Conservatism in Canada

Canadian conservative ideology has its origins in British "Tory-ism", but over time has been influenced by American conservatism.^[2][3] Stemming from the resettlement of United Empire Loyalists after the American Revolutionary War with traditionalist conservative views alongside pro-market liberalism ideals,^[4][2] is the reason that Canadian conservatives generally prefer the Westminster system of government.^[5][2]


Originally, Canadian conservatism tended to be traditionalist. Conservative governments in Canada, such as those of John A. Macdonald, Robert Borden, R. B. Bennett, and John Diefenbaker, were known for supporting an active role for the government in the economy and 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 and political outlooks. Canadian conservatives have generally favored the continuation of old political institutions and the preservation of strong ties to the monarchy.


In the latter half of the 20th-century, Canadian conservatism embraced neoliberal economic policies which included free trade, the seeking of balanced budgets, and the support of the privatizations of Crown Corporations which were claimed to be better provided for by the private sector. During this time, division arose between the conservatives in Eastern and Western Canada because Western conservatives perceived Canada's federal parliament as being dominated by Eastern interests. This Western alienation led to the creation of the Reform Party of Canada as a Western-based populist protest party promoting constitutional reform to balance the regions' interests and sought to expand into the East—especially in Ontario—to displace the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. While the PCs and Reform had some similar economic policies, Reformers wanted deeper cuts to government services than the PCs and Reformers had strong social conservative stances whereas the PCs were more neutral on controversial social issues.


The PCs faced an unprecedented collapse in the 1993 federal election and Reform surpassed the PCs as the largest conservative party in Canada's parliament. After several elections of neither party making significant gains, the two parties agreed to merge into the new Conservative Party of Canada in 2003. Meanwhile, although Quebec delivered few seats to conservative parties in federal elections from 1993 on, conservative themes were influential in Quebec provincial politics.

Conservatism in Western Canada[edit]

The four Western Canada provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba have long been a hotbed for protest politics and political parties of the left and 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, the Conservative Party of Canada (who became the progressive conservatives) 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 reformist 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.


Provincial Social Credit parties went on to dominate the government of Alberta from 1934 to 1971 and British Columbia from 1951 to 1972 and 1975–1991. However, unlike the CCF, which morphed into the social-democratic New Democratic Party, the Social Credit Party would die 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 would abandon 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 British Columbia, the BC Social Credit Party was replaced as the party of the centre-right by the British Columbia Liberal Party, and in Alberta the Alberta Social Credit Party were completely annihilated by the more moderate Alberta Progressive Conservative Party, leaving both parties as marginal political forces. 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 liberal 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 Canada 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 House of Commons, Reform dominated the position of Official Opposition. In 1999, the Reform Party was dissolved and joined by some right-wing members of the PC Party to create the Canadian Alliance, formally known as the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance; however, this new enlarged 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 contemporary Conservative Party of Canada. This party, led by former Canadian 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 Conservative dominated the government from 1971 to 2015, following slightly right-wing policies under premiers Peter Lougheed, Don Getty, Ralph Klein, Ed Stelmach and Alison Redford. Following the election of the Alberta New Democratic Party and Rachel Notley in 2015, efforts began to 'unite the right' with Jason Kenney elected as PC Leader. Kenney oversaw merger negotiations with Wildrose Party leader Brian Jean, culminating in ratification votes in July 2017 as the United Conservative Party, which elected Kenney leader in October 2017.^[68] In BC, the British Columbia Liberal Party (BC Liberals) have taken a rightward economic turn under Premier Gordon Campbell in competing with the centre-left British Columbia New Democratic Party to govern the province, filling the gap left by the electoral collapse of the BC Social Credit Party in 1991. In Saskatchewan, the center-right Saskatchewan Party formed its first government in 2007 after many years of Saskatchewan NDP rule. In Manitoba, the Progressive Conservative Party, led by Brian Pallister won a landslide majority government in the 2016 election, defeating incumbent Premier Greg Selinger and the 16-year reigning NDP government.