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Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario

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The Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario ( French : Parti progressiste-conservateur de l'Ontario ), often shortened to the Ontario PC Party or simply the PCs , colloquially known as the Tories , is a centre to centre-right political party in Ontario , Canada .

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119-460: During its uninterrupted governance from 1943 to 1985, the Ontario PC Party adhered to the ideology of Red Toryism , favouring government intervention in the economy, increased spending on infrastructure, education and health care and being progressive on social issues such as equal pay for women, anti-discrimination laws, voting rights for First Nations people and French-language services . In

238-475: A Red Tory due to his association to former premier Bill Davis. MPP Frank Klees , the third candidate in the race, was a supporter of the Common Sense Revolution and campaigned for a parallel private health care system. The 2004 leadership election was held on September 18, 2004, electing John Tory as the party's new leader. Tory, who had first worked as an aide to Premier Bill Davis, was elected to

357-649: A coalition government with the support of Labour MLAs in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario despite having no leader. As the United Farmers began as a single-issue party , Morrison opposed forming a government, believing that the party should concern itself solely with agricultural issues and that it would not be able to represent the entire province. Furthermore, he viewed the Independent Labour Party as inimical to farmers' interests and opposed

476-507: A minimum wage for women and standardized adoption procedures. His government also expanded Ontario Hydro and promoted rural electrification. It created the Province of Ontario Savings Office - a provincially owned bank that lent money to farmers at a lower rate, along the lines of " Social credit ". It began the first major reforestation program in North America, and began construction of

595-443: A 12 percent reduction in hydro bills, cutting "middle-class taxes by 22 per cent", and a commitment to balancing the provincial budget. Brown also attempted to distance himself from socially conservative policies, declaring himself pro-choice, and refusing to discuss abortion and gay marriage issues at the policy convention, stating that he believed the "vast majority" of the party was on board with socially progressive policies. Led by

714-591: A Liberal minority government. Miller was defeated in a no-confidence motion on June 18. Peterson was asked to form a government later in the day, ending the longest period of one-party rule in Canadian provincial history. Miller was replaced as leader by Larry Grossman at a second leadership convention . When the Liberal-NDP Accord expired, an election was held in 1987 in which the Tories were reduced to third place in

833-436: A Liberal proposal to extend funding for Catholic separate schools until Grade 13 . Davis reversed himself in 1985, and enacted the funding extension as one of his last acts before leaving office. Davis governed until 1985 with a team of advisers known as the "Big Blue Machine" because of their reputed political and strategic skills. Their stamp on the party was so strong that many refer to the Tories' long rule over Ontario as

952-452: A Red Tory by Chantal Hébert , Ezra Levant and others. The Progressive Conservative Association of Nova Scotia under Tim Houston , branding themselves as Red Tories, won a majority government in the 2021 Nova Scotia general election . Houston's Progressive Conservatives campaigned on using provincial resources to improve healthcare services. In 2009, Phillip Blond promoted communitarian traditionalist conservative ideas within

1071-551: A Red Tory, which has put him at increasing odds with the government on several occasions. A 'grassroots' movement of dissenting Red Tories, who opposed the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada's merger with the Canadian Alliance, gathered signatures on Elections Canada forms from over 200 Progressive Conservative members and applied to re-register as the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. This name

1190-456: A clear violation of the rules of the party, as the party in general is supposed to be neutral on the leadership review question. Tory responded by stating that he and his supporters will reimburse the party for the letters that the caucus members had sent in support of Tory's position as leaders. As a result, the party's president, Blair McCreadie, had stated that the matter is closed. A supporter of Tory's, PC Youth President Andrew Brander, launched

1309-618: A coalition with them to form a majority government . Morrison was offered the position of UFO caucus leader and Premier of Ontario following the election but declined as did Sir Adam Beck ; the position instead went Ernest C. Drury . Despite Morrison's objections, the UFO joined with other MLAs to form a coalition government. He had the UFO join with 10 Independent Labour Party MLAs (an 11th ILP MLA, Morrison MacBride , broke with his colleagues and sat in Opposition). Three Independent MLAs also joined

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1428-515: A handful of local UFO clubs continued to nominate candidates for some years. Raney resigned from the legislature the next year in order to accept an appointment to the Supreme Court of Ontario and 72-year-old John Giles Lethbridge was chosen as the new leader of the Progressives. In the 1929 election , only five Progressives, one Labour and one UFO MLA won re-election. Lethbridge, like Raney in

1547-593: A larger majority in 2022 . The first Conservative Party in Upper Canada was made up of United Empire Loyalists and supporters of the wealthy Family Compact that ruled the colony. Once responsible government was granted in response to the 1837 Rebellions , the Tories emerged as moderate reformers who opposed the radical policies of the Reformers and then the Clear Grits . The modern Conservative Party originated in

1666-478: A name of the moderate wing of the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta , which was seen to be in ascendence under the leadership of Ed Stelmach and Alison Redford . Redford is closely associated with centrist Tories Joe Clark and Peter Lougheed , as opposed to Wildrose leader Danielle Smith 's association with right-wing Tories Ralph Klein and Tom Flanagan . Redford was called

1785-509: A series of last-minute challenges of delegates on the grounds that they are representing ridings where they neither live nor work. Tory received 66.9% support, lower than internal tracking which showed him more comfortably in the 70 per cent range - appeared to come as a shock to Tory. The percentage of support received by Tory was nearly identical to Joe Clark's 1983 support when he was federal PC leader, which resulted in Clark resigning as leader, and

1904-529: A sharp drift toward libertarian or liberal economic policies, comparable to such contemporaries as Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher . Following Mulroney, the Canadian conservative movement suffered a profound schism in the 1993 election , splitting into the distinct Progressive Conservative and Reform parties. The Red Tory tradition remained loyal to the Progressive Conservatives, while many "blue" Tories aligned with social conservatives in

2023-578: Is an adherent of a centre-right or paternalistic-conservative political philosophy derived from the Tory tradition. It is most predominant in Canada; however, it is also found in the United Kingdom, where it is more commonly known as one nation conservatism . This philosophy tends to favour communitarian social policies, while maintaining a degree of fiscal discipline and a respect of social and political order. It

2142-537: Is at the root of Red Toryism. In distinction to the American experience where class divisions were seen as undemocratic (although still existing), Canadian Tories adopted a more paternalistic view of government. Monarchy, public order and good government – understood as dedication to the common good – preceded, moderated and balanced a belief in individual rights and liberty. Anthony Hall has argued that Red Toryism in Canada developed specifically in opposition to

2261-538: Is contrasted with " Blue Tory " or " High Tory ". Some Red Tories view themselves as small-c conservatives . In Canada, Red Toryism is found in provincial and federal Conservative political parties. The history of Red Toryism marks differences in the development of the political cultures of Canada and the United States . Canadian conservatism and American conservatism have been different from each other in fundamental ways, including their stances on social issues and

2380-650: Is often seen as the benchmark for Canadian party leaders to get to stay on as leader. Three hours after the leadership review vote, John Tory announced to the delegates at the Ontario PC's general meeting that he would stay on as leader of the Party. Tory came under heavy criticism from several party members following this delay, with his opponents signalling that they would continue to call for an end to what they called his 'weak' leadership. Other party members, such as former Mike Harris's chief of staff Guy Giorno and interim leader of

2499-499: Is valued and solutions emerge from local communities. Blond's ideas also parallel the socioeconomic tradition of distributism , as is evidenced by Blond's appearance at a distributist conference at Oxford University in 2009 sponsored by the G. K. Chesterton Institute for Faith and Culture. Blond's Red Toryism has been embraced by traditionalist conservatives in the United States, such as economist John Medaille. The editors of

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2618-519: The 1934 election , who joined Hepburn to form a government and were eventually absorbed into the Liberal Party. (see Liberal-Progressives (Ontario) for more information) In 1932, leading UFO member Agnes Macphail (originally elected to the Progressive Party ) encouraged the UFO to affiliate with Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) when it was formed. It did so, and MacPhail became

2737-622: The 1999 general election , and held generally stable support until Harris's departure as party leader in 2002. A slide in PC support began in early 2000 according to Ipsos-Reid , when the Tories fell behind the Liberals in the public opinion polls for the first time since the 1999 election, with 36% support of those polled, compared to 42% for the Liberals and 17% for the NDP. Later in 2000, Liberal support rose to about half of those polled, while PC support remained in

2856-521: The 2006 election , with 14,151 votes in 25 ridings (about 0.1% of the nationwide total). The party was deregistered by the Chief Electoral Officer of Canada on November 30, 2019, for failing to comply with Canada Elections Act requirements set out in subsection 415(1). In the wake of the rise of the conservative Wildrose Party in Alberta in the 2010s, the term "Red Tory" has been revived as

2975-617: The 2014 election or John Tory 's proposal to extend public funding to all faith-based schools in 2007 . At the PC's weekend policy convention on November 25, 2017, their "People's Guarantee" platform was released. Brown's platform was described as centrist on many issues, and included proposals such as opting-in to the federal carbon tax "backstop" (while criticizing the Liberal's cap-and-trade system) and providing child care subsidies. Brown's platform also included more traditional PC platform items relating to cutting taxes and user fees, such as

3094-509: The Atlantic provinces , traditional Red Tories are the dominant force in the provincial Progressive Conservative parties because of their support of the welfare state . As premier of Nova Scotia from 1956 to 1967, Red Tory Robert Stanfield introduced reforms for education, health care and civil liberties. The Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta included a broad spectrum from Red Tories to social conservatives, but Peter Lougheed who led

3213-629: The Campaign Life Coalition , a socially conservative anti-abortion organization that had supported Brown's leadership bid and disapproved of his move to the centre a breakaway party called "Ontario Alliance" was formed to represent disaffected social conservatives. Similarly, the Trillium Party of Ontario aimed to represent conservative libertarians who have been left out. In particular, Brown expelled Carleton—Mississippi Mills MPP and former Ontario Land Association president Jack MacLaren out of

3332-472: The Canadian media not to refer to those in the tradition of George Grant, Dalton Camp or Robert Stanfield, but simply to moderates in the conservative movement, particularly those who reject or do not sufficiently embrace social conservatism . For example, in the 2004 Conservative Party leadership election , Tony Clement was sometimes referred to as a Red Tory even though he advocated privatization, tax cuts and

3451-708: The Co-operative Commonwealth Federation and UFO MP Agnes MacPhail continued to work with the CCF on an informal basis. Other UFOers backed the Liberals. The Reconstruction Party won 11% of the vote in Ontario in the 1935 federal election, more than the CCF, but failed to win a seat in the province and only won one seat nationally. In 1936, the UFO, the United Farmers’ Co-operative Ltd., and various growers and other agricultural organizations formed

3570-745: The Conservative Party with a book titled Red Tory: How Left and Right Have Broken Britain and How We Can Fix It and by creating the think-tank ResPublica . Leader of the Conservative Party David Cameron spoke at ResPublica's launch and Red Tory ideas were said to be a major influence on him. In Scotland , the term "Red Tory" has been used to describe the Scottish Labour Party , who some see as assisting with, or failing to oppose, certain Conservative policies. The term

3689-626: The English tradition , than that of American practices and theories. Horowitz identified George Grant and Eugene Forsey as exemplars of this strain of thought, which saw a central role for Christianity in public affairs and was profoundly critical of capitalism and the dominant business élites . Forsey became a Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) member, while Grant remained a Conservative – although he became disdainful of an overall shift in policy toward liberal economics and continentalism , something Forsey saw happening decades earlier. When

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3808-589: The Great Depression . Late in the 1930s and early in the 1940s, the Conservatives re-organized and developed new policies. Rather than continue to oppose government spending and intervention, a policy which hurt the party politically in the time of the Great Depression, the Conservatives changed their policies to support government action where it would lead to economic growth. The party changed its name to

3927-450: The Legislative Assembly of Ontario . They only won 16 seats, their worst showing in over half a century. Grossman was personally defeated in his downtown Toronto riding and resigned immediately. Andy Brandt was the party's interim leader until a leadership election was held in 1990 in which Mike Harris defeated Dianne Cunningham . Three months after the election of Harris, and only three years into the, typically, four-year term of

4046-508: The Liberal-Conservative coalition founded by Sir John A. Macdonald and George-Étienne Cartier in 1854. It is a variant of this coalition that formed the first government in Ontario with John Sandfield Macdonald as premier . Until becoming the Progressive Conservatives in 1942, the party was officially known as the "Liberal-Conservative Association of Ontario", reflecting its liberal-conservative origins, but became widely known as

4165-490: The Liberal-Progressive coalition. The dominance of Red Toryism can be seen as a part of the international post-war consensus that saw the welfare state embraced by the major parties of most of the western world. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, however, the federal Progressive Conservative Party suffered a string of electoral defeats under Red Tory leaders Robert Stanfield and Joe Clark. Pressure began to grow within

4284-602: The National Policy . The adjective "red" refers to the economically left-leaning nature of Red Toryism in comparison with Blue Toryism, since socialist and other leftist parties have traditionally used the colour red . In Canada today, however, red is commonly associated with the Liberal Party . The term reflects the broad ideological range traditionally found within conservatism in Canada. Provincial Provincial Historically, Canadian conservatism has been derived from

4403-722: The Reform Party . Various Unite the Right efforts achieved only modest success in the 1990s and early 2000s – most notably, while the creation of the Canadian Alliance in 2000 attracted a small number of Progressive Conservatives, it failed to attract those in the Red Tory tradition or to replace the Progressive Conservatives. Following the victory of Peter MacKay at the 2003 PC convention , and in violation of an informal contract signed with rival candidate David Orchard , MacKay merged

4522-440: The Tory tradition, with a distinctive concern for a balance between individual rights and collectivism, as mediated through a traditional pre-industrial standard of morality – which has never been as evident in American conservatism. Red Toryism derives largely from a classical conservative tradition that maintained that the unequal division of wealth and political privilege among social classes can be justified if members of

4641-449: The balance of power in order to force the government of the day to pass pro-farmer legislation. The UFO government clashed with the UFO organization (led by James J. Morrison), which eventually withdrew its support from the government. However, when the 1923 election came around, the UFO received 200,000 votes, down by 50,000 compared to the previous election. This was actually a higher percentage of votes cast than it had taken in 1919 as

4760-469: The coalition government . Drury was Premier and two of the ILP MLAs were in the cabinet. The government under Drury tried to be a "people's government" rather than a "class government." Drury himself called for the coalition government to be termed a "People's Party." Drury's Farmer-Labour government created the first Department of Welfare for the province and brought in allowances for widows and children,

4879-419: The federal PC Party accused him of damaging the conservative image in Canada by moving to the left on some issues. Davis continued the rapid expansion of community colleges, universities, and highways across Ontario. Davis retired in 1985. At a leadership convention , he was succeeded by Industry and Trade Minister Frank Miller . A Blue Tory , Miller was considerably more conservative than Davis, and shifted

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4998-517: The "Big Blue Machine era". During its 43 years of domination, the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario was seen as a centrist party, with the Liberals being to its right and the New Democratic Party to its left. However, its base of support remained with socially conservative voters in rural Southern Ontario. Davis largely reconciled these differences and emerged one of the most popular politicians in Ontario's history. Other conservatives in

5117-524: The "Progressive Conservative" party after its federal counterpart changed its name to the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada in December 1942 on the insistence of its new leader, John Bracken , whose roots were in the populist Progressive Party . The Progressive Conservatives took advantage of Liberal infighting to win a minority government in the 1943 provincial election , reducing

5236-477: The 1923 election suffered from low turn-out. By the time another election came around, in 1923, the economy had improved, in part due to the government's decisions. The Drury government lost most of their seats in the election of 1923 . Seventeen United Farmer and four Labour members returned to the Legislature, compared to 75 Conservatives . Drury lost his own seat. Though the United Farmers of Ontario remained

5355-427: The 1990s, the party underwent a shift to Blue Toryism after the election of Mike Harris as leader, who was premier from 1995 to 2002 and favoured a " Common Sense Revolution " platform of cutting taxes and government spending while balancing the budget through small government . The PCs lost power in 2003 ; however, they came back to win a majority government in 2018 under Doug Ford , and were reelected with

5474-445: The 2006 PC Policy Convention, Tory introduced his plan for shaping up the PCs' platform for the 2007 election campaign. His ideas were stated in what have been called "The White Papers". The party experienced a drop in popularity, however, after Tory pledged to provide government funding for faith-based schools . The proposal, which proved to be unpopular with voters, contributed largely to

5593-624: The American Revolution and its ideology. This type of Canadian conservatism is derived largely from the Tory tradition developed by English conservative thinkers and statesmen such as Richard Hooker ; the seventh Earl of Shaftesbury ; and Benjamin Disraeli , later the first Earl of Beaconsfield. The primary influences on Canadian Toryism in the Victorian age were Disraeli's One Nation Conservatism and

5712-584: The Atlantic provinces and urban Manitoba, areas where the Red Tories dominated provincial politics, and in some federal elections Quebec, where the federal PC party operated largely separately from provincial politics. During 42 years, the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario was led by Red Tories such as George A. Drew , Leslie Frost , John Robarts and Bill Davis , all of which supported increased funding for infrastructure, health care and education. Throughout

5831-559: The British North American colonies since the Loyalist exodus from the American colonies between 1776 and 1796. It is this aspect that is one of the primary points of difference between the conservative political cultures of Canada and the United States. The explicit notion of a "Red" Toryism was developed by Gad Horowitz in the 1960s, who argued that there was a significant Tory ideology in Canada. This vision contrasted Canada with

5950-544: The Conservative Party. John Sandfield Macdonald was actually a Liberal and sat concurrently as a Liberal Party of Canada member of Parliament (MP) in the House of Commons of Canada but he was an ally of John A. Macdonald (though not a relative). His government was initially a true coalition of Liberals and Conservatives under his leadership but soon the more radical Reformers bolted to the opposition and Sandfield Macdonald

6069-522: The Conservative government of John Diefenbaker fell in 1963, largely due to the BOMARC controversy , Grant wrote Lament for a Nation: The Defeat of Canadian Nationalism , a book about the nature of traditional Canadian nationhood and independence that would become a lodestar of Red Toryism. Grant defined an essential difference between the founding of the Canadian and American nations when he wrote "Canada

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6188-402: The Conservatives. The 1926 provincial election reduced the farmer-labour contingent to thirteen Progressive MLAs and one Labour MLA (Homuth - who had broken with the Progressives and supported the government) while two new UFO MLAs, Thomas Farquhar and Farquhar Oliver , joined Oke's faction. Several weeks after the election the UFO convention voted to cease running its own candidates, though

6307-783: The Fair Employment Practices Act of 1951, the Fair Accommodation Practices Act of 1954 and the Ontario Anti-Discrimination Commission Act of 1958, advocated equal wages for women with the Act to Ensure Fair Remuneration for Female Employees, and granted First Nations people the right to vote in 1955. Frost improved health care access to Ontarians through the passing of the Hospital Services Commission of Ontario Act of 1956 and

6426-674: The French-Canadian population in Ontario. The Tories were in power for all but five years from 1905 to 1934. After the death of Whitney in 1914, however, they lacked vision and became complacent. The Tories lost power to the United Farmers of Ontario in the 1919 election but were able to regain office in 1923 election due to the UFO's disintegration and divisions in the Ontario Liberal Party . They were defeated by Mitch Hepburn 's Liberals in 1934 due to their inability to cope with

6545-523: The Liberal government, David Peterson called a provincial election, in which the PCs failed to improve their standing, but which resulted in the defeat of the Liberals by Rae's NDP. In the 1995 election , Harris catapulted his party from third place to an election victory, running on a small government platform called the " Common Sense Revolution ". The platform promised tax cuts (including 30% cuts to provincial personal income tax), and adopted wedge issues including deficit reduction , welfare cuts,

6664-485: The Liberals in the 2004 election, calling Paul Martin "the devil we know". Rick Borotsik joined the new party but openly criticized it from within, did not run for re-election in 2004, and also publicly endorsed the Liberals over the Conservatives during the campaign. Additionally, three of the twenty-six Progressive Conservative Senators , Lowell Murray , Norman Atkins and William Doody , decided to continue serving as Progressive Conservatives, rejecting membership in

6783-483: The Liberals to third-party status. Drew called another election in 1945 , only two years into his mandate, to get a majority government. The PCs played up Cold War tensions to win a landslide majority, though it emerged several years later that the PC government had set up a secret department of the Ontario Provincial Police to spy on the opposition and the media. The PCs would dominate Ontario politics for

6902-674: The Ontario Chamber of Agriculture which, in 1940, became the Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA), a non-partisan lobbying and marketing organization for farmers. In 1943, the UFO ceased to exist as a formal organization and its remnants were absorbed by the OFA. In 1948 the United Farmers' Co-operative became the United Co-operatives of Ontario and remains one of the largest farmer-owned co-operatives in Canada. In 1940, Oliver,

7021-509: The Ontario legislature in a by-election in March, 2005, in the seat that Eves held. In polling prior to the 2007 general election , the PCs' support rose after the first Liberal budget in 2004. The party was virtually tied with the Liberals, as Tory has experimented with several different orientations. During his first year as leader, Tory attempted to rise above partisan politics, openly contemptuous of partisan moves and pledging to improve decorum in

7140-470: The Progressive Conservatives to the right. Soon after taking office, he called an election in which the PCs were reduced to a minority government, and actually finished behind the Liberals in the popular vote for the first time in 42 years. Soon afterward, the Ontario New Democratic Party (NDP) of Bob Rae reached an agreement with David Peterson 's Liberals in which the NDP would support

7259-462: The Senate by Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin, and chose to designate themselves as Progressive Conservatives. Doody has since died, and Ruth joined the Conservative Party caucus in 2006. Despite the union, some former Progressive Conservative members still identify themselves as Red Tory, including high-profile political strategist turned Senator Hugh Segal , who in 2013 continued to describe himself as

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7378-469: The Tories were routed, falling to 24 seats. In early 2004, Eves announced his intention to step down as leader. A leadership convention to replace him was called for the fall. Jim Flaherty was the first to enter the race, campaigning on the same right wing platform as in 2002. He was soon opposed by John Tory , a former executive with Rogers Cable and a Toronto mayoral candidate in 2003 (a position he would ultimately win in 2014 ), sometimes viewed as

7497-454: The Tories with Stephen Harper 's Alliance to create the modern federal Conservative Party in 2003. When first created, one of the most important issues facing the Conservative Party was what Red Tories would do. The union resulted in a number of Red Tories leaving the new party, either to retire or to cross the floor to the Liberal Party . Members of Parliament (MPs) André Bachand , John Herron , Joe Clark and Scott Brison declined to join

7616-535: The UFO banner until 1940. Many United Farmers joined the CCF as individuals. The UFO's newspaper, The Farmer's Sun , was sold to Graham Spry and Alan Plaunt and became an organ for the League for Social Reconstruction and the Ontario CCF. In the 1935 federal election , the UFO's provincial executive voted to endorse the new Reconstruction Party of Canada formed by H.H. Stevens ; however, many local UFO groups backed

7735-564: The UFO formed the Farmers' Publishing Company and purchased The Weekly Sun renaming it The Farmer's Sun to act as the organ of the UFO. The UFO entered politics by contesting and winning a by-election in Manitoulin in 1918, in which Beniah Bowman was elected as the party's first Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA). In the 1919 provincial election , with over 50,000 members,

7854-417: The United Farmers Co-operative Company Ltd. (the purchasing co-operative the UFO operated on behalf of its members). The organization grew rapidly and by 1917 it had 350 local clubs and 12,000 members. The UFO had a comprehensive farmer's platform that called for the nationalization of railways, progressive taxation , and legislation that would facilitate the operation of co-operatives . In 1917, supporters of

7973-532: The United States, which was seen as lacking this collectivist tradition because it was expunged from the American political culture after the American Revolution and the exodus of the United Empire Loyalists . Horowitz argued that Canada's stronger socialist movement grew from Toryism , and that this explains why socialism has never had much electoral success in the United States. This also meant that Canadian conceptions of liberty were more collective and communitarian, and could be seen as more directly derivative of

8092-407: The abolition of political patronage , better educational opportunities in rural areas, cheap electric power, conservation of forests, proportional representation and "direct legislation" . The UFO also favoured prohibition and budgetary restraint, two platform planks that were at odds with the views of urban Labour supporters. To the shock of everyone, including itself, it won 45 seats and formed

8211-416: The aftermath. On July 2, 2014, Jim Wilson was chosen by the Progressive Conservative caucus to be its interim leader until the 2015 leadership election . On May 9, 2015, the membership elected Patrick Brown , a federal Conservative MP from Barrie, as the leader of the party. Christine Elliott was the unsuccessful candidate with Vic Fedeli , Lisa MacLeod , and Monte McNaughton withdrawing prior to

8330-405: The campaign, defeating his successor as minister of finance, Jim Flaherty . Eves was a Red Tory , unlike Harris. He'd tried to blunt some of the edges of the more radical elements of Harris's platform while in Cabinet. His distancing from the Common Sense Revolution continued after he became premier. He killed plans to sell off Hydro One and re-imposed retail price controls on electricity, capping

8449-423: The central governments to local communities, small businesses, and volunteerism. Blond also favours empowering social enterprises , charities and other elements of civil society to solve problems such as poverty. He has been mentioned as a major influence on the thinking of David Cameron and other Tories in the wake of the 2008 credit crisis. He advocates a civic state as the ideal, where the common good of society

8568-480: The central organizer in Harris's campaigns, refused to work for Eves. The "Whiz Kids" reputation for competence was marred by publicity stunts such as handing down his government's second budget at the headquarters of Magna International instead of in the provincial legislature. Voter backlash against this break with parliamentary tradition forced the delay of a planned spring election in 2003. In May 2003, Eves released

8687-582: The curtailment of social and economic development spending. Traditional Red Tories would reject most if not all of these stances. More recently, Phillip Blond , director of British think tank ResPublica, has gained traction with his so-called Red Tory thesis which criticizes what he refers to as the welfare state and the market state. Phillip Blond promotes a radical communitarian traditionalist conservatism . It inveighs against welfare states as well as market monopolies and instead respects traditional values and institutions, localism , devolution of powers from

8806-560: The first Chairman of the Ontario CCF in 1932, but the UFO disaffiliated from the CCF in 1934 due to allegations of communist influence in the party. The UFO nominated candidates, incumbent MLA Farquhar Oliver and former MLA Leslie Oke, accordingly ran as UFO candidates in the 1934 provincial election rather than as CCFers. The UFO, like United Farmers groups in the provinces of western Canada, decided to withdraw entirely from electoral politics though Oliver and Macphail continued to run under

8925-401: The introduction of workfare , and the repeal of an employment equity law Harris characterized as "the quota law." Public opinion on the Harris government was polarized. The government was criticized on issues such as health care, the environment, education, and social policies. Strikes and protests including a 1997 teacher's strike beleaguered its first term. But it won a second majority in

9044-615: The last remaining UFO member of the Legislature and a supporter of the Hepburn government since 1934, joined the Hepburn cabinet and became a Liberal. MacPhail lost her seat as the last United Farmers MP in the House of Commons in the 1940 election . She turned to provincial politics and won election to the Ontario Legislature as a candidate of the CCF in the 1943 provincial election while Oliver became Liberal Party leader in 1945. Around 1919,

9163-582: The launching of the Ontario Hospital Insurance Plan program in 1959. In 1961, John Robarts became the 17th premier of Ontario. He was one of the most popular premiers in years. Under Robarts's leadership, the party epitomized power, continuing Drew and Frost's policies on health care, education, infrastructure and social issues, introducing the Ontario Human Rights Code in 1962. He was an advocate of individual freedoms and promoted

9282-465: The leadership of Raney, a non-farmer, and also disagreed with the creation of a "Progressive Party" which would include non-farmers - with the support of The Farmer's Sun , they insisted on continuing to sit as UFO members rather than with the Progressive group. Bowman resigned from the legislature in 1926 in order to enter federal politics. The issue which dominated Ontario politics in the mid-1920s

9401-530: The legislature. In his second year as leader, Tory adopted a more traditional approach to the issues, sharply opposing the Liberal plans on taxes, spending, deficits and cuts. Heading into the election year, Tory put most of his emphasis on criticizing the government's handling of a standoff with Mohawk aboriginals in Caledonia in order to portray the government as weak. He also emphasized traditional right-wing issues like taxes, crime and government spending. During

9520-399: The low 30s. This pattern held through to the 2002 leadership campaign, when PC support rose to 37%, while the Liberals retained the support of about half of those polled. With the resignation of Mike Harris in 2002, the PCs held a leadership election . Ernie Eves , who had been Harris's minister of finance, and who had the backing of almost all PC members of provincial parliament (MPPs), won

9639-447: The mid-to-high 30s, while the Liberals scored in the mid-to-high 40s. Despite his attempt to recast the Tory government as a moderate one, Eves was unable to reverse the slide in the polls the Tories had suffered in the last years of Harris's tenure. Eves asked Flaherty's campaign chairman, Jaime Watt, to co-manage the PC election campaign, along with the rest of the "Whiz Kids" team that had previously worked for Harris. Only Tom Long ,

9758-414: The modern highway system. The government was also a strict enforcer of temperance measures, Prohibition being law in Ontario from 1916 to 1927. Drury also arranged for a grant for then-unknown researchers Frederick Banting and Charles Best who, with Dr. James Collip , later discovered insulin . The UFO grew quickly to 1,500 clubs and 60,000 members by 1920. Drury argued for a "broadening out" of

9877-527: The move. Manning Doherty , interim leader of the UFO caucus, could do nothing aside from win a ruling from the Speaker that, as leader of a caucus of more than 15 MLAs, he was entitled to an extra salary. Eighteen months following the general election, William Raney was elected unanimously by his caucus as leader of what was now referred to as the "Progressive" bloc of MLAs which had begun as Farmer and Labour MLAs. Leslie Oke and Beniah Bowman refused to accept

9996-418: The new party – Brison immediately crossed the floor to the Liberals, Bachand and Clark sat out the remainder of the 37th Canadian Parliament as Progressive Conservatives and then retired from office in the 2004 election , and Herron sat as a Progressive Conservative for the remainder of the term but then ran for re-election in 2004 as a Liberal. Clark, a former Prime Minister, gave a tepid endorsement to

10115-429: The new party. Atkins, who died in 2010, remained allied with the still-existent Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario , and Murray, from Atlantic Canada, opposed the merger of the federal PC party. Most, like prominent Senator Marjory LeBreton , came to endorse the new party and have been vocal and visible supporters of the party both between and during elections. Elaine McCoy and Nancy Ruth were later appointed to

10234-401: The next four decades. Under Drew and his successor, Leslie Frost , the PCs were a strong champion of rural issues but also invested heavily in the development of civil works throughout the province, including the construction of the 400 series of highways, beginning with the 401 across Toronto. On social issues, Frost's Progressive Conservative government passed anti-discrimination laws such as

10353-413: The opposition Bob Runciman, supported John Tory, saying that his opponents should accept the results and move on. John Tory announced his pending resignation as leader on March 6, 2009; the day following his defeat in a by-election for Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock . On June 27, 2009, party members elected Tim Hudak as the party's new leader. Christine Elliott , Frank Klees , and Randy Hillier were

10472-523: The party after he made negative disparaging comments about Francophone language rights. MacLaren subsequently crossed the floor to become the Trillium Party's first member in the Ontario Legislature. As well, some conservatives in Northern Ontario who have felt unrepresented by the Tories and alienated by the party leadership have joined the Northern Ontario Party. On January 24, 2018, Brown

10591-492: The party for a new approach. Clark's leadership was successfully challenged, and in the 1983 PC leadership convention , members endorsed Brian Mulroney who rejected free trade with the United States as proposed by another Blue Tory candidate, John Crosbie . Despite this early perception, the eagerness in which Mulroney's ministry embraced the Macdonald Commission 's advocacy of bilateral free trade would come to indicate

10710-456: The party from 1968 to 1985 and was Premier from 1971 to 1985 was a Red Tory and Lougheed's tenure was characterized by active economic measures and social reforms. In the 50's and 60's, Manitoba saw great prosperity in economic and social reforms thanks to the leadership of Premier Dufferin Roblin , a Red Tory, who governed to the left of the previous government led by Douglas Campbell , the leader of

10829-572: The party gained a reputation for being pro- labour as a result of links between the Orange Order and the labour movement. After 33 years in Opposition , the Tories returned to power under James P. Whitney , who led a progressive administration in its development of the province. The Whitney government initiated massive public works projects such as the creation of Ontario Hydro . It also enacted reactionary legislation (such as Regulation 17 ) against

10948-472: The party hold a leadership review vote at the first party convention after an election defeat. From the election day until the 2008 General Meeting, party members were divided into two "camps": those who supported John Tory's position as party leader and those who opposed his leadership. Several campaigns to oust John Tory as leader of the party, most notably by a party activist group led by former party president Rueben Devlin called Grassroots PC . John Tory had

11067-435: The party implemented the public health care system that continues to this day. He led the party towards a civil libertarian movement. As a strong believer in the promotion of both official languages, he opened the door to French education in Ontario schools. In 1971, Bill Davis became party leader and the 18th premier. Anti-Catholicism became an issue again in the 1971 election , when the Tories campaigned strenuously against

11186-499: The party sought to hold the balance of power so it could introduce legislation friendly to farmers. It co-operated with the Independent Labour Party with the two organizations not running candidates against each other - the UFO contested rural ridings and the ILP stood candidates in urban areas. In total there were 64 UFO candidates, 20 ILP candidates and 10 Farmer-Labour candidates in the 1919 provincial election . The UFO platform called for

11305-438: The party to include labour and others, but in so doing, alienated some hard-line Farmers. Morrison, the general secretary of the UFO, remained outside of the legislature and government. Morrison opposed a number of the coalition's initiatives, perceiving the UFO's actions as a broad-based Progressive government rather than a "class-based" United Farmer government and believed that the party should not be in government but should hold

11424-610: The party's loss. The Liberals won a second majority government , and the PCs made negligible gains in the legislature (one more seat, but a 3 per cent drop in the popular vote). Tory, who had left his Dufferin–Peel–Wellington–Grey seat to run in Don Valley West , would lose to Liberal incumbent Kathleen Wynne . As a result of the election loss, the party decided to hold a leadership review vote at its 2008 General Party Meeting in London. The Ontario PC Party's constitution requires that

11543-428: The party's platform, "The Road Ahead". The document promoted an aggressive hard-right agenda, and was closer in spirit to Harris and Flaherty's agenda than to Eves's own. In releasing this document, Eves reversed his earlier positions on banning teacher's strikes, jailing the homeless, private school tax credits and same-sex marriage . The platform also called for mortgage interest deductibility. The PC election campaign

11662-442: The political centre by reach out to groups that do not typically support the party including trade unions , and pursue "sensible" carbon pricing . He also unveiled a new logo to represent the commitment to "inclusion, renewal, openness and change". Brown stated his intention to change the party by moving away from past campaigns where one particular issue often cost them support, such as Tim Hudak 's proposed public sector job cuts in

11781-460: The political left of the Labour Party to refer to MPs and Labour Party figures who withheld support for Jeremy Corbyn , the former Labour leader from 2015 to 2020. The term has also been used as a pejorative against current Labour leader Keir Starmer , who has been seen by some to have moved the party too far away from traditional left-wing positions. The term Red Tory is often used today in

11900-537: The previous election, campaigned largely on the issue of prohibition . After Lethbridge lost his seat in the 1929 election Harry Nixon , who had served as Provincial Secretary in Drury's government, became the leader of the remaining Progressives. In the early 1930s, Nixon and the Progressives agreed to an alliance with former UFO activist Mitchell Hepburn who, in 1930, became leader of the Liberal Party. A group of four Liberal-Progressive MLAs, led by Nixon, were elected in

12019-418: The price at 4.3 cents per kilowatt-hour, and vowing to keep it capped until at least 2006. During the summer after Eves's election as leader, the PCs closed the gap in popular support considerably, placing only two percentage points behind the Liberals in two summer public opinion polls. By the autumn of 2002, however, Eves's "honeymoon" with the voters was over, and the party fell back in the polls, hovering in

12138-489: The privileged class practiced noblesse oblige and contributed to the common good. Red Tories supported traditional institutions such as religion and the monarchy, and maintenance of the social order. This position was later manifested in their support for some aspects of the welfare state . This belief in a common good, as expanded on in Colin Campbell and William Christian 's Political Parties and Ideologies in Canada ,

12257-440: The public support of the PC legislative caucus, and most notably, support from former premiers and predecessors Ernie Eves and Bill Davis . The lead-up to the review vote was marked by high emotions on both sides of the debate and allegations of rule breaking. Such allegations were risen when caucus members sent letters on party letterhead seeking support for Tory. The letters signed by Tory MPPs Bob Runciman and Toby Barrett were

12376-597: The radical Toryism advocated by Lord Randolph Churchill . Inherent in these Tory traditions was the ideal of noblesse oblige and a conservative communitarianism . In Victorian times, these ideas were the pre-eminent strains of conservative thought in the British Empire, and were advanced by many in the Tory faction of John A. Macdonald 's conservative coalition in the Canadas. None of this lineage denies that Tory traditions of communitarianism and collectivism had existed in

12495-464: The rights of the provinces against what he saw as the centralizing initiatives of the federal government, while also promoting national unity against Quebec separatism. He hosted the 1967 "Confederation of Tomorrow" conference in Toronto in an unsuccessful attempt to achieve an agreement for a new Constitution of Canada. Robarts opposed Canadian Medicare when it was proposed, but later endorsed it fully, and

12614-497: The role of government in society. Red Tory governments in Canada, such as those of John A. Macdonald , Robert Borden , and John Diefenbaker , were known for supporting an active role for the government in the economy. This included the creation of government- owned and operated Crown Corporations such as the Canadian National Railway , and the development and protection of Canadian industries with programs such as

12733-515: The second largest party in the legislature, they were denied Official Opposition status by Conservative premier Howard Ferguson . The position was instead given to the Liberals with W.E.N. Sinclair as Leader of the Opposition , despite the party having three fewer seats than the UFO. Morrison had announced that the UFO would be withdrawing from politics, which Ferguson had used as justification for

12852-517: The unsuccessful candidates. Hudak led the PCs through two elections. In the 2011 provincial election , the McGuinty Liberal government was reduced to a minority . Hudak's Tories were widely expected to win the 2014 provincial election but the Liberals, now led by Kathleen Wynne , were returned with a majority government largely due to Hudak's campaign pledge to cut 100,000 public service jobs by attrition rather than by layoffs. Hudak resigned in

12971-488: The vote. Since he did not hold a seat in the Legislature, the party requested that MPP Garfield Dunlop resign his seat in Simcoe North so that Brown could run. Brown was elected as MPP for Simcoe North in a by-election held September 3, 2015. At the party's 2016 Annual General Meeting (the first since the leadership election) Brown announced that the PCs would take on a more inclusive and compassionate tone, shifting to

13090-553: The voting public, and allowed the Liberal campaign to portray the Tories as needlessly confrontational. A critical point in the campaign was when a member of the Eves team jokingly referred to McGuinty as an " evil reptilian kitten-eater from another planet ", a comment that made the Tories appear desperate to vilify their opponents. In the final days leading up to the vote, Eves was further criticized for saying that McGuinty just says "whatever comes into his pointy little head". On election day,

13209-754: The web log Front Porch Republic , however, define Red Toryism as a " left or socialist conservatism " and further go on to say that it is "not a traditionalism that happened to oddly pick up a few egalitarian rhetorical tropes along the way." This is more in keeping with the typical dictionary definition of the term as: "(Canadian) a Conservative who holds liberal or mildly socialist views on certain fiscal and social issues." In this regard, Phillip Blond's views are probably closer to what has been referred to as High Tory . Farney, James; Rayside, David (2013). Conservatism in Canada . University of Toronto Press. ISBN   978-1-4426-1456-7 . United Farmers of Ontario The United Farmers of Ontario (UFO)

13328-433: Was accused by two women of engaging in sexual misconduct. Brown denied the allegations and initially refused to step down. After pressure from within the party caucus, including calls for his resignation by deputy PC leaders Sylvia Jones and Steve Clark , he resigned as leader in the early hours of January 25, with some aspects of the allegations later proving to be false or unconfirmed. Red Toryism A Red Tory

13447-485: Was an agrarian and populist provincial political party in Ontario , Canada. It was the Ontario provincial branch of the United Farmers movement of the early part of the 20th century. The UFO was founded in 1914 by the union of various farmers' organizations that had been created over the previous fifteen years. James J. Morrison was the leading figure in the party, serving as its general secretary and secretary of

13566-567: Was first used in this context by Scottish independence supporters, following Labour's participation in the Better Together campaign in opposition to Scottish independence alongside the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats during the 2014 Scottish independence referendum . Evolving from the Scottish usage of the term, the term, along with the terms Blairite , Brownite and " centrist ", have been used, particularly on social media by members on

13685-745: Was left leading what was essentially a conservative coalition that included some Liberals under the Liberal-Conservative banner. After losing power in 1871, this conservative coalition began to dissolve. What was originally a party that included Catholics and Protestants became an almost exclusively English and Protestant party, more and more dependent on the Protestant Orange Order for support, and even for its leadership. The party became opposed to funding for separate (Catholic) schools , opposed to language rights for French-Canadians , and distrustful of immigrants. Paradoxically, an element of

13804-588: Was predicated on the rights of nations as well as on the rights of individuals." This definition recognized Canada's multi-faceted founding nature as an English-speaking, aboriginal and Francophone nation. Many of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada 's leaders have been labelled 'Red Tories', including Sir Robert Borden , John Diefenbaker , Robert Stanfield and Joe Clark . Many others have been influential as cabinet ministers and thinkers, such as Davie Fulton , Dalton Camp , Roy McMurtry and John Farthing . The main bastions of Red Toryism were Ontario,

13923-532: Was refused by Elections Canada. Having anticipated such a rejection, the coordinators had had the 'SignaTories' also sign a second application to at least continue with the ballot name "PC Party". On March 26, 2004, the Progressive Canadian Party was registered with Elections Canada. It aimed to be perceived as a continuation of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada, but achieved only very minor results. The party achieved its largest vote to date in

14042-411: Was riddled with mistakes and miscues, and Eves appeared uncomfortable trying to sell a platform he had opposed only a year earlier. In contrast, the Liberals had spent the last four years positioning themselves as the government in waiting, and ran on the simple platform of "Choose Change". PC television ads which attacked Liberal leader Dalton McGuinty as "still not up to the job" were received poorly by

14161-611: Was the Ferguson government's proposal to repeal the Ontario Temperance Act and replace prohibition with government control of liquor. The Liberals were split on the issue - most of their MLAs were "dry" but some were "wets" who were opposed to prohibition. The Progressives under Raney, however, were adamantly in favour of prohibition and opposed to Ferguson's proposals. This led to an estrangement with Labour MLA Karl Homuth who supported Ferguson's proposals and would eventually join

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