Conservative Party of Canada (historical)

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The Conservative Party of Canada ( English Conservative Party of Canada , French Parti conservateur du Canada ) was a conservative party in Canada , which existed from 1867 to 1942. In the first few years after its founding, it called itself the Liberal Conservative Party . The addition "liberal" was dropped in 1873, but numerous candidates continued to use this designation until 1911. Based on the British Conservative Party , the Canadian Conservatives were mostly referred to as " Tories ". In 1942 the Conservative Party merged with the Progressive Party to form the Progressive Conservative Party . The current Conservative Party was created through the merger of the Progressive Conservative Party with the Canadian Alliance .

history

John Macdonald

The roots of the Conservative Party go back to 1854, when the Parti bleu of George-Étienne Cartier in Québec and Liberals and Conservatives in Ontario formed a coalition government under the leadership of John Macdonald . When the Canadian Confederation was founded in 1867, the Liberal Conservative Party (commonly referred to as the Conservative Party) was formed.

Macdonald officially became party chairman in 1867 and, after the general election that same year, became the first prime minister of the newly formed state of Canada. The party brought together Ultramontane from Québec as well as entrepreneurs, Tories and Orange people in all four founding provinces. After the Pacific scandal , Macdonald had to resign in 1873, but returned to the top five years later. The Conservatives rejected the Liberal Party's desired free trade with the United States and instead advocated the National Policy , a protectionist economic policy that went hand in hand with the development and settlement of the West.

Robert Borden

Macdonald died in office in 1891, and his successors struggled to keep the insecure coalition of French Catholic Canadians and British imperialists together. The Red River Rebellion , the execution of Louis Riel, and the Manitoba school question exacerbated internal party disputes and made the Québec Conservatives practically ineligible for several decades. In the 1911 general election , Wilfrid Laurier's Liberals were ousted from power as they continued to advocate free trade. Robert Borden led a new Conservative government and emphasized the close ties to the British mother country.

Borden tried to broaden the electoral base with the involvement of Québec nationalists. But the First World War led to another rift between the two language groups. The French- Canadians were unwilling to support Britain in the war, while the Anglo-Canadians insisted on support from Canada and demanded the introduction of conscription (see 1917 conscription crisis ). In the general election in 1917 , the Conservatives joined forces with those liberals who supported conscription to form the Unionist Party . The election victory, however, led to a permanently disrupted relationship with the French Canadians. The Unionist Party quickly disintegrated; the Liberals returned to their old party or joined the Progressive Party .

With Arthur Meighen , Borden's successor as party chairman, the Conservatives dropped to third place in the 1921 general election . In 1925 they were again the strongest party, but the liberal Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King was able to hold on with the support of the progressives. The following year King lost a vote and asked Governor General Julian Byng to dissolve Parliament. Byng refused, however, and asked Meighen to form a new government. Just three months later, Meighen himself was overthrown, after which a new election took place and the Liberals celebrated an overwhelming election victory. This King Byng affair led to the strengthening of those circles who were striving for greater sovereignty for Canada. The Conservatives, on the other hand, were seen as a symbol of British imperialism, which no longer found popular support.

Richard Bedford Bennett

Meighen was replaced in 1927 by Richard Bedford Bennett , who led the Conservatives to election victory three years later, mainly because of the inability of the Liberal government to cope with the social consequences of the Great Depression. But the old prescription of the Conservatives, high tariffs and trade orientation towards Great Britain, had no effect either. Heavy riots and the emergence of numerous protest parties put the conservatives under pressure. Bennett underwent a radical change of course, trying the New Deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt adapt to Canadian standards. But these measures took effect far too late and the Conservatives suffered a devastating defeat in the 1935 general election.

In the 1940 general election, the Conservative Party did similarly poorly. She was weak in leadership and found herself in a difficult financial situation. It was widely expected that Canadian politics would tend to move to the left after the end of World War II. Because of this, the Conservatives tried to gain a foothold in the middle of the political spectrum. In December 1942 they elected John Bracken of the Progressive Party of Manitoba as their new chairman. Bracken integrated the remaining provincial offshoots of the Progressive Party and pushed through the renaming of the Progressive-Conservative Party .

Election results

Results of the House of Commons elections :

choice seats
total 		candidates
data 		Weighted
seats 		be right proportion of
1867 180 112 100 92,722 34.53%
1872 200 140 99 123,100 38.66%
1874 206 104 65 99,440 30.58%
1878 206 161 134 229.191 42.06%
1882 211 168 133 208,544 40.39%
1887 215 205 124 347,327 47.90%
1891 215 213 118 377.789 48.74%
1896 213 207 86 467.415 48.17%
1900 213 204 79 438.330 46.10%
1904 214 205 75 470.430 45.94%
choice seats
total 		candidates
data 		Weighted
seats 		be right proportion of
1908 221 211 85 539.374 46.21%
1911 221 212 132 636.938 48.90%
1917 235 211 153 1,070,694 56.93%
1921 235 204 49 935.651 29.95%
1925 235 232 115 1,454,253 46.13%
1926 245 232 91 1,476,834 45.35%
1930 245 229 134 1,863,115 47.79%
1935 245 228 39 1,290,671 29.84%
1940 245 207 39 1,402,059 30.41%

Party leader

See also

References and comments

  1. ^ Results of past general election - Elections Canada
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h including the liberal-conservative party
  3. ↑ including the Liberal-Conservative Party and Conservative Labor
  4. ↑ a b c including Liberal Conservative Party and Nationalist Conservative
  5. ^ As a unionist party
  6. ↑ including National Government

Web links