TheLiberal Country Party (LCP) was a splinter group of theUnited Country Party, theVictorian branch of theAustralian Country Party, formed after federal MPJohn McEwen was expelled from the state branch for accepting a ministry in theLyons-PageCoalition government in 1937. Following a tumultuous party conference in 1938, another federal MP,Thomas Paterson, led a hundred McEwen supporters to form the LCP, a faction of the party loyal to the federal party.[1] The breach had been resolved by 1943.[2]