Progressive Conservative Party of Canada

The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada (PC; French: Parti progressiste-conservateur du Canada) was a Center to right-wing and big tent party in Canada that existed from 1942 to 2003. From Canadian Confederation in 1867 until 1942, the original Conservative Party of Canada participated in numerous governments and had multiple names. In 1942, its name was changed to the Progressive Conservative Party under the request of newly elected party leader Premier John Bracken of Manitoba, a former member of the Progressive Party of Manitoba. In the 1957 federal election, John Diefenbaker carried the party to their first victory in 27 years and the following year, led the party to the largest federal electoral landslide in history. During his tenure, human rights initiatives were achieved, most notably the Bill of Rights. In the 1963 federal election, the party lost power and would not regain it until 1979, when Joe Clark led the party to a minority government victory. The party lost power just nine months later. In 1983, Clark lost his leadership role to Brian Mulroney, who helped the PC Party gain popularity in Quebec. Mulroney won back-to-back majority governments in 1984 and 1988, and during his tenure, major economic reforms such as the North American Free Trade Agreement and the goods and services tax (GST) were introduced. The GST, the government's failed attempts to revise the Constitution with the Meech Lake and Charlottetown accords, and the early 1990s recession, led to the party's increasing unpopularity and eventual collapse in the 1993 federal election where they won just two seats. In Western Canada the bulk of the party's support transferred to the right-wing populist Reform Party (which later became the Canadian Alliance), while in Quebec support shifted to the sovereigntist Bloc Québécois. The Progressive Conservatives failed to recover much lost ground in the subsequent 1997 and 2000 federal elections. When it became clear that neither the Progressive Conservatives nor the Canadian Alliance could on their own defeat the incumbent Liberals, an effort to unite the right-of-centre parties emerged. Eventually, in 2003 the party membership voted to dissolve the party and merge with the Canadian Alliance to form the current Conservative Party of Canada. Like their British counterparts, members and supporters of the Progressive Conservative Party were known as "Tories". Provincial variants of the Progressive Conservative Party continue to exist in a number of provinces.