Conservative Party of Canada facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts

Quick facts for kids Conservative Party of Canada Parti conservateur du Canada

Abbreviation	CPC
Leader	Pierre Poilievre
President	Stephen Barber
Deputy leaders	Melissa Lantsman Tim Uppal
Senate leader	Don Plett
House leader	Andrew Scheer
Founders	Stephen Harper Peter MacKay
Founded	December 7, 2003; 21 years ago (2003-12-07)
Merger of	PC, Canadian Alliance
Headquarters	1800–66 Slater Street Ottawa, Ontario K1P 5H1
Membership (2022)	678,708
Ideology	Conservatism (Canadian) Economic liberalism
Political position	Centre-right to right-wing
Regional affiliation	Asia Pacific Democracy Union
Continental affiliation	Union of Latin American Parties (associate party)
International affiliation	International Democracy Union
Colours	Blue
Senate	12 / 105
House of Commons	120 / 338
Political parties

The Conservative Party of Canada (CPC; French: Parti conservateur du Canada, PCC), colloquially known as the Tories or simply the Conservatives, is a federal political party in Canada. It was formed in 2003 by the merger of the two main right-leaning parties, the Progressive Conservative Party (PC Party) and the Canadian Alliance, the latter being the successor of the Western Canadian–based Reform Party. The party sits at the centre-right to the right of the Canadian political spectrum, with their federal rival, the centre-left Liberal Party of Canada, positioned to their left. The Conservatives are defined as a "big tent" party, practising "brokerage politics" and welcoming a broad variety of members, including "Red Tories" and "Blue Tories".

From Canadian Confederation in 1867 until 1942, the original Conservative Party of Canada formed numerous governments and had multiple names. However, by 1942, the main right-wing Canadian force became known as the Progressive Conservative Party. In the 1993 federal election, the PC Party's Western Canadian support transferred to the Reform Party. When it became clear that neither the PC Party nor the Reform Party or Canadian Alliance (the latter being the successor to the Reform Party) could beat the incumbent Liberals that had governed since the 1993 election, an effort to unite the right-of-centre parties emerged. In 2003, the Canadian Alliance and the PCs merged, forming the Conservative Party of Canada.

During the Conservative Party's governance of Canada from 2006 to 2015, its economic policies included reducing sales tax, reducing income taxes, reducing business taxes, balancing the national budget, creating the tax-free savings account (TFSA), and creating the Universal Child Care Benefit. In social policy, the government eliminated the long-gun registry, introduced mandatory minimum sentences for violent crimes, permitted the construction of several pipelines, and withdrew Canada from the Kyoto Protocol. The government also supported the State of Israel, negotiated the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), and negotiated the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

Under its first leader, Stephen Harper, the party governed with two minority governments after the federal elections of 2006 and 2008. It then won a majority government in the 2011 federal election before being defeated in the 2015 federal election by a majority Liberal government led by Justin Trudeau. Despite winning a plurality of the vote in each election, the party remained in opposition after losing the 2019 and 2021 elections under its second and third leaders, Andrew Scheer and Erin O'Toole respectively. Pierre Poilievre was elected leader in the 2022 leadership election.

Principles and policies

As a relatively young party with a mixed political heritage and history, the federal Conservatives are often described as a "big tent" party in a similar manner to the federal Canadian Liberals by encompassing members and voters who hold a variety of philosophies, ideas and stances, albeit sitting within the centre-right to the right-wing of the political spectrum. Broadly, the party is defined as practicing the Canadian model of conservatism and fiscal conservatism. Some political observers have noted the two most dominant wings of the party traditionally represented Red Tory and Blue Tory ideologies, whereas others have argued that the party has become less internally defined by these labels and that the terms tend to be used by outsiders. Other smaller but visible factional beliefs espoused by individuals within the party have been described by media commentators as liberal conservative, social conservative, right-wing populist and libertarian conservative.

In an effort to create a cohesive platform following its creation, the Conservative Party declared its founding core philosophies and principles to be fiscal accountability, upholding individual rights and freedom, belief in constitutional monarchy, the institutions of Parliament and Canada's democratic process, support for strong national defence, law and order, and Canada's history and traditions, and equal treatment for all Canadians.

Party platform and policies

In recent years, the Conservative Party has repeatedly campaigned on the following policies:

Culture

Bilingualism

Constitution

Supporting Canadian federalism and opposing Quebec separatism
Support for maintaining Canada's constitutional monarchy
Electing Senators, rather than appointing them
Freedom of speech, expression, religion, press and conscience
Respecting treaties signed with Indigenous Canadians
Allowing Indigenous Canadians more self-governance over their land

Economic policy

Supply management for certain dairy, poultry and eggs
Extracting petroleum and natural gas
Construction of pipelines
A belief in the right to own private property
Right to work

Environmental regulation

Subsidies and grants for carbon capture technology
Prohibiting the dumping of raw sewage into rivers
Marine Protected Areas
Pollution caps for industries

Firearms

Maintaining the licensing system for firearm owners
Maintaining the prohibition of short-barreled handguns and fully automatic firearms, including assault rifles
Opposing the prohibition of long-barreled handguns and semi-automatic firearms

Gender

Equal opportunity for men and women

Healthcare and social programs

Single-payer publicly funded healthcare
Canada Pension Plan program
Defunding the CBC public broadcaster

Immigration

Linking immigration to housing and job supply
Eliminating birthright citizenship
Opposing illegal immigration

Military

Increasing military spending to 2% of Canada's GDP

Taxation and fiscal policy

Income tax reductions
Income splitting for families
Business tax reductions
Capital gains tax reductions
Opposition to a carbon tax
Tax simplification
Balanced budget legislation
Reducing the national debt
Reducing grants and subsidies to businesses

Composition

National Council

The National Council of the CPC is its "highest governing body". Stephen Barber has served as President of the National Council since 2023. The National Council has 21 seats, including four from Ontario, three from Quebec, two from British Columbia, two from Alberta, two from Saskatchewan, two from Manitoba, four from Atlantic Canada, and one from each of the three territories.

Geography

The Conservative Party has historically been strongest in Western Canada as well as rural Ontario. The party is strongest particularly in the provinces of Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan, where it holds 30 out of 34 and all 14 federal seats respectively. It tends to be weaker in Quebec and Atlantic Canada, particularly Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island.

Youth wing

There is no official youth wing of the Conservative Party of Canada. There have been several attempts to create one, but all have failed. Despite this the party sets its minimum membership and voting age at 14. The party does however have several affiliated campus clubs at various universities.

Party leadership

Leader

Leader		Term start	Term end	Constituency	Notes
Interim	John Lynch-Staunton (June 19, 1930 – August 17, 2012)	December 8, 2003	March 20, 2004	Senator for Grandville, Quebec	Interim leader, served concurrently as Senate Opposition Leader.
	Stephen Harper (b. April 30, 1959)	March 20, 2004	October 19, 2015	Calgary Southwest, Alberta	Served as Leader of the Official Opposition from 2004 to 2006, and Prime Minister from 2006 to 2015.
Interim	Rona Ambrose (b. March 15, 1969)	November 5, 2015	May 27, 2017	Sturgeon River—Parkland, Alberta	Interim leader, served concurrently as Leader of the Official Opposition.
	Andrew Scheer (b. May 20, 1979)	May 27, 2017	August 24, 2020	Regina—Qu'Appelle, Saskatchewan	Served concurrently as Leader of the Official Opposition.
	Erin O'Toole (b. January 22, 1973)	August 24, 2020	February 2, 2022	Durham, Ontario	Served concurrently as Leader of the Official Opposition.
Interim	Candice Bergen (b. September 28, 1964)	February 2, 2022	September 10, 2022	Portage—Lisgar, Manitoba	Interim leader, served concurrently as Leader of the Official Opposition.
	Pierre Poilievre (b. June 3, 1979)	September 10, 2022	Incumbent	Carleton, Ontario	Serves concurrently as Leader of the Official Opposition.

Deputy Leader

The Deputy Leader is appointed by the Leader.

	Term start	Term end	Constituency	Appointed by	Notes
Peter MacKay	March 22, 2004	November 5, 2015	Central Nova, Nova Scotia	Stephen Harper
Denis Lebel	November 18, 2015	July 21, 2017	Lac-Saint-Jean, Quebec	Rona Ambrose (2015–2017) Andrew Scheer (2017)
Lisa Raitt	July 21, 2017	November 28, 2019	Milton, Ontario	Andrew Scheer
Leona Alleslev	November 28, 2019	July 12, 2020	Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, Ontario	Andrew Scheer
Candice Bergen	September 2, 2020	February 2, 2022	Portage—Lisgar, Manitoba	Erin O'Toole
Luc Berthold	February 6, 2022	September 12, 2022	Mégantic—L'Érable, Quebec	Candice Bergen
Melissa Lantsman	September 13, 2022	Incumbent	Thornhill, Ontario	Pierre Poilievre	Serving with Tim Uppal
Tim Uppal	September 13, 2022	Incumbent	Edmonton Mill Woods, Alberta	Pierre Poilievre	Serving with Melissa Lantsman

Party presidents

Don Plett (2003–2009; interim until 2005)
John Walsh (2009–2016)
Scott Lamb (2016–2021)
Robert Batherson (2021–2023)
Stephen Barber (2023–present)

Parliamentary Caucus

House of Commons

Senate Caucus

The Conservative Party's senate caucus is the only political Senate Group that is formally linked to a federal political party. Unlike the Independent Senators Group, Canadian Senators Group and the Progressive Senate Group, which are unaffiliated with any party in the House of Commons, Conservative senators form part of the national Conservative parliamentary caucus made up of members of both houses of parliament, though the senators do meet separately to discuss Senate-specific issues.

The caucus was created following the establishment of the modern Conservative Party of Canada on February 2, 2004, as a result of the merger of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. All but three Progressive Conservative Senators joined the Conservative Party and were redesignated as Conservative senators.

When in government, the leader of the caucus has been appointed by the national Conservative Party leader, serving as Prime Minister of Canada. When in Opposition the leader is elected by Conservative senators. Most recently, Don Plett was elected Senate Conservative leader on November 5, 2019, defeating one other candidate.

The first leader of the senate caucus, John Lynch-Staunton, also served as interim leader of the Conservative Party of Canada until a leadership election could be held.

The Senate Conservative Caucus and the Conservative MPs in the House of Commons jointly constitute the national Conservative caucus. Nevertheless, Denise Batters was permitted to remain a member of the Senate Conservative Caucus despite being expelled from the national Conservative caucus on November 16, 2021, for publicly opposing the leadership of Erin O'Toole.

Conservative leaders in the Senate

	Term start	Term end	Notes
John Lynch-Staunton	December 8, 2003	September 30, 2004	Also national leader until election of Stephen Harper on March 20, 2004; served concurrently as Leader of the Opposition in the Senate
Noël A. Kinsella	October 1, 2004	February 6, 2006	Leader of the Opposition in the Senate
Marjory LeBreton	February 6, 2006	July 14, 2013	Leader of the Government in the Senate; also served as Minister without portfolio until January 4, 2007, and Secretary of State for Seniors from January 4, 2007, until July 4, 2013.
Claude Carignan	August 20, 2013	March 21, 2017	Leader of the Government in the Senate until November 4, 2015, then became Leader of the Opposition in the Senate
Larry Smith	April 1, 2017	November 5, 2019	Leader of the Opposition in the Senate
Don Plett	November 5, 2019	Incumbent	Leader of the Opposition in the Senate

Electoral results

Election	Leader	Votes	%	Seats	+/–	Position	Government
2004	Stephen Harper	4,019,498	29.63	99 / 308 (32%)	21	2nd	Official Opposition
2006		5,374,071	36.27	124 / 308 (40%)	25	1st	Minority
2008		5,209,069	37.65	143 / 308 (46%)	19	1st	Minority
2011		5,832,401	39.62	166 / 308 (54%)	23	1st	Majority
2015		5,578,101	31.89	99 / 338 (29%)	67	2nd	Official Opposition
2019	Andrew Scheer	6,239,227	34.34	121 / 338 (36%)	22	2nd	Official Opposition
2021	Erin O'Toole	5,747,410	33.74	119 / 338 (35%)	2	2nd	Official Opposition