Canadian conservatism
Encyclopedia
Conservatism
in Canada
is generally considered to be primarily represented by the Conservative Party of Canada
at the federal level, and by various right-wing parties at the provincial level. The first party calling itself "Conservative" in what would become Canada was elected in the Province of Canada election of 1854.
Canadian conservatism had always been rooted in a preference for the traditional and established ways of doing things, even as it had shifted in economic, foreign and social policy. It is for that reason that unlike in the conservatives in the United States, Canadian conservatives generally preferred the Westminster system
of government. (Note: The United States of America is a federal
republic
, while Canada is a federal parliamentary democracy constitutional monarchy
, a distinction resulting from the American Revolution
and its outcome.)
Originally, Canadian conservatism tended to be traditionalist. Conservative governments in Canada, such as those of Sir John A. Macdonald, Sir Robert Borden, Lord Richard Bennett
, and John Diefenbaker
were known for supporting an active role for government in the economy of the creation of government-operated businesses (early Crown Corporations such as the Canadian National Railway
) to develop and protect Canadian industries, protectionist programs such as the National Policy
. Canadian conservatism thus mirrored British Conservatism
in its values and economic/political outlook. Canadian conservatives have generally favoured the continuation of old political institutions and strong ties to the monarchy
.
. This party was the dominant political force in Canadian politics from 1867 to 1935. Thereafter, the party (renamed Progressive Conservative
[PC] in 1945) spent more time in opposition than in government.
During the twentieth century rival "small-c conservative
" movements appeared, most notably the Social Credit
and Reform
parties. Conservatism was divided (especially by region) until the merger of the PCs and the Canadian Alliance
(successor to Reform) in 2003. Currently the Conservative Party of Canada attempts to represent all ideological and regional variants of conservatism.
who had fled the United States during the American Revolution and War of Independence. They were wary of emulating the US's "mob rule" and preferred a strong role for traditional elites such as landowners and the church in politics.
Many were Anglicans who supported keeping the Anglican Church of Canada
as Canada's established church. In each colony, Tories contested elections as the personal party of the governor. Business elites who surrounded the governor also hoped to gain patronage
. In Upper Canada this was the Family Compact
, in Lower Canada the Chateau Clique
. Opposition to the rule of these oligarchies resulted in the Rebellions of 1837
. After the rebellions, Lord Durham (a Whig or liberal) issued his Report on the Affairs of British North America
, a report to the British government that recommended that most powers in colonial governments be given from the governor to the elected assemblies. This new arrangement, called responsible government
, mirrored earlier changes that had occurred in Britain.
in western Canada, Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine
in eastern Canada and Joseph Howe
in Nova Scotia rose to prominence. They campaigned for and won responsible government by creating broad coalitions that took in liberals, moderates, and conservatives.
The only way for conservatives as a party to regroup was to accept the consequences of responsible government
: they abandoned the idea of being the governor's party and embraced mass politics. At the same time the coalition that had won responsible government began to break up in the 1850s. This presented an opening for more moderate conservatives such as John A. Macdonald
and George-Étienne Cartier
to claim the political centre. Their coalition dominated politics in the United Province of Canada, and when joined by liberal George Brown
, provided the broad support necessary to negotiate Confederation with the Maritime Provinces.
" of high tariffs against the United States, and intense railway building
, became the basis of a political dynasty that dominated Canadian politics from Confederation until Macdonald's death in office in 1891. The greatest strain in this coalition came during the Riel Rebellions of 1869 and 1885, which inflamed French-English and Protestant-Catholic tensions in the country. After Macdonald's death, the coalition faltered and the Liberal Party rose to dominate Quebec, and in the process became the natural governing party.
, who was the Protestant compromise choice. Abbott's government collapsed when his cabinet walked out on him, forcing him to resign and allowing for the selection of the first Catholic prime minister in Canada, John Sparrow Thompson. At just 45, he was expected to become the successor to Macdonald's legacy, but after only a year in office he died from a stroke. Two more short-serving Conservatives, Mackenzie Bowell
and Charles Tupper
, served out the end of the Conservative government, until the election in 1896 when the coalition of French and English Canadians fell apart and Laurier became the second Liberal prime minister of Canada. The Liberals would dominate for the next fourteen years until the emergence of Robert Borden
.
(often abbreviated PC) dominated conservative politics at the federal level and in most provinces. Canada had many conservative Prime Ministers in the past, but the first to be elected under the Progressive Conservative banner was John Diefenbaker
who served from 1957-1963.
During the late 1970s and early 1980s, with the rise of Conservative politicians in Canada such as Ralph Klein, Don Getty
, Brian Mulroney
, Preston Manning
, Mike Harris
and others, the objectives and values of Conservatives in Canada began to mimic those of fiscal conservatives in both the US and UK. With the rise in inflation
and a large budgetary deficit in Canada
from the Trudeau government, emphasis was put on "shrinking the size of government" (in part, through privatization
), pursuing continentalist trade arrangements (free trade
, creating tax incentives and cutting "government waste").
Joe Clark
became Prime Minister with a minority government
in 1979, but lost to a non-confidence vote after only nine months, and the Liberals again took power. After Pierre Trudeau
's retirement in 1984, his successor, John Turner
, called a federal election, which was won in a landslide by the PCs under Brian Mulroney
. Mulroney succeeded by uniting conservatives from Western Canada
with those from Quebec
. During his tenure, the government unsuccessfully attempted to negotiate the status of Quebec through the failed Meech Lake
and Charlottetown Accord
s.
During the government of Brian Mulroney (1984–1993), government spending on social programs was cut, taxes for individuals and businesses were reduced (but a new national tax appeared for nearly all goods and services), government intervention in the economy was significantly reduced, a free trade agreement was drafted with the United States, and Crown Corporations such as Teleglobe, Petro-Canada
and Air Canada
(some created by previous Conservative governments) were sold to both domestic and foreign private buyers (privatized). However, due to the failure of the Mulroney government to balance the budget and service debt, the federal debt continued to rise. It was not until the end of Mulroney's administration and the beginning of Jean Chrétien
's Liberal government that the government's program of spending finally halted the growth in the federal debt.
The government's willingness to affirm Quebec's demands for recognition as a distinct society
was seen as a betrayal by many westerners as well as angering Canadian Nationalists
mostly from Ontario
. The Reform Party of Canada
was founded on a strongly social conservative and fiscal conservative platform as an alternative voice for these western conservatives.
The Progressive Conservative Party
lost a large base of its support toward the end of the Mulroney era. Brian Mulroney's failed attempts to reform the Canadian Constitution with the Meech Lake
and Charlottetown Accord
s, and the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax
only increased public anger. In the 1993 federal election
, the PC Party was reduced to only two seats out of 295 in the Canadian House of Commons
. The Liberal Party of Canada
was elected with a strong majority and the Reform Party of Canada
gradually replaced the Tories as the major right-wing party in Canada.
Following Mulroney's resignation in 1993 and Kim Campbell
's brief tenure, the Conservatives were reduced to only two seats in Parliament
. Much former PC support went to the Reform Party under Preston Manning
, which became the official opposition from 1997-2000.
Throughout the 1990s, many neoconservatives, social conservatives and Blue Tories
in the PC Party began to drift slowly to the Reform Party and then in droves to its successor, the Canadian Alliance
. This left the PC Party under the control of the Red Tory
faction. Despite taking what they believed to be more popular socially liberal
approaches on certain issues, the Tories significantly fell in the popular vote from the 1997 to 2000 elections and were not able to greatly increase their representation in the House of Commons. The Reform Party and then Canadian Alliance dominated the opposition benches.
Support for both the Reform Party and the Progressive Conservatives was negligible in Quebec until the 2006 federal election
, where the renewed Conservative party won 10 seats in Quebec. In the west, the Reform Party took most of the PC Party's former seats, but held much more socially or economically conservative views than the old party on most subjects (regarding, for example, homosexuality, religion in public life, gun control
, and government intervention in the economy).
The PCs retained moderate support in the Atlantic Provinces, eventually managing to regain a few seats. They also retained scattered support across the country. The result was that neither new party managed to approach the success of the Progressive Conservatives prior to 1993. In many ridings the conservative vote was split
, letting other parties win: the Liberal Party under Jean Chrétien
won three successive majority government
s starting in 1993. During this period, either the Bloc Québécois
or the Reform Party were the Official Opposition.
After the 1997 federal election
some members of the Reform Party tried to end the vote splitting by merging the two parties. A new party was formed, called the Canadian Alliance
, and Stockwell Day
was elected its leader. However, many PCs resisted the move, suspecting that Reform Party ideology would dominate the new party, and the new Party garnered only a little more support than its predecessor. Meanwhile the PCs re-elected Joe Clark
as their leader and attempted to regain lost ground.
Day's tenure was marked by a number of public gaffes and apparent publicity stunts, and he was widely portrayed as incompetent and ignorant. Several MPs left his party in 2002.
In 2003, when former Prime Minister Joe Clark retired after being brought back to improve the PC party's standings, Peter MacKay
was chosen in a leadership contest to replace him. MacKay immediately created controversy within the party by entering into negotiations with Canadian Alliance leader Stephen Harper
to merge the two parties. MacKay had been elected on a third ballot of the party's leadership convention
as a result of an agreement that he signed with another leadership contestant, David Orchard
, in which he promised never to merge the PC Party with the Alliance.
Later on that year, the Progressive Conservative Party, which dated back to 1854 (though existing under many different names), merged with the Canadian Alliance. 96% of the Alliance's membership and 92% of the PC Party's riding representatives approved the merger. The Conservative Party of Canada
was then created, and, in 2004, Stephen Harper was elected leader. Under Stephen Harper, the platform of the Conservative Party emphasized the Blue Tory
policies of fiscal restraint, increases in military spending, tax cuts and Senate Reform.
provinces of British Columbia
, Alberta
, Saskatchewan
, and Manitoba
have long been a hotbed for protest politics and political parties of the far left and far right. All four provinces have strong rural and Christian constituencies, leading to an active presence of the Christian Right
. Historically, the heavy presence of agriculture led to the emergence in the past of large left-leaning, agrarian farmer's based protest movements such as the Progressive Party of Canada
and the United Farmers of Canada
which supported free trade
with the United States
and increased social benefits. These movements were later absorbed by the Liberal Party of Canada
and the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation
(CCF).
During the Great Depression
two radical protest movements appeared, the CCF in Saskatchewan
advocated progressive social policies and democratic socialism
; while in Alberta
, the Social Credit Party of Alberta
formed a provincial government that favoured evangelical Christian conservatism, provincial control over natural resources, limited government intervention in the economy and a radical philosophy known as Social Credit
based on providing dividends to the population to support small businesses and free enterprise.
The Social Credit Party went on to dominate the government of Alberta from 1934–1971 and British Columbia from 1951–1972 and 1975-1991. However unlike the CCF which survived the test of time and expanded to form provincial governments and gain support nationwide and later morphing into the social democratic
, New Democratic Party
the Social Credit Party eventually died out. Their popularity grew in Quebec
leading to Western supporters of Social Credit feeling isolated by the federal party's Quebec nationalism
. The provincial Social Credit governments of British Columbia and Alberta eventually abandoned Social Credit economic policies and followed staunchly conservative policies, while maintaining ties with the federal Progressive Conservative Party of Canada
as opposed to the federal Social Credit Party of Canada
.
In BC the Social Credit Party was replaced as the party of the right wing by the British Columbia Liberal Party
, and in Alberta they were completely annihilated by the more moderate Alberta Progressive Conservative Party, leaving both parties as marginal political minnows. In the 1980 federal election
, the Social Credit Party of Canada lost all of its remaining seats and was forced to disband in 1989. Most of its Western members moved onto the ideologically similar Reform Party of Canada
, founded by Preston Manning
, the son of Alberta's former Social Credit premier, Ernest Manning
.
The Reform Party grew out of the province of Alberta and was fed by dissatisfaction with the federal Progressive Conservative government of Brian Mulroney
. Right-wing Westerners felt that Mulroney's neoliberal economic policies did not go nearly far enough, that his government was overly favourable toward the more populous provinces of Quebec
and Ontario
, that his policies on social issues
such as abortion
and the death penalty were too liberal, and that, like the Liberal Party of Canada
, the Progressive Conservatives had allegedly come to not take Western demands for provincial economic autonomy seriously enough.
Though for most of the 1990s the Tories enjoyed roughly the same electoral support as the Reform Party due to Canada's First Past the Post system of elected representatives to the Canadian House of Commons
, Reform dominated the position of Official Opposition to the government. In 1999 the Reform Party was dissolved and joined by some right-wing members of the PC Party to create the Canadian Alliance
; however, this party was unable to attract any real support east of Manitoba and was dissolved in 2003, merging with the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada to create the new Conservative Party of Canada
. This party, led by former Alliance leader Stephen Harper
, won a minority government
in the 2006 federal election
, with 36% of the vote and 124 seats in the House of Commons out of 308.
In Alberta, the Progressive Conservatives have dominated the government since 1971, following slightly right-wing policies under premiers Peter Lougheed
, Don Getty
, Ralph Klein and Ed Stelmach
. In BC, the BC Liberals have taken a rightward economic turn under Premier Gordon Campbell in contrast to the previous left-wing New Democrats, to fill the gap left by the defeat of the Socreds. In Saskatchewan, the centre-right Saskatchewan Party
formed the government in 2007 after many years of New Democratic Party
rule. In Manitoba, the social democratic New Democratic Party currently forms government; however, federally, the Conservatives are dominant in all four Western provinces.
A rump Progressive Conservative caucus also sits in the Canadian Senate
.
Other ideologies:
Conservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...
in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
is generally considered to be primarily represented by the Conservative Party of Canada
Conservative Party of Canada
The Conservative Party of Canada , is a political party in Canada which was formed by the merger of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada in 2003. It is positioned on the right of the Canadian political spectrum...
at the federal level, and by various right-wing parties at the provincial level. The first party calling itself "Conservative" in what would become Canada was elected in the Province of Canada election of 1854.
Canadian conservatism had always been rooted in a preference for the traditional and established ways of doing things, even as it had shifted in economic, foreign and social policy. It is for that reason that unlike in the conservatives in the United States, Canadian conservatives generally preferred the Westminster system
Westminster System
The Westminster system is a democratic parliamentary system of government modelled after the politics of the United Kingdom. This term comes from the Palace of Westminster, the seat of the Parliament of the United Kingdom....
of government. (Note: The United States of America is a federal
Federal republic
A federal republic is a federation of states with a republican form of government. A federation is the central government. The states in a federation also maintain the federation...
republic
Republic
A republic is a form of government in which the people, or some significant portion of them, have supreme control over the government and where offices of state are elected or chosen by elected people. In modern times, a common simplified definition of a republic is a government where the head of...
, while Canada is a federal parliamentary democracy constitutional monarchy
Constitutional monarchy
Constitutional monarchy is a form of government in which a monarch acts as head of state within the parameters of a constitution, whether it be a written, uncodified or blended constitution...
, a distinction resulting from the American Revolution
American Revolution
The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...
and its outcome.)
Originally, Canadian conservatism tended to be traditionalist. Conservative governments in Canada, such as those of Sir John A. Macdonald, Sir Robert Borden, Lord Richard Bennett
R. B. Bennett
Richard Bedford Bennett, 1st Viscount Bennett, PC, KC was a Canadian lawyer, businessman, politician, and philanthropist. He served as the 11th Prime Minister of Canada from August 7, 1930, to October 23, 1935, during the worst of the Great Depression years...
, and John Diefenbaker
John Diefenbaker
John George Diefenbaker, PC, CH, QC was the 13th Prime Minister of Canada, serving from June 21, 1957, to April 22, 1963...
were known for supporting an active role for government in the economy of the creation of government-operated businesses (early Crown Corporations such as the Canadian National Railway
Canadian National Railway
The Canadian National Railway Company is a Canadian Class I railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec. CN's slogan is "North America's Railroad"....
) to develop and protect Canadian industries, protectionist programs such as the National Policy
National Policy
The National Policy was a Canadian economic program introduced by John A. Macdonald's Conservative Party in 1876 and put into action in 1879. It called for high tariffs on imported manufactured items to protect the manufacturing industry...
. Canadian conservatism thus mirrored British Conservatism
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
in its values and economic/political outlook. Canadian conservatives have generally favoured the continuation of old political institutions and strong ties to the monarchy
Monarchy in Canada
The monarchy of Canada is the core of both Canada's federalism and its Westminster-style parliamentary democracy, being the foundation of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the Canadian government and each provincial government...
.
History
The conservative movement in Canada evolved from relatively informal pre-Confederation political movements or parties, gradually coalescing into the Conservative PartyConservative Party of Canada (historical)
The Conservative Party of Canada has gone by a variety of names over the years since Canadian Confederation. Initially known as the "Liberal-Conservative Party", it dropped "Liberal" from its name in 1873, although many of its candidates continued to use this name.As a result of World War I and the...
. This party was the dominant political force in Canadian politics from 1867 to 1935. Thereafter, the party (renamed Progressive Conservative
Progressive Conservative Party of Canada
The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada was a Canadian political party with a centre-right stance on economic issues and, after the 1970s, a centrist stance on social issues....
[PC] in 1945) spent more time in opposition than in government.
During the twentieth century rival "small-c conservative
Small-c conservative
A small-c conservative is anyone who believes in the philosophy of conservatism but does not necessarily identify with an official Conservative Party.-Canadian context:...
" movements appeared, most notably the Social Credit
Social Credit
Social Credit is an economic philosophy developed by C. H. Douglas , a British engineer, who wrote a book by that name in 1924. Social Credit is described by Douglas as "the policy of a philosophy"; he called his philosophy "practical Christianity"...
and Reform
Reform Party of Canada
The Reform Party of Canada was a Canadian federal political party that existed from 1987 to 2000. It was originally founded as a Western Canada-based protest party, but attempted to expand eastward in the 1990s. It viewed itself as a populist party....
parties. Conservatism was divided (especially by region) until the merger of the PCs and the Canadian Alliance
Canadian Alliance
The Canadian Alliance , formally the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance , was a Canadian conservative political party that existed from 2000 to 2003. The party was the successor to the Reform Party of Canada and inherited its position as the Official Opposition in the House of Commons and held...
(successor to Reform) in 2003. Currently the Conservative Party of Canada attempts to represent all ideological and regional variants of conservatism.
Pre-Confederation
In the early days of electoral politics in Canada, the term conservatives or Tories applied to those people who supported the authority of colonial governors and their advisers over the elected assemblies. These conservatives took their cues from British Tories, especially Burke. They supported royal privilege, and were avowedly anti-democratic. Tory supporters were often descended from loyalistsUnited Empire Loyalists
The name United Empire Loyalists is an honorific given after the fact to those American Loyalists who resettled in British North America and other British Colonies as an act of fealty to King George III after the British defeat in the American Revolutionary War and prior to the Treaty of Paris...
who had fled the United States during the American Revolution and War of Independence. They were wary of emulating the US's "mob rule" and preferred a strong role for traditional elites such as landowners and the church in politics.
Many were Anglicans who supported keeping the Anglican Church of Canada
Anglican Church of Canada
The Anglican Church of Canada is the Province of the Anglican Communion in Canada. The official French name is l'Église Anglicane du Canada. The ACC is the third largest church in Canada after the Roman Catholic Church and the United Church of Canada, consisting of 800,000 registered members...
as Canada's established church. In each colony, Tories contested elections as the personal party of the governor. Business elites who surrounded the governor also hoped to gain patronage
Patronage
Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows to another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings or popes have provided to musicians, painters, and sculptors...
. In Upper Canada this was the Family Compact
Family Compact
Fully developed after the War of 1812, the Compact lasted until Upper and Lower Canada were united in 1841. In Lower Canada, its equivalent was the Château Clique. The influence of the Family Compact on the government administration at different levels lasted to the 1880s...
, in Lower Canada the Chateau Clique
Château Clique
The Clique du Château or Château Clique was a group of wealthy families in Lower Canada in the early 19th century. They were the Lower Canadian equivalent of the Family Compact in Upper Canada...
. Opposition to the rule of these oligarchies resulted in the Rebellions of 1837
Rebellions of 1837
The Rebellions of 1837 were a pair of Canadian armed uprisings that occurred in 1837 and 1838 in response to frustrations in political reform. A key shared goal was the allowance of responsible government, which was eventually achieved in the incident's aftermath.-Rebellions:The rebellions started...
. After the rebellions, Lord Durham (a Whig or liberal) issued his Report on the Affairs of British North America
Report on the Affairs of British North America (1839)
The Report on the Affairs of British North America, commonly known as The Durham Report, is an important document in the history of Quebec, Ontario, Canada and the British Empire....
, a report to the British government that recommended that most powers in colonial governments be given from the governor to the elected assemblies. This new arrangement, called responsible government
Responsible government
Responsible government is a conception of a system of government that embodies the principle of parliamentary accountability which is the foundation of the Westminster system of parliamentary democracy...
, mirrored earlier changes that had occurred in Britain.
Responsible government
After the failure of radical liberalism during the Rebellions of 1837, a new set of moderate liberals, led by Robert BaldwinRobert Baldwin
Robert Baldwin was born at York . He, along with his political partner Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine, led the first responsible ministry in Canada, regarded by some as the first truly Canadian government....
in western Canada, Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine
Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine
Sir Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine , 1st Baronet, KCMG was the first Canadian to become Prime Minister of the United Province of Canada and the first head of a responsible government in Canada. He was born in Boucherville, Lower Canada in 1807...
in eastern Canada and Joseph Howe
Joseph Howe
Joseph Howe, PC was a Nova Scotian journalist, politician, and public servant. He is one of Nova Scotia's greatest and best-loved politicians...
in Nova Scotia rose to prominence. They campaigned for and won responsible government by creating broad coalitions that took in liberals, moderates, and conservatives.
The only way for conservatives as a party to regroup was to accept the consequences of responsible government
Responsible government
Responsible government is a conception of a system of government that embodies the principle of parliamentary accountability which is the foundation of the Westminster system of parliamentary democracy...
: they abandoned the idea of being the governor's party and embraced mass politics. At the same time the coalition that had won responsible government began to break up in the 1850s. This presented an opening for more moderate conservatives such as John A. Macdonald
John A. Macdonald
Sir John Alexander Macdonald, GCB, KCMG, PC, PC , QC was the first Prime Minister of Canada. The dominant figure of Canadian Confederation, his political career spanned almost half a century...
and George-Étienne Cartier
George-Étienne Cartier
Sir George-Étienne Cartier, 1st Baronet, PC was a French-Canadian statesman and Father of Confederation.The English spelling of the name, George, instead of Georges, the usual French spelling, is explained by his having been named in honour of King George III....
to claim the political centre. Their coalition dominated politics in the United Province of Canada, and when joined by liberal George Brown
George Brown
- Politicians :* George Brown, Baron George-Brown , British politician, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs* George Brown, Jr. , U.S...
, provided the broad support necessary to negotiate Confederation with the Maritime Provinces.
Macdonald-Cartier era
The Macdonald-Cartier coalition's prestige was only strengthened by the creation of the new Canadian Confederation in 1867. Their coalition dominated the early politics of the new state. Their "National PolicyNational Policy
The National Policy was a Canadian economic program introduced by John A. Macdonald's Conservative Party in 1876 and put into action in 1879. It called for high tariffs on imported manufactured items to protect the manufacturing industry...
" of high tariffs against the United States, and intense railway building
Canadian Pacific Railway
The Canadian Pacific Railway , formerly also known as CP Rail between 1968 and 1996, is a historic Canadian Class I railway founded in 1881 and now operated by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001...
, became the basis of a political dynasty that dominated Canadian politics from Confederation until Macdonald's death in office in 1891. The greatest strain in this coalition came during the Riel Rebellions of 1869 and 1885, which inflamed French-English and Protestant-Catholic tensions in the country. After Macdonald's death, the coalition faltered and the Liberal Party rose to dominate Quebec, and in the process became the natural governing party.
Interregnum
The death of Macdonald left a large power vacuum in the Conservative Party, leading to the short tenure of John AbbottJohn Abbott
Sir John Joseph Caldwell Abbott, PC, KCMG, QC was the third Prime Minister of Canada. He served in the office for seventeen months, from June 16, 1891 to November 24, 1892. - Life and work :...
, who was the Protestant compromise choice. Abbott's government collapsed when his cabinet walked out on him, forcing him to resign and allowing for the selection of the first Catholic prime minister in Canada, John Sparrow Thompson. At just 45, he was expected to become the successor to Macdonald's legacy, but after only a year in office he died from a stroke. Two more short-serving Conservatives, Mackenzie Bowell
Mackenzie Bowell
Sir Mackenzie Bowell, PC, KCMG was a Canadian politician who served as the fifth Prime Minister of Canada from December 21, 1894 to April 27, 1896.-Early life:Bowell was born in Rickinghall, Suffolk, England to John Bowell and Elizabeth Marshall...
and Charles Tupper
Charles Tupper
Sir Charles Tupper, 1st Baronet, GCMG, CB, PC was a Canadian father of Confederation: as the Premier of Nova Scotia from 1864 to 1867, he led Nova Scotia into Confederation. He later went on to serve as the sixth Prime Minister of Canada, sworn in to office on May 1, 1896, seven days after...
, served out the end of the Conservative government, until the election in 1896 when the coalition of French and English Canadians fell apart and Laurier became the second Liberal prime minister of Canada. The Liberals would dominate for the next fourteen years until the emergence of Robert Borden
Robert Borden
Sir Robert Laird Borden, PC, GCMG, KC was a Canadian lawyer and politician. He served as the eighth Prime Minister of Canada from October 10, 1911 to July 10, 1920, and was the third Nova Scotian to hold this office...
.
Modern
Throughout most of the last century, the Progressive Conservative PartyProgressive Conservative Party of Canada
The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada was a Canadian political party with a centre-right stance on economic issues and, after the 1970s, a centrist stance on social issues....
(often abbreviated PC) dominated conservative politics at the federal level and in most provinces. Canada had many conservative Prime Ministers in the past, but the first to be elected under the Progressive Conservative banner was John Diefenbaker
John Diefenbaker
John George Diefenbaker, PC, CH, QC was the 13th Prime Minister of Canada, serving from June 21, 1957, to April 22, 1963...
who served from 1957-1963.
During the late 1970s and early 1980s, with the rise of Conservative politicians in Canada such as Ralph Klein, Don Getty
Don Getty
Donald Ross Getty, OC, AOE is a retired Canadian politician who served as the 11th Premier of Alberta between 1985 and 1992. A member of the Progressive Conservatives, he served as Energy Minister and Federal and Intergovernmental Affairs Minister in the government of Peter Lougheed before...
, Brian Mulroney
Brian Mulroney
Martin Brian Mulroney, was the 18th Prime Minister of Canada from September 17, 1984, to June 25, 1993 and was leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada from 1983 to 1993. His tenure as Prime Minister was marked by the introduction of major economic reforms, such as the Canada-U.S...
, Preston Manning
Preston Manning
Ernest Preston Manning, CC is a Canadian politician. He was the only leader of the Reform Party of Canada, a Canadian federal political party that evolved into the Canadian Alliance...
, Mike Harris
Mike Harris
Michael Deane "Mike" Harris was the 22nd Premier of Ontario from June 26, 1995 to April 15, 2002. He is most noted for the "Common Sense Revolution", his Progressive Conservative government's program of deficit reduction in combination with lower taxes and cuts to government...
and others, the objectives and values of Conservatives in Canada began to mimic those of fiscal conservatives in both the US and UK. With the rise in inflation
Inflation
In economics, inflation is a rise in the general level of prices of goods and services in an economy over a period of time.When the general price level rises, each unit of currency buys fewer goods and services. Consequently, inflation also reflects an erosion in the purchasing power of money – a...
and a large budgetary deficit in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
from the Trudeau government, emphasis was put on "shrinking the size of government" (in part, through privatization
Privatization
Privatization is the incidence or process of transferring ownership of a business, enterprise, agency or public service from the public sector to the private sector or to private non-profit organizations...
), pursuing continentalist trade arrangements (free trade
Free trade
Under a free trade policy, prices emerge from supply and demand, and are the sole determinant of resource allocation. 'Free' trade differs from other forms of trade policy where the allocation of goods and services among trading countries are determined by price strategies that may differ from...
, creating tax incentives and cutting "government waste").
Joe Clark
Joe Clark
Charles Joseph "Joe" Clark, is a Canadian statesman, businessman, and university professor, and former journalist and politician...
became Prime Minister with a minority government
Minority government
A minority government or a minority cabinet is a cabinet of a parliamentary system formed when a political party or coalition of parties does not have a majority of overall seats in the parliament but is sworn into government to break a Hung Parliament election result. It is also known as a...
in 1979, but lost to a non-confidence vote after only nine months, and the Liberals again took power. After Pierre Trudeau
Pierre Trudeau
Joseph Philippe Pierre Yves Elliott Trudeau, , usually known as Pierre Trudeau or Pierre Elliott Trudeau, was the 15th Prime Minister of Canada from April 20, 1968 to June 4, 1979, and again from March 3, 1980 to June 30, 1984.Trudeau began his political career campaigning for socialist ideals,...
's retirement in 1984, his successor, John Turner
John Turner
John Napier Wyndham Turner, PC, CC, QC is an English Canadian lawyer and retired politician, who served as the 17th Prime Minister of Canada from June 30 to September 17, 1984....
, called a federal election, which was won in a landslide by the PCs under Brian Mulroney
Brian Mulroney
Martin Brian Mulroney, was the 18th Prime Minister of Canada from September 17, 1984, to June 25, 1993 and was leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada from 1983 to 1993. His tenure as Prime Minister was marked by the introduction of major economic reforms, such as the Canada-U.S...
. Mulroney succeeded by uniting conservatives from Western Canada
Western Canada
Western Canada, also referred to as the Western provinces and commonly as the West, is a region of Canada that includes the four provinces west of the province of Ontario.- Provinces :...
with those from Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
. During his tenure, the government unsuccessfully attempted to negotiate the status of Quebec through the failed Meech Lake
Meech Lake Accord
The Meech Lake Accord was a package of proposed amendments to the Constitution of Canada negotiated in 1987 by Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and ten provincial premiers. It was intended to persuade the government of the Province of Quebec to endorse the 1982 Canadian Constitution and increase...
and Charlottetown Accord
Charlottetown Accord
The Charlottetown Accord was a package of proposed amendments to the Constitution of Canada, proposed by the Canadian federal and provincial governments in 1992. It was submitted to a public referendum on October 26 of that year, and was defeated.-Background:...
s.
During the government of Brian Mulroney (1984–1993), government spending on social programs was cut, taxes for individuals and businesses were reduced (but a new national tax appeared for nearly all goods and services), government intervention in the economy was significantly reduced, a free trade agreement was drafted with the United States, and Crown Corporations such as Teleglobe, Petro-Canada
Petro-Canada
Petro-Canada was a crown corporation of Canada in the field of oil and natural gas. It was headquartered in the Petro-Canada Centre in Calgary, Alberta. In August, 2009, Petro-Canada merged with Suncor Energy, a deal in which Suncor investors received approximately 60 per cent ownership of the...
and Air Canada
Air Canada
Air Canada is the flag carrier and largest airline of Canada. The airline, founded in 1936, provides scheduled and charter air transport for passengers and cargo to 178 destinations worldwide. It is the world's tenth largest passenger airline by number of destinations, and the airline is a...
(some created by previous Conservative governments) were sold to both domestic and foreign private buyers (privatized). However, due to the failure of the Mulroney government to balance the budget and service debt, the federal debt continued to rise. It was not until the end of Mulroney's administration and the beginning of Jean Chrétien
Jean Chrétien
Joseph Jacques Jean Chrétien , known commonly as Jean Chrétien is a former Canadian politician who was the 20th Prime Minister of Canada. He served in the position for over ten years, from November 4, 1993 to December 12, 2003....
's Liberal government that the government's program of spending finally halted the growth in the federal debt.
The government's willingness to affirm Quebec's demands for recognition as a distinct society
Distinct society
Distinct society is a political term especially used during constitutional debate in Canada, in the second half of the 1980s and in the early 1990s, and present in the two failed constitutional amendments, the Meech Lake Accord and the Charlottetown Accord...
was seen as a betrayal by many westerners as well as angering Canadian Nationalists
Canadian nationalism
Canadian nationalism is a term which has been applied to ideologies of several different types which highlight and promote specifically Canadian interests over those of other countries, notably the United States...
mostly from Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
. The Reform Party of Canada
Reform Party of Canada
The Reform Party of Canada was a Canadian federal political party that existed from 1987 to 2000. It was originally founded as a Western Canada-based protest party, but attempted to expand eastward in the 1990s. It viewed itself as a populist party....
was founded on a strongly social conservative and fiscal conservative platform as an alternative voice for these western conservatives.
The Progressive Conservative Party
Progressive Conservative Party of Canada
The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada was a Canadian political party with a centre-right stance on economic issues and, after the 1970s, a centrist stance on social issues....
lost a large base of its support toward the end of the Mulroney era. Brian Mulroney's failed attempts to reform the Canadian Constitution with the Meech Lake
Meech Lake Accord
The Meech Lake Accord was a package of proposed amendments to the Constitution of Canada negotiated in 1987 by Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and ten provincial premiers. It was intended to persuade the government of the Province of Quebec to endorse the 1982 Canadian Constitution and increase...
and Charlottetown Accord
Charlottetown Accord
The Charlottetown Accord was a package of proposed amendments to the Constitution of Canada, proposed by the Canadian federal and provincial governments in 1992. It was submitted to a public referendum on October 26 of that year, and was defeated.-Background:...
s, and the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax
Goods and Services Tax (Canada)
The Goods and Services Tax is a multi-level value added tax introduced in Canada on January 1, 1991, by then Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and his finance minister Michael Wilson. The GST replaced a hidden 13.5% Manufacturers' Sales Tax ; Mulroney claimed the GST was implemented because the MST...
only increased public anger. In the 1993 federal election
Canadian federal election, 1993
The Canadian federal election of 1993 was held on October 25 of that year to elect members to the Canadian House of Commons of the 35th Parliament of Canada. Fourteen parties competed for the 295 seats in the House at that time...
, the PC Party was reduced to only two seats out of 295 in the Canadian House of Commons
Canadian House of Commons
The House of Commons of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign and the Senate. The House of Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 308 members known as Members of Parliament...
. The Liberal Party of Canada
Liberal Party of Canada
The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...
was elected with a strong majority and the Reform Party of Canada
Reform Party of Canada
The Reform Party of Canada was a Canadian federal political party that existed from 1987 to 2000. It was originally founded as a Western Canada-based protest party, but attempted to expand eastward in the 1990s. It viewed itself as a populist party....
gradually replaced the Tories as the major right-wing party in Canada.
Following Mulroney's resignation in 1993 and Kim Campbell
Kim Campbell
Avril Phædra Douglas "Kim" Campbell, is a Canadian politician, lawyer, university professor, diplomat, and writer. She served as the 19th Prime Minister of Canada, serving from June 25, 1993, to November 4, 1993...
's brief tenure, the Conservatives were reduced to only two seats in Parliament
Parliament of Canada
The Parliament of Canada is the federal legislative branch of Canada, seated at Parliament Hill in the national capital, Ottawa. Formally, the body consists of the Canadian monarch—represented by her governor general—the Senate, and the House of Commons, each element having its own officers and...
. Much former PC support went to the Reform Party under Preston Manning
Preston Manning
Ernest Preston Manning, CC is a Canadian politician. He was the only leader of the Reform Party of Canada, a Canadian federal political party that evolved into the Canadian Alliance...
, which became the official opposition from 1997-2000.
Throughout the 1990s, many neoconservatives, social conservatives and Blue Tories
Blue Tory
Blue Tories, also known as small 'c' conservatives, are, in Canadian politics, members of the former federal Progressive Conservative Party of Canada, current Conservative Party of Canada and provincial Progressive Conservative parties who are more economically right wing...
in the PC Party began to drift slowly to the Reform Party and then in droves to its successor, the Canadian Alliance
Canadian Alliance
The Canadian Alliance , formally the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance , was a Canadian conservative political party that existed from 2000 to 2003. The party was the successor to the Reform Party of Canada and inherited its position as the Official Opposition in the House of Commons and held...
. This left the PC Party under the control of the Red Tory
Red Tory
A red Tory is an adherent of a particular political philosophy, tradition, and disposition in Canada somewhat similar to the High Tory tradition in the United Kingdom; it is contrasted with "blue Tory". In Canada, the phenomenon of "red toryism" has fundamentally, if not exclusively, been found in...
faction. Despite taking what they believed to be more popular socially liberal
Social liberalism
Social liberalism is the belief that liberalism should include social justice. It differs from classical liberalism in that it believes the legitimate role of the state includes addressing economic and social issues such as unemployment, health care, and education while simultaneously expanding...
approaches on certain issues, the Tories significantly fell in the popular vote from the 1997 to 2000 elections and were not able to greatly increase their representation in the House of Commons. The Reform Party and then Canadian Alliance dominated the opposition benches.
Support for both the Reform Party and the Progressive Conservatives was negligible in Quebec until the 2006 federal election
Canadian federal election, 2006
The 2006 Canadian federal election was held on January 23, 2006, to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 39th Parliament of Canada. The Conservative Party of Canada won the greatest number of seats: 40.3% of seats, or 124 out of 308, up from 99 seats in 2004, and 36.3% of votes:...
, where the renewed Conservative party won 10 seats in Quebec. In the west, the Reform Party took most of the PC Party's former seats, but held much more socially or economically conservative views than the old party on most subjects (regarding, for example, homosexuality, religion in public life, gun control
Gun control
Gun control is any law, policy, practice, or proposal designed to restrict or limit the possession, production, importation, shipment, sale, and/or use of guns or other firearms by private citizens...
, and government intervention in the economy).
The PCs retained moderate support in the Atlantic Provinces, eventually managing to regain a few seats. They also retained scattered support across the country. The result was that neither new party managed to approach the success of the Progressive Conservatives prior to 1993. In many ridings the conservative vote was split
Vote splitting
Vote splitting is an electoral effect in which the distribution of votes among multiple similar candidates reduces the chance of winning for any of the similar candidates, and increases the chance of winning for a dissimilar candidate....
, letting other parties win: the Liberal Party under Jean Chrétien
Jean Chrétien
Joseph Jacques Jean Chrétien , known commonly as Jean Chrétien is a former Canadian politician who was the 20th Prime Minister of Canada. He served in the position for over ten years, from November 4, 1993 to December 12, 2003....
won three successive majority government
Majority government
A majority government is when the governing party has an absolute majority of seats in the legislature or parliament in a parliamentary system. This is as opposed to a minority government, where even the largest party wins only a plurality of seats and thus must constantly bargain for support from...
s starting in 1993. During this period, either the Bloc Québécois
Bloc Québécois
The Bloc Québécois is a federal political party in Canada devoted to the protection of Quebec's interests in the House of Commons of Canada, and the promotion of Quebec sovereignty. The Bloc was originally a party made of Quebec nationalists who defected from the federal Progressive Conservative...
or the Reform Party were the Official Opposition.
After the 1997 federal election
Canadian federal election, 1997
The Canadian federal election of 1997 was held on June 2, 1997, to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 36th Parliament of Canada. Prime Minister Jean Chrétien's Liberal Party of Canada won a second majority government...
some members of the Reform Party tried to end the vote splitting by merging the two parties. A new party was formed, called the Canadian Alliance
Canadian Alliance
The Canadian Alliance , formally the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance , was a Canadian conservative political party that existed from 2000 to 2003. The party was the successor to the Reform Party of Canada and inherited its position as the Official Opposition in the House of Commons and held...
, and Stockwell Day
Stockwell Day
Stockwell Burt Day, Jr., PC, MP is a former Canadian politician, and a member of the Conservative Party of Canada. He is a former cabinet minister in Alberta, and a former leader of the Canadian Alliance. Day was MP for the riding of Okanagan—Coquihalla in British Columbia and the president of...
was elected its leader. However, many PCs resisted the move, suspecting that Reform Party ideology would dominate the new party, and the new Party garnered only a little more support than its predecessor. Meanwhile the PCs re-elected Joe Clark
Joe Clark
Charles Joseph "Joe" Clark, is a Canadian statesman, businessman, and university professor, and former journalist and politician...
as their leader and attempted to regain lost ground.
Day's tenure was marked by a number of public gaffes and apparent publicity stunts, and he was widely portrayed as incompetent and ignorant. Several MPs left his party in 2002.
In 2003, when former Prime Minister Joe Clark retired after being brought back to improve the PC party's standings, Peter MacKay
Peter MacKay
Peter Gordon MacKay, PC, QC, MP is a lawyer and politician from Nova Scotia, Canada. He is the Member of Parliament for Central Nova and currently serves as Minister of National Defence in the Cabinet of Canada....
was chosen in a leadership contest to replace him. MacKay immediately created controversy within the party by entering into negotiations with Canadian Alliance leader Stephen Harper
Stephen Harper
Stephen Joseph Harper is the 22nd and current Prime Minister of Canada and leader of the Conservative Party. Harper became prime minister when his party formed a minority government after the 2006 federal election...
to merge the two parties. MacKay had been elected on a third ballot of the party's leadership convention
Leadership convention
In Canadian politics, a leadership convention is held by a political party when the party needs to choose a leader due to a vacancy or a challenge to the incumbent leader.- Overview :...
as a result of an agreement that he signed with another leadership contestant, David Orchard
David Orchard
David Orchard is a Canadian political figure, member of the Liberal Party of Canada, who was the Liberal Party candidate for the Saskatchewan riding of Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River in the 2008 federal election.Previously, Orchard was a member of the now defunct Progressive Conservative...
, in which he promised never to merge the PC Party with the Alliance.
Later on that year, the Progressive Conservative Party, which dated back to 1854 (though existing under many different names), merged with the Canadian Alliance. 96% of the Alliance's membership and 92% of the PC Party's riding representatives approved the merger. The Conservative Party of Canada
Conservative Party of Canada
The Conservative Party of Canada , is a political party in Canada which was formed by the merger of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada in 2003. It is positioned on the right of the Canadian political spectrum...
was then created, and, in 2004, Stephen Harper was elected leader. Under Stephen Harper, the platform of the Conservative Party emphasized the Blue Tory
Blue Tory
Blue Tories, also known as small 'c' conservatives, are, in Canadian politics, members of the former federal Progressive Conservative Party of Canada, current Conservative Party of Canada and provincial Progressive Conservative parties who are more economically right wing...
policies of fiscal restraint, increases in military spending, tax cuts and Senate Reform.
Social conservatism
Social conservatism is a political attitude that is existent in Canada, though not as pronounced as in the United States. It represents conservative positions on issues of family, sexuality and morality.Conservatism in Western Canada
The four western CanadianWestern Canada
Western Canada, also referred to as the Western provinces and commonly as the West, is a region of Canada that includes the four provinces west of the province of Ontario.- Provinces :...
provinces of British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
, Alberta
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
, Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of . Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota....
, and Manitoba
Manitoba
Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...
have long been a hotbed for protest politics and political parties of the far left and far right. All four provinces have strong rural and Christian constituencies, leading to an active presence of the Christian Right
Christian right
Christian right is a term used predominantly in the United States to describe "right-wing" Christian political groups that are characterized by their strong support of socially conservative policies...
. Historically, the heavy presence of agriculture led to the emergence in the past of large left-leaning, agrarian farmer's based protest movements such as the Progressive Party of Canada
Progressive Party of Canada
The Progressive Party of Canada was a political party in Canada in the 1920s and 1930s. It was linked with the provincial United Farmers parties in several provinces and, in Manitoba, ran candidates and formed governments as the Progressive Party of Manitoba...
and the United Farmers of Canada
United Farmers of Canada
The United Farmers of Canada was a radical farmers organization. It was established in 1926 as the United Farmers of Canada as a merger of the Farmers' Union of Canada and the Saskatchewan Grain Growers Association...
which supported free trade
Free trade
Under a free trade policy, prices emerge from supply and demand, and are the sole determinant of resource allocation. 'Free' trade differs from other forms of trade policy where the allocation of goods and services among trading countries are determined by price strategies that may differ from...
with the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and increased social benefits. These movements were later absorbed by the Liberal Party of Canada
Liberal Party of Canada
The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...
and the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation
Co-operative Commonwealth Federation
The Co-operative Commonwealth Federation was a Canadian political party founded in 1932 in Calgary, Alberta, by a number of socialist, farm, co-operative and labour groups, and the League for Social Reconstruction...
(CCF).
During the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
two radical protest movements appeared, the CCF in Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of . Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota....
advocated progressive social policies and democratic socialism
Democratic socialism
Democratic socialism is a description used by various socialist movements and organizations to emphasize the democratic character of their political orientation...
; while in Alberta
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
, the Social Credit Party of Alberta
Social Credit Party of Alberta
The Alberta Social Credit Party is a provincial political party in Alberta, Canada, that was founded on the social credit monetary policy and conservative Christian social values....
formed a provincial government that favoured evangelical Christian conservatism, provincial control over natural resources, limited government intervention in the economy and a radical philosophy known as Social Credit
Social Credit
Social Credit is an economic philosophy developed by C. H. Douglas , a British engineer, who wrote a book by that name in 1924. Social Credit is described by Douglas as "the policy of a philosophy"; he called his philosophy "practical Christianity"...
based on providing dividends to the population to support small businesses and free enterprise.
The Social Credit Party went on to dominate the government of Alberta from 1934–1971 and British Columbia from 1951–1972 and 1975-1991. However unlike the CCF which survived the test of time and expanded to form provincial governments and gain support nationwide and later morphing into the social democratic
Social democracy
Social democracy is a political ideology of the center-left on the political spectrum. Social democracy is officially a form of evolutionary reformist socialism. It supports class collaboration as the course to achieve socialism...
, New Democratic Party
New Democratic Party
The New Democratic Party , commonly referred to as the NDP, is a federal social-democratic political party in Canada. The interim leader of the NDP is Nycole Turmel who was appointed to the position due to the illness of Jack Layton, who died on August 22, 2011. The provincial wings of the NDP in...
the Social Credit Party eventually died out. Their popularity grew in Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
leading to Western supporters of Social Credit feeling isolated by the federal party's Quebec nationalism
Quebec nationalism
Quebec nationalism is a nationalist movement in the Canadian province of Quebec .-1534–1774:Canada was first a french colony. Jacques Cartier claimed it for France in 1534, and permanent French settlement began in 1608. It was part of New France, which constituted all French colonies in North America...
. The provincial Social Credit governments of British Columbia and Alberta eventually abandoned Social Credit economic policies and followed staunchly conservative policies, while maintaining ties with the federal Progressive Conservative Party of Canada
Progressive Conservative Party of Canada
The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada was a Canadian political party with a centre-right stance on economic issues and, after the 1970s, a centrist stance on social issues....
as opposed to the federal Social Credit Party of Canada
Social Credit Party of Canada
The Social Credit Party of Canada was a conservative-populist political party in Canada that promoted social credit theories of monetary reform...
.
In BC the Social Credit Party was replaced as the party of the right wing by the British Columbia Liberal Party
British Columbia Liberal Party
The British Columbia Liberal Party is the governing political party in British Columbia, Canada. First elected for government in 1916, the party went into decline after 1952, with its rump caucus merging with the Social Credit Party for the 1975 election...
, and in Alberta they were completely annihilated by the more moderate Alberta Progressive Conservative Party, leaving both parties as marginal political minnows. In the 1980 federal election
Canadian federal election, 1980
The Canadian federal election of 1980 was held on February 18, 1980 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 32nd Parliament of Canada...
, the Social Credit Party of Canada lost all of its remaining seats and was forced to disband in 1989. Most of its Western members moved onto the ideologically similar Reform Party of Canada
Reform Party of Canada
The Reform Party of Canada was a Canadian federal political party that existed from 1987 to 2000. It was originally founded as a Western Canada-based protest party, but attempted to expand eastward in the 1990s. It viewed itself as a populist party....
, founded by Preston Manning
Preston Manning
Ernest Preston Manning, CC is a Canadian politician. He was the only leader of the Reform Party of Canada, a Canadian federal political party that evolved into the Canadian Alliance...
, the son of Alberta's former Social Credit premier, Ernest Manning
Ernest Manning
Ernest Charles Manning, , a Canadian politician, was the eighth Premier of Alberta between 1943 and 1968 for the Social Credit Party of Alberta. He served longer than any premier in the province's history, and was the second longest serving provincial premier in Canadian history...
.
The Reform Party grew out of the province of Alberta and was fed by dissatisfaction with the federal Progressive Conservative government of Brian Mulroney
Brian Mulroney
Martin Brian Mulroney, was the 18th Prime Minister of Canada from September 17, 1984, to June 25, 1993 and was leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada from 1983 to 1993. His tenure as Prime Minister was marked by the introduction of major economic reforms, such as the Canada-U.S...
. Right-wing Westerners felt that Mulroney's neoliberal economic policies did not go nearly far enough, that his government was overly favourable toward the more populous provinces of Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
and Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
, that his policies on social issues
Social issues
Social issues are controversial issues which relate to people's personal lives and interactions. Social issues are distinguished from economic issues...
such as abortion
Abortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
and the death penalty were too liberal, and that, like the Liberal Party of Canada
Liberal Party of Canada
The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...
, the Progressive Conservatives had allegedly come to not take Western demands for provincial economic autonomy seriously enough.
Though for most of the 1990s the Tories enjoyed roughly the same electoral support as the Reform Party due to Canada's First Past the Post system of elected representatives to the Canadian House of Commons
Canadian House of Commons
The House of Commons of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign and the Senate. The House of Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 308 members known as Members of Parliament...
, Reform dominated the position of Official Opposition to the government. In 1999 the Reform Party was dissolved and joined by some right-wing members of the PC Party to create the Canadian Alliance
Canadian Alliance
The Canadian Alliance , formally the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance , was a Canadian conservative political party that existed from 2000 to 2003. The party was the successor to the Reform Party of Canada and inherited its position as the Official Opposition in the House of Commons and held...
; however, this party was unable to attract any real support east of Manitoba and was dissolved in 2003, merging with the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada to create the new Conservative Party of Canada
Conservative Party of Canada
The Conservative Party of Canada , is a political party in Canada which was formed by the merger of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada in 2003. It is positioned on the right of the Canadian political spectrum...
. This party, led by former Alliance leader Stephen Harper
Stephen Harper
Stephen Joseph Harper is the 22nd and current Prime Minister of Canada and leader of the Conservative Party. Harper became prime minister when his party formed a minority government after the 2006 federal election...
, won a minority government
Minority government
A minority government or a minority cabinet is a cabinet of a parliamentary system formed when a political party or coalition of parties does not have a majority of overall seats in the parliament but is sworn into government to break a Hung Parliament election result. It is also known as a...
in the 2006 federal election
Canadian federal election, 2006
The 2006 Canadian federal election was held on January 23, 2006, to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 39th Parliament of Canada. The Conservative Party of Canada won the greatest number of seats: 40.3% of seats, or 124 out of 308, up from 99 seats in 2004, and 36.3% of votes:...
, with 36% of the vote and 124 seats in the House of Commons out of 308.
In Alberta, the Progressive Conservatives have dominated the government since 1971, following slightly right-wing policies under premiers Peter Lougheed
Peter Lougheed
Edgar Peter Lougheed, PC, CC, AOE, QC, is a Canadian lawyer, and a former politician and Canadian Football League player. He served as the tenth Premier of Alberta from 1971 to 1985....
, Don Getty
Don Getty
Donald Ross Getty, OC, AOE is a retired Canadian politician who served as the 11th Premier of Alberta between 1985 and 1992. A member of the Progressive Conservatives, he served as Energy Minister and Federal and Intergovernmental Affairs Minister in the government of Peter Lougheed before...
, Ralph Klein and Ed Stelmach
Ed Stelmach
Edward Michael "Ed" Stelmach, MLA is a Canadian politician and served as the 13th Premier of Alberta, Canada, from 2006 to 2011. The grandson of Ukrainian immigrants, Stelmach was born and raised on a farm near Lamont and speaks fluent Ukrainian. He spent his entire pre-political adult life as a...
. In BC, the BC Liberals have taken a rightward economic turn under Premier Gordon Campbell in contrast to the previous left-wing New Democrats, to fill the gap left by the defeat of the Socreds. In Saskatchewan, the centre-right Saskatchewan Party
Saskatchewan Party
The Saskatchewan Party is a conservative liberal political party in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. The party was established in 1997 by a coalition of former provincial Progressive Conservative and Liberal party members and supporters who sought to remove the Saskatchewan New Democratic...
formed the government in 2007 after many years of New Democratic Party
New Democratic Party
The New Democratic Party , commonly referred to as the NDP, is a federal social-democratic political party in Canada. The interim leader of the NDP is Nycole Turmel who was appointed to the position due to the illness of Jack Layton, who died on August 22, 2011. The provincial wings of the NDP in...
rule. In Manitoba, the social democratic New Democratic Party currently forms government; however, federally, the Conservatives are dominant in all four Western provinces.
Ideology and political philosophy
- ToryToryToryism is a traditionalist and conservative political philosophy which grew out of the Cavalier faction in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. It is a prominent ideology in the politics of the United Kingdom, but also features in parts of The Commonwealth, particularly in Canada...
- Red ToryRed ToryA red Tory is an adherent of a particular political philosophy, tradition, and disposition in Canada somewhat similar to the High Tory tradition in the United Kingdom; it is contrasted with "blue Tory". In Canada, the phenomenon of "red toryism" has fundamentally, if not exclusively, been found in...
- Blue ToryBlue ToryBlue Tories, also known as small 'c' conservatives, are, in Canadian politics, members of the former federal Progressive Conservative Party of Canada, current Conservative Party of Canada and provincial Progressive Conservative parties who are more economically right wing...
- NeoliberalismNeoliberalismNeoliberalism is a market-driven approach to economic and social policy based on neoclassical theories of economics that emphasizes the efficiency of private enterprise, liberalized trade and relatively open markets, and therefore seeks to maximize the role of the private sector in determining the...
Represented in Parliament
- Conservative Party of CanadaConservative Party of CanadaThe Conservative Party of Canada , is a political party in Canada which was formed by the merger of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada in 2003. It is positioned on the right of the Canadian political spectrum...
A rump Progressive Conservative caucus also sits in the Canadian Senate
Canadian Senate
The Senate of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the House of Commons, and the monarch . The Senate consists of 105 members appointed by the governor general on the advice of the prime minister...
.
Not represented in Parliament
- Progressive Canadian PartyProgressive Canadian PartyThe Progressive Canadian Party is a minor federal political party in Canada. It is a centre/centre-right party that was officially registered with Elections Canada, the government's election agency, on March 29, 2004....
- Christian Heritage PartyChristian Heritage Party of CanadaThe Christian Heritage Party of Canada, also referred to as CHP Canada, is a federal political party that advocates that Canada be governed according to Biblical principles...
- Libertarian Party of CanadaLibertarian Party of CanadaThe Libertarian Party of Canada is a political party in Canada that subscribes to the tenets of the libertarian movement across Canada.-History:...
Provincial
- Progressive Conservative Party of Newfoundland and LabradorProgressive Conservative Party of Newfoundland and LabradorFor pre-1949 Conservative parties see Conservative parties in Newfoundland The Progressive Conservative Party of Newfoundland and Labrador is a centre-right provincial political party in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. Originally founded in 1949 the party has formed the Government of...
- Prince Edward Island Progressive Conservative PartyPrince Edward Island Progressive Conservative PartyThe Progressive Conservative Party of Prince Edward Island is one of two major political parties on Prince Edward Island. It and its rival, the Liberals have alternated in power since responsible government was granted in 1851 and are the only two parties represented in the PEI Legislative...
- New Brunswick Progressive Conservative Party
- Nova Scotia Progressive Conservative Party
- Action démocratique du QuébecAction démocratique du QuébecThe Action démocratique du Québec, commonly referred to as the ADQ is a centre-right political party in Quebec, Canada. On the sovereignty question, it defines itself as autonomist, and has support from both soft nationalists and federalists....
- Ontario Progressive Conservative Party
- Manitoba Progressive Conservative Party
- Saskatchewan PartySaskatchewan PartyThe Saskatchewan Party is a conservative liberal political party in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. The party was established in 1997 by a coalition of former provincial Progressive Conservative and Liberal party members and supporters who sought to remove the Saskatchewan New Democratic...
- Saskatchewan Progressive Conservative Party
- Alberta Progressive Conservative Party
- Wildrose Alliance Party of AlbertaWildrose Alliance Party of AlbertaThe Wildrose Party, formerly Wildrose Alliance Party, is a conservative provincial political party in Alberta, Canada. It includes free market conservative, libertarian and socially conservative factions and was formed in 2008 following a merger of the Wildrose Party of Alberta and the Alberta...
- British Columbia Conservative PartyBritish Columbia Conservative PartyThe British Columbia Conservative Party is a political party in British Columbia, Canada. First elected as the government in 1903, the party went into decline after 1933...
- British Columbia Liberal PartyBritish Columbia Liberal PartyThe British Columbia Liberal Party is the governing political party in British Columbia, Canada. First elected for government in 1916, the party went into decline after 1952, with its rump caucus merging with the Social Credit Party for the 1975 election...
(Successor to the Social Credit Party as "broad tent" centre-right coalition party) - Yukon PartyYukon PartyThe Yukon Party , is a conservative political party in the Yukon Territory of Canada. It was previously known as the Yukon Progressive Conservative Party.-Declining fortunes:...
Historical
- Reform Party of CanadaReform Party of CanadaThe Reform Party of Canada was a Canadian federal political party that existed from 1987 to 2000. It was originally founded as a Western Canada-based protest party, but attempted to expand eastward in the 1990s. It viewed itself as a populist party....
- Canadian AllianceCanadian AllianceThe Canadian Alliance , formally the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance , was a Canadian conservative political party that existed from 2000 to 2003. The party was the successor to the Reform Party of Canada and inherited its position as the Official Opposition in the House of Commons and held...
- Anti-Confederation PartyAnti-Confederation PartyAnti-Confederation was the name used in what is now Atlantic Canada by several parties opposed to Canadian confederation.-Nova Scotia:In Nova Scotia, the "Anti-Confederates" were led by Joseph Howe. They attempted to reverse the colony's decision to join Confederation, which was initially highly...
- Ralliement créditisteRalliement créditisteHistorically in Quebec, Canada, there was a number of political parties that were part of the Canadian social credit movement. There were various parties at different times with different names at the provincial level, all broadly following the social credit philosophy; at various times they had...
- Social Credit Party of CanadaSocial Credit Party of CanadaThe Social Credit Party of Canada was a conservative-populist political party in Canada that promoted social credit theories of monetary reform...
- Social Credit Party of British Columbia
- Reform Party of British ColumbiaReform Party of British ColumbiaThe Reform Party of British Columbia is a populist right wing political party in British Columbia, Canada. Although its name is similar to the defunct Reform Party of Canada, the provincial party was founded before the federal party was and it did not have any formal association with...
- British Columbia Unity PartyBritish Columbia Unity PartyThe British Columbia Unity Party was a political party in British Columbia, Canada. The party was founded as an attempted union of five conservative parties: the Reform Party of British Columbia, the British Columbia Social Credit Party, the British Columbia Conservative Party, the British Columbia...
- Social Credit Party of AlbertaSocial Credit Party of AlbertaThe Alberta Social Credit Party is a provincial political party in Alberta, Canada, that was founded on the social credit monetary policy and conservative Christian social values....
- Representative Party of AlbertaRepresentative Party of AlbertaThe Representative Party of Alberta was a provincial political party in Alberta, Canada formed by Raymond Speaker in 1984. The party was right of center, conservative in ideology and considered a modern version of Social Credit without the monetary reforms....
- Alberta Alliance
- Alberta PartyAlberta PartyThe Alberta Party Political Association, more commonly known as the Alberta Party, is a political party in the province of Alberta, Canada...
- Alberta First PartyAlberta First PartyThe Alberta First Party was a right-wing political party that operated in Alberta, Canada from 1999 until 2003. It was founded by former members of the Social Credit Party of Alberta. The party was registered with Elections Alberta on November 2, 1999...
- Manitoba PartyManitoba PartyThe Manitoba Party was a political party in Manitoba, Canada. It was formed in 1998, and fielded twelve candidates in the 1999 provincial election, none of whom came close to being elected. It attempted to contest the 2003 election as well, but was not able to find the five candidates needed for...
- Conservative Party of Quebec
- Union Nationale
- Ralliement créditiste du QuébecRalliement créditiste du QuébecThe Ralliement créditiste du Québec was a provincial political party in Quebec, Canada that operated from 1970 to 1978. It promoted social credit theories of monetary reform, and acted as an outlet for the expression of rural...
Largest
- Upper Canada ToriesUpper Canada ToriesThe Tory movement in Upper Canada was formed from the elements of the Family Compact following the War of 1812. It was an early political party, merely a group of like minded conservative elite in the early days of Canada...
before 1854 in Upper Canada / Canada West - Parti bleuParti bleuThe Parti bleu was a moderate political group in Quebec, Canada that emerged in 1854. It was based on the moderate reformist views of Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine, and was a rival to the radical Parti rouge....
in Lower Canada / Canada East - Liberal - Conservative Party 1854-1873
- Conservative Party of CanadaConservative Party of Canada (historical)The Conservative Party of Canada has gone by a variety of names over the years since Canadian Confederation. Initially known as the "Liberal-Conservative Party", it dropped "Liberal" from its name in 1873, although many of its candidates continued to use this name.As a result of World War I and the...
1873-1917 - Unionist Party of Canada 1917-1920
- National Liberal and Conservative PartyNational Liberal and Conservative PartyThe National Liberal and Conservative Party was the name adopted by the Conservative Party of Canada in 1920 after the end of the Unionist government of Robert Borden....
1920-1921 - Conservative Party of CanadaConservative Party of Canada (historical)The Conservative Party of Canada has gone by a variety of names over the years since Canadian Confederation. Initially known as the "Liberal-Conservative Party", it dropped "Liberal" from its name in 1873, although many of its candidates continued to use this name.As a result of World War I and the...
1921-1940 - National Government (Canada) 1940
- Conservative Party of CanadaConservative Party of Canada (historical)The Conservative Party of Canada has gone by a variety of names over the years since Canadian Confederation. Initially known as the "Liberal-Conservative Party", it dropped "Liberal" from its name in 1873, although many of its candidates continued to use this name.As a result of World War I and the...
1940-1945 - Progressive Conservative Party of CanadaProgressive Conservative Party of CanadaThe Progressive Conservative Party of Canada was a Canadian political party with a centre-right stance on economic issues and, after the 1970s, a centrist stance on social issues....
1945-1993 - Reform Party of CanadaReform Party of CanadaThe Reform Party of Canada was a Canadian federal political party that existed from 1987 to 2000. It was originally founded as a Western Canada-based protest party, but attempted to expand eastward in the 1990s. It viewed itself as a populist party....
1993-2000 - Canadian AllianceCanadian AllianceThe Canadian Alliance , formally the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance , was a Canadian conservative political party that existed from 2000 to 2003. The party was the successor to the Reform Party of Canada and inherited its position as the Official Opposition in the House of Commons and held...
2000-2003 - Conservative Party of CanadaConservative Party of CanadaThe Conservative Party of Canada , is a political party in Canada which was formed by the merger of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada in 2003. It is positioned on the right of the Canadian political spectrum...
2003–present
Conservative prime ministers
- Sir John A. MacdonaldJohn A. MacdonaldSir John Alexander Macdonald, GCB, KCMG, PC, PC , QC was the first Prime Minister of Canada. The dominant figure of Canadian Confederation, his political career spanned almost half a century...
1867-1873, 1878-1891 Liberal Conservative/ConservativeConservative Party of Canada (historical)The Conservative Party of Canada has gone by a variety of names over the years since Canadian Confederation. Initially known as the "Liberal-Conservative Party", it dropped "Liberal" from its name in 1873, although many of its candidates continued to use this name.As a result of World War I and the... - Sir John AbbottJohn AbbottSir John Joseph Caldwell Abbott, PC, KCMG, QC was the third Prime Minister of Canada. He served in the office for seventeen months, from June 16, 1891 to November 24, 1892. - Life and work :...
1891-1892 Conservative - Sir John Thompson 1892-1894 Conservative
- Sir Mackenzie BowellMackenzie BowellSir Mackenzie Bowell, PC, KCMG was a Canadian politician who served as the fifth Prime Minister of Canada from December 21, 1894 to April 27, 1896.-Early life:Bowell was born in Rickinghall, Suffolk, England to John Bowell and Elizabeth Marshall...
1894-1896 Conservative - Sir Charles TupperCharles TupperSir Charles Tupper, 1st Baronet, GCMG, CB, PC was a Canadian father of Confederation: as the Premier of Nova Scotia from 1864 to 1867, he led Nova Scotia into Confederation. He later went on to serve as the sixth Prime Minister of Canada, sworn in to office on May 1, 1896, seven days after...
1896 Conservative - Sir Robert BordenRobert BordenSir Robert Laird Borden, PC, GCMG, KC was a Canadian lawyer and politician. He served as the eighth Prime Minister of Canada from October 10, 1911 to July 10, 1920, and was the third Nova Scotian to hold this office...
: Conservative/Unionist, 1911–1920 - Arthur MeighenArthur MeighenArthur Meighen, PC, QC was a Canadian lawyer and politician. He served two terms as the ninth Prime Minister of Canada: from July 10, 1920 to December 29, 1921; and from June 29 to September 25, 1926. He was the first Prime Minister born after Confederation, and the only one to represent a riding...
: Conservative, 1920–1921, 1926 - Richard BennettR. B. BennettRichard Bedford Bennett, 1st Viscount Bennett, PC, KC was a Canadian lawyer, businessman, politician, and philanthropist. He served as the 11th Prime Minister of Canada from August 7, 1930, to October 23, 1935, during the worst of the Great Depression years...
: Conservative, 1930–1935 - John DiefenbakerJohn DiefenbakerJohn George Diefenbaker, PC, CH, QC was the 13th Prime Minister of Canada, serving from June 21, 1957, to April 22, 1963...
: Progressive ConservativeProgressive Conservative Party of CanadaThe Progressive Conservative Party of Canada was a Canadian political party with a centre-right stance on economic issues and, after the 1970s, a centrist stance on social issues....
, 1957–1963 - Joe ClarkJoe ClarkCharles Joseph "Joe" Clark, is a Canadian statesman, businessman, and university professor, and former journalist and politician...
: Progressive Conservative, 1979–1980 - Brian MulroneyBrian MulroneyMartin Brian Mulroney, was the 18th Prime Minister of Canada from September 17, 1984, to June 25, 1993 and was leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada from 1983 to 1993. His tenure as Prime Minister was marked by the introduction of major economic reforms, such as the Canada-U.S...
: Progressive Conservative, 1984–1993 - Kim CampbellKim CampbellAvril Phædra Douglas "Kim" Campbell, is a Canadian politician, lawyer, university professor, diplomat, and writer. She served as the 19th Prime Minister of Canada, serving from June 25, 1993, to November 4, 1993...
: Progressive Conservative, 1993 - Stephen HarperStephen HarperStephen Joseph Harper is the 22nd and current Prime Minister of Canada and leader of the Conservative Party. Harper became prime minister when his party formed a minority government after the 2006 federal election...
: ConservativeConservative Party of CanadaThe Conservative Party of Canada , is a political party in Canada which was formed by the merger of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada in 2003. It is positioned on the right of the Canadian political spectrum...
, 2006–present
See also
- Red ToryRed ToryA red Tory is an adherent of a particular political philosophy, tradition, and disposition in Canada somewhat similar to the High Tory tradition in the United Kingdom; it is contrasted with "blue Tory". In Canada, the phenomenon of "red toryism" has fundamentally, if not exclusively, been found in...
- Blue ToryBlue ToryBlue Tories, also known as small 'c' conservatives, are, in Canadian politics, members of the former federal Progressive Conservative Party of Canada, current Conservative Party of Canada and provincial Progressive Conservative parties who are more economically right wing...
Other ideologies:
- Liberalism in CanadaLiberalism in CanadaLiberalism has been a strong force in Canadian politics since the late 18th Century. While Canada has the same features of other liberal democracies in the Western democratic political tradition, it is, in some respects, an exemplar of liberalism. This article gives an overview of liberalism in...
- Socialism and Social Democracy in CanadaSocialism and social democracy in CanadaDemocratic socialism and Social democracy have been, along with liberalism and conservatism, a political force in Canada.-The radical years:Canada's socialist movement is believed to have originated in Western Canada...
- Republicanism in CanadaRepublicanism in CanadaCanadian republicanism is the appreciation amongst Canadians for the replacement of the Canadian system of constitutional monarchy with a republican form of government in the sense of the state headed by a president. These beliefs are expressed either individually generally in academic circles or...
- Monarchism in CanadaMonarchism in CanadaCanadian monarchism is the appreciation amongst Canadians for, and thus also advocacy for the retention of, their distinct system of constitutional monarchy, countering anti-monarchical reform as being generally revisionist, idealistic, and ultimately impracticable...
- Fascism in CanadaFascism in CanadaFascism in Canada consisted of a variety of movements and political parties in Canada during the twentieth century. Largely a fringe ideology, fascism has never commanded a large following amongst the Canadian people, and was most popular during the Great Depression...
- Anarchism in CanadaAnarchism in CanadaAnarchism in Canada spans a range of anarchist philosophy including anarchist communism, green anarchy, anarcho-syndicalism, individualist anarchism, Libertarian Communism as well as other lesser known forms...