party was formed in 2003 by the merger of two main right-leaning parties which were the Progressive Conservative party and the Canadian Alliance. The party sits at center-right to the right of the Canadian political system and their federal rival is the Liberal Party of Canada which is positioned to their left. The conservatives are also defined as a “big tent” party that practice brokerage politics and they also welcome a broad variety of members which include red tories and blue tories. The founders of the party were Stephen Harper and Peter MacKay. The leader of the party is Candice Bergen (Interim). The president of the party is Robert Batherson. The party symbol is blue. In this blog we are going to tell you the Conservative Party of Canada: A Centre-Right Federal Political Party of Canada, so read this full blog to get the complete information.
How Conservative Party of Canada formed?
From the time of the Canadian Confederation in 1867 until 1942, the original Conservative party of Canada participated in various governments and also had different names. Then In 1942, the main right-wing Canadian force became popular as a Progressive Conservative party. But in the 1993 federal election, the Western Canadian of the PC party support transferred to the Reform party or Canadian Alliance. So when it became clear that neither the PC Party nor the reform party could beat the Liberal government at that time, they made an effort to combine the right of center parties. Then in 2003 the Canadian Alliance and the PC merged and formed the Conservative Party of Canada.
Working of Conservative Party of Canada
During the governance of the Conservative Party of Canada from 2006 to 2015, it took many economic decisions which included reducing the sales tax and business taxes, balancing the national budget, creating the tax-free savings account (TFSA), and making the Universal child care benefit. The social policies of the party were the government eliminated the long-gun registry, introduced mandatory minimum sentences for violent crimes, raised the age of consent to 16 years of age, gave permission to the construction of various pipelines, and also withdrew Canada from the Kyoto protocol. The Conservative party also appointed many elected Senators, supported the state of Israel, negotiated the CETA (Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement), and also created the TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership).
During the tenure of its first leader, Stephen Harper, the party governed with two minority governments after the federal elections of 2006 and 2008. Then in the 2011 federal election, it won a majority government. But again in the 2015 federal election, it was defeated by a majority Liberal government which was led by the leader Justin Trudeau. Then under its second and third leaders who were Andrew Scheer and Erin O’Toole, the party remained in opposition and it narrowly won the popular vote in 2019 and 2021 respectively. Presently on 2 February 2022, Candice Bergen was elected as interim leader by the caucus after the elimination of O’Toole in a leadership review.
Principles and Policies of Conservative Party of Canada
Being a relatively young party with a combined political heritage and history, the Conservative party is often described as a “big tent” party in a similar way to the federal Canadian Liberals by encompassing members and voters who hold a range of philosophies, ideas, and stances. Though they sit within the center-right to the right-wing of the political system.
The Conservative Party announced its founding core philosophies and principles to be fiscal accountability, upholding individual rights and freedom, belief in the constitutional monarchy, the institutions of Parliament and the democratic process of Canada, support for National Defense, law and order, history, and traditions of Canada and equal treatment for all Canadians.
Parliamentary Caucus: Senate Caucus of Conservative Party
The Senate Caucus Conservative Party is the only political Senate group that is formally linked to a Federal political party. Unlike the Independent Senators Group, Canadian Senators group, and the Progressive Senate group which are unaffiliated with any party in the House of Commons, Conservative senators are part of the national Conservative parliamentary Caucus which is made up of both members of the house of parliaments. Although the senators do meet separately to discuss specific issues of the senate.
The first leader of the Senate caucus was John Lynch Staunton and he also served as the interim leader of the Conservative party of Canada until the leadership election could be held.
The leader of the caucus has been appointed by the National Conservative party leader who is serving as prime minister of Canada at that time in government. The leader is elected by the conservative senators when in opposition. Currently, Don Plett was selected as a Senate Conservative leader on 5 November 2019 by defeating another candidate.
Leaders of the Conservative Party of Canada
There were different leaders of the party for a different term which are as follows:
- John Lynch Staunton from 2003 to 2004
- Stephen Harper from 2004 to 2015
- Rona Ambrose from 2015 to 2017
- Andrew Scheer from 2017 to 2020
- Erin O’Toole from 2020 to February 2022
- And the current leader Candice Bergen from February 2022 and still working.
Deputy leaders of the Conservative party
The deputy leaders are appointed by the leaders for different terms which are as follows:
- Peter MacKay from 2004 to 2015
- Denis Lebel from 2015 to 2017
- Lisa Raitt from 2017 to 2019
- Leona Alleslev from 2019 to 2020
- Candice Bergen from 2020 to February 2022
- Luc Berthold working from February 2022
RELATED: BLOC QUÉBÉCOIS POLITICAL PARTY
Party Presidents of Conservative Party
The party presidents of the Conservative party till now are as follows:
- Don Plett from 2003 to 2009
- John Walsh from 2009 to 2016
- Scott Lamb from 2016 to 2021
- The present president is Robert Batherson from 2021.
So overall this article was about the Conservative Party of Canada and its brief political history and leaders who work at the center of the right political spectrum of Canada.
