The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada (PC) was the center-right federal political party in Canada which existed from 1942 to 2003. The party is also known by the name Parti Progressive conservateur du Canada in French. The party was founded on 10 December 1942 and was dissolved on 7 December 2003. The symbol of the party was blue and purple. In this blog we are going to tell you the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada, so read this full blog to get the complete information.
History of Progressive Conservative Party
In 1942, after the defeat in a by-election, a group of younger Conservatives from the Conservative Party of Canada met in Port Hope, Ontario. They gathered to develop a new conservative policy that they hoped would bring them out of the political wilderness. Those participants were known as Port Hopefuls. They developed a program that included many conservative goals such as support for free enterprise and conscription. Yet the charter also included many radical policies like full employment, low-cost housing, trade union rights, and a whole range of social security measures which also included a government finance medicare system.
However, many conservatives rejected the charter but the charter was still influenced by party decisions. Delegates at the convention drafted John Bracken as the leader who was not even a member of the party at that time. Bracken supported their port hope charter and he insisted that the party should register this policy shift by changing its name and hence the party is given the name Progressive Conservative Party.
A Brief Description of Progressive Conservative Political Party
In 1861 from the Canadian Confederation until 1942, the original Conservative party of Canada took part in various governments and had multiple names. However, in 1942, its name changed to Progressive Conservative Party at the request of the leader of the Manitoba Progressive Premier John Bracken. Then in the 1957 federal election, John Diefenbaker took the Tories to their first victory in 27 years. After that, he carried the PCs to the largest federal electoral landslide in history in terms of seats. During his tenure, many human rights initiatives were accomplished especially the Bill of Rights. Then in the 1963 federal election, the Progressive Conservative party lost power until 1979. They would not gain power again when Joe Clark led the party to a minority government victory. However, the party lost power 9 months later. After that, in 1983, Clark lost his leadership role to Brian Mulroney who was a prominent Montreal lawyer and businessman. He helped the PC party to gain popularity in Quebec. He won back-to-back majority governments in 1984 and 1988. During his tenure, many economic reforms such as the North American Free Trade Agreement in the goods and services tax (GST) were proposed.
However, due to the unpopularity of the GST and the failed efforts of the government with the Meech Lake and Charlottetown accords, and the early 1990s recession, these all reasons caused the party to become heavily unpopular. So in the 1993 federal election, the party collapsed by winning just 2 seats. Western Canadian PC supported to transfer to the more right-wing reform party while the PC support from Quebec transferred to the sovereigntist Bloc Québécois. At last, the Progressive Conservatives were not able to recover and this was proved in the 1997 and 2000 federal elections. It became clear that neither the Progressive Conservatives nor the Canadian Alliance could defeat the incumbent Liberals who rose to power in the 1993 election. So an effort was made to unite the right of center parties. Then in 2003, the Party members voted to dissolve the party and they merged with the Canadian Alliance to form the modern-day which was named as Conservative Party of Canada.
However, until 1993, the PC party was the well-known and largest right-leaning federal party of Canada. Despite this fact, many people argued that its stance on social issues was centrist. Prime Minister Diefenbaker was well known for his works in advancing racial equality while on the other hand, Prime Minister Mulroney was well-known for establishing protections for the environment. Red Toryism was especially dominant to the PC party and the devotees of the ideology supported government interference in the economy and was willing to offer a compromise with Nationalist of Quebec.
The ideology of the Progressive Conservative Party
The Progressive Conservative Party was usually on the center right of the political system. From 1867, the party was recognized with Protestant and in Quebec Roman Catholic social values, British imperialism, Canadian Nationalism, and constitutional centralism. These ideologies were highly successful until 1920 and the party was the most successful federal party in the Dominion at that point in history.
RELATED: Bloc Québécois Political Party
Party Leaders of Progressive Conservative Party
Many party leaders of the Progressive Conservative Party served for different terms and are mentioned as follows:
- John Bracken from 1942 to 1948
- George Drew from 1948 to 1956
- John Diefenbaker from 1956 to 1967
- Robert Stanfield from 1967 to 1976
- Joe Clark from 1976 to 1983
- Brian Mulroney from 1983 to 1993
- Kim Campbell from June 1993 to December 1993
- Jean Charest from 1993 to 1998
- Joe Clark from 1998 to 2003
- Peter Mackay from May 2003 to December 2003
Presidents of Progressive Conservative Political Party
There were many presidents since 1946 who served for different terms in Progressive Conservative Party which are as follows:
James Macdonnell from 1946 to 1950
George Nowlan from 1950 to 1954
George Hees from 1954 to 1956
Allister Grosart from 1956 to 1963
Egan Chambers from 1963 to 1964
Dalton Camp from 1964 to 1969
Frank Moores from 1969 to 1970
Nathan Nurgitz from 1970 to 1971
Donald J. Matthews from 1971 to 1974
Michael Meighen from 1974 to 1977
Robert C. Coates 1977 to 1978
Peter Elzinga from 1983 to 1986
William H. Jarvis from 1986 to 1989
Gerry St. Germain from 1989 to 1995
Peter Van Loan from 1999 to 2000
So overall this article was about the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada and a brief history of the party and its leaders are described here.
