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Progressive Conservative Party of Canada Parti progressiste-conservateur du Canada | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Abbreviation |
|
| Leader | Full list |
| Founded | December 10, 1942; 83 years ago (December 10, 1942) |
| Dissolved | December 7, 2003; 22 years ago (2003-12-07)[a] |
| Preceded by | Conservative (1867) |
| Merged into | Conservative (2003) |
| Succeeded by | Progressive Canadian Party (claimed, not legal successor) |
| Headquarters | 806-141Laurier Avenue West,Ottawa,Ontario |
| Membership(2003) | 40,000 [b] |
| Ideology | |
| Political position | Centre-right |
| International affiliation | International Democrat Union |
| Colours | Blue-purple |
| Website | |
| pcparty.ca at theWayback Machine (archived 1998-12-12) | |
TheProgressive Conservative Party of Canada (PC;French:Parti progressiste-conservateur du Canada) was acentre-rightfederal political party inCanada that existed from 1942 to 2003.
FromCanadian Confederation in 1867 until 1942, theoriginal 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 leaderPremierJohn Bracken ofManitoba, a former member of theProgressive Party of Manitoba. In the1957 federal election,John Diefenbaker carried the party to their first victory in 27 years andthe following year, led the party to the largest federal electoral landslide in history. During his tenure, human rights initiatives were achieved, most notably theBill of Rights. In the1963 federal election, the party lost power and would not regain it until1979, whenJoe Clark led the party to aminority government victory. The party lost power justnine months later and in 1983, Clarklost his leadership role toBrian Mulroney, who helped the PC Party gain popularity inQuebec. Mulroney won back-to-backmajoritygovernments in1984 and1988, and during his tenure, major economic reforms such as theNorth American Free Trade Agreement and thegoods and services tax (GST) were introduced.
The GST, the government's failed attempts to revise theConstitution with theMeech Lake andCharlottetown accords, and theearly 1990s recession, led to the party's increasing unpopularity and eventual collapse in the1993 federal election where they won just two seats. InWestern Canada the bulk of the party's support transferred to theright-wingpopulistReform Party (which later became theCanadian Alliance), while in Quebec support shifted to thesovereigntistBloc Québécois. The Progressive Conservatives failed to recover much lost ground in the subsequent1997 and2000 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 tounite 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 currentConservative 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.
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The party pre-dates Confederation in 1867, when it accepted many conservative-leaning former members of the Liberal Party into its ranks. At Confederation, theConservative Party became Canada's first governing party underSir John A. Macdonald. The federal Tories governed Canada for over 40 of the country's first 70 years of existence.
However, the party spent the majority of its history in opposition as the nation's number-two federal party, behind theLiberal Party of Canada. From 1896 to 1993, the Tories formed government six times—from 1911 to 1921, briefly in 1926, from 1930 to 1935, from 1957 to 1963, from 1979 to 1980 and from 1984 to 1993. It stands as the only Canadian party to have won more than 200 seats in an election—a feat it accomplished twice: in1958 and1984.
The party adopted the "Progressive Conservative" name in 1942 when ManitobaPremierJohn Bracken, a long-time leader of that province'sProgressive Party, agreed to become leader of the federal Conservatives on condition that the party addProgressive to its name. Despite the name change, most former Progressive supporters continued to support theLiberal Party of Canada or theCo-operative Commonwealth Federation, and Bracken's leadership of the Conservative Party came to an end in 1948. Many Canadians simply continued to refer to the party as "the Conservatives".
A major weakness of the party since 1885 was its inability to win support inQuebec, estranged significantly by that year's execution ofLouis Riel. TheConscription Crisis of 1917 exacerbated the issue. Even though theConservative Party of Quebec dominated politics in that province for the first 30 years of Confederation at both the federal and provincial levels, in the 20th century the party was never able to become a force in provincial politics, losing power in 1897, and dissolving in 1935 into theUnion Nationale, which took power in 1936 underMaurice Duplessis.
In 20th-century federal politics, the Conservatives were often seen[by whom?] as insensitive to French-Canadian ambitions and interests and seldom succeeded in winning more than a handful of seats in Quebec, with a few notable exceptions:
The party never fully recovered from the fragmentation of Mulroney's broad coalition in the late 1980s, resulting in part from the failure of two provinces to ratify theMeech Lake Accord. The party suffered a decade-long decline following the1993 federal election, during which it did not hold more than 20 seats in the House of Commons. It formally dissolved on December 7, 2003, when it merged with theCanadian Alliance to form the modern-dayConservative Party of Canada.
Several loosely associated provincial Progressive Conservative parties continue to exist inManitoba,Ontario,New Brunswick,Nova Scotia,Prince Edward Island andNewfoundland and Labrador. As well, a smallrump of senators opposed the merger, and continued to sit in theParliament of Canada as Progressive Conservatives. The last one of them rescinded their party status in 2016. TheYukon association of the party renamed itself as theYukon Party in 1990. TheBritish Columbia Progressive Conservative Party changed its name to theBritish Columbia Conservative Party in 1991.Saskatchewan's Progressive Conservative Party effectively ceased to exist in 1997, when theSaskatchewan Party formed – primarily from former PCMembers of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) with a fewSaskatchewan Liberal MLAs joining them.
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The Progressive Conservative Party was generally on thecentre-right on the political spectrum. From 1867 on, the party was identified withProtestant and, in Quebec,Roman Catholic social values,British imperialism,Canadian nationalism, and constitutional centralism. This was highly successful until 1920, and to that point in history, the party was the most successful federal party in the Dominion.
As such, Canadian conservatism historically initially more closely resembled that which was practiced in theUnited Kingdom and, to an extent,Europe, than in theUnited States. The "Tory" approach worked well for the party until 1917, when, as was common among 19th-century conservative movements, Canadian Tories opposed the rollback of government intervention in social and economic matters advocated by theliberals of the era. In contrast to "American conservative" counterparts, however, they did not undertake as dramatic an ideological turnaround in the first half of the 20th century by continuing to followmercantilism[dubious –discuss] and nascent notions of thewelfare state.
Like their federal Liberal rivals, the party defined itself as a "big tent", welcoming a broad variety of members who supported relatively loosely defined goals. Unlike the Liberal Party, there was a long history of ongoing factionalism within this tent. This factionalism arose from the party's lack of electoral success, and because the party often reached out to particular political groups in order to garner enough support to topple the Liberals. These groups usually remained semi-autonomous blocs within the party, such as Quebec nationalists and western Canadian Reformers in the 1980s. In later years, observers generally grouped the PC Party's core membership into two camps, "Red Tories" and "Blue Tories".
Red Tories tend to be traditionally conservative, that is, "Tory" in theDisraelian sense in social policy, placing a high value on the principles ofnoblesse oblige,communitarianism, andone nation conservatism—and were thus seen as moderate (in the context of classical economic thought) in their economic policy. For most of their history they were tradeprotectionists, engaging in free-trade economics in only a limited fashion, as inEmpire Free-Trade. Historically they comprised the largest bloc of the original Canadian Conservative party. Notable Red Tories includeJohn Farthing,George Grant,John Diefenbaker,E. Davie Fulton,Robert Stanfield,Dufferin Roblin,Dalton Camp,W. L. Morton,George A. Drew,Leslie Frost,John Robarts,William Davis,Peter Lougheed,Joe Clark andFlora MacDonald.
Blue Tories, on the other hand, were originally members of the Tory elite drawn from the commercial classes inMontreal andToronto. Prior toWorld War II, they were generally conservative in social policy, andclassically liberal in economic policy. From 1964 on, this cadre came to identify more withneoliberal influences in the USRepublican Party, as espoused byBarry Goldwater andRonald Reagan, and theThatcherite leadership in the BritishConservative Party, as represented by SirKeith Joseph andMargaret Thatcher. They have come to be termed—in the Canadian lexicon—asneoconservatives. However, there are also Blue Tories who identify strongly with themonarchy in Canada and other traditional institutions. In Canada, Blue Tories includeRalph Klein andMike Harris.
From 1891 until the party's dissolution, Red Tories generally dominated the highest rungs of the party and its leadership. The emerging neoconservatives of the 1970s were significantly reduced in numbers in the party by the late 1980s, and many of the disaffected drifted towardsneoliberalism and parties with aneoconservative bent, such as theReform Party of Canada. When the PC party held power at the federal level, it never truly embracedReaganomics and its crusade against "big government" as vociferously as was done in the United States.
Canadian neoconservatives lean more towardsindividualism andeconomic liberalism. Support for the Canadian Alliance and its predecessor the Reform Party of Canada derived principally from this group, and that support carried forward into the new Conservative Party of Canada. The success of the neoconservative movement in using the label "Conservative" has brought into debate the very definition ofconservatism in Canada today. Although adhering to economic philosophies similar to those originally advanced by 19th-century liberals (known confusingly as both neoliberalism and neoconservatism), the Canadian Alliance agreed to the name "Conservative Party of Canada" for the new party.
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After a by-election defeat in 1942, a group of younger Conservatives from theConservative Party of Canada met inPort Hope, Ontario, to develop a new Conservative policy they hoped would bring them out of the political wilderness. The participants, known as the Port Hopefuls, developed a program including many Conservative goals such as support for free enterprise and conscription. Yet the charter also included more radical policies, such as full-employment,low-cost housing,trade union rights, as well as a whole range ofsocial security measures, including a government financed medicare system.[3]
Although many Conservatives rejected the charter, the charter still influenced party decisions. Delegates at the convention draftedJohn Bracken as leader, who was not even a member of the party. Bracken supported the Port Hope Charter and insisted the party register this policy shift by changing its name to the Progressive Conservative Party.[3]
In the early days ofCanadian Confederation, the party supported amercantilist approach to economic development:export-led growth with high import barriers to protect local industry. The party was staunchly monarchist and supported playing a large role within theBritish Empire. It was seen by someFrench Canadians as supporting a policy of cultural assimilation.
The Conservative Party dominated Canadian politics for the nation's first 30 years. In general, Canada's political history has consisted of Tories alternating power with theLiberals, albeit often in minority governments supported by smaller parties.
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After a long period of Liberal dominance following the Tories ill-fated Depression-era mandate from 1930 to 1935,John Diefenbaker won a minority government in1957, followed by a sweeping electoral victory for the Tories in1958. Diefenbaker was able to win most of the parliamentary seats in Western Canada, much of those in Ontario, and, with the support of theUnion Nationale provincial government, a large number in Quebec. Diefenbaker attempted to pursue a policy of distancing Canada from the United States. His cabinet split over Diefenbaker's refusal of American demands that Canada accept nuclear warheads for Bomarc missiles based inNorth Bay, Ontario, andLa Macaza, Quebec. This split contributed to the Tory government's defeat at the hands ofLester B. Pearson's Liberals in the1963 election.
Diefenbaker remained Progressive Conservative leader until 1967, when increasing unease at his erratic behaviour, authoritarian leadership, and perceived unelectability led party presidentDalton Camp to call for and win a motion for aleadership review which resulted in the1967 leadership convention where Nova Scotia PremierRobert Stanfield was elected out of a field of eleven candidates that included Diefenbaker and Manitoba PremierDuff Roblin. Despite being personally well-regarded, Stanfield struggled to make an impact againstPierre Trudeau, who became Prime Minister the following year. The1972 election saw the party come within two seats of toppling the Liberal government, with their historical weakness in Quebec keeping them from victory, but a gaffe-ridden Tory campaign at thefollowing election two years later saw the Liberals regain their parliamentary majority, leading to Stanfield's resignation.
Joe Clark took theleadership of the Progressive Conservative Party in 1976. He came to power in the1979 election, defeating the Liberal government ofPierre Trudeau and ending sixteen years of continuous Liberal rule. Taking office the day before his 40th birthday, Clark is the youngest person to become prime minister. His tenure was brief as he only won a minority government, and it was defeated on amotion of non-confidence pertaining to his1979 budget. Clark's Progressive Conservative Party lost the1980 election and Clark lost theleadership of the party toBrian Mulroney in 1983.
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In the late 1960s and 1970s, following Quebec'sQuiet Revolution, the Progressive Conservatives recognized the need to increase their appeal to Canada'sfrancophone population. At the same time, the Tories moved away fromeconomic nationalism towards aneoliberal platform. Both movements culminated with Brian Mulroney becoming prime minister after theelection of 1984. He led the Tories to a record 211 seats, and a majority of seats in every province.
Mulroney had declared himself an opponent to free trade with the United States during the1983 leadership campaign. But a growing continentalist sentiment among Canadian business leaders and the impact of the "Reagan Revolution" on Canadian conservative thought led Mulroney to embrace free trade. His government endorsed the recommendation of the 1985 Royal Commission on the Economic Union and Development Prospects for Canada that Canada pursue a free trade deal with the United States.
Traditionally, it had been the Liberal Party that held a position ofcontinentalism and the Conservatives who had opposed free trade with theUnited States in favour of economic links with theUnited Kingdom. With the dissolution of theBritish Empire and the economic nationalism of the Liberal Party under Pierre Trudeau, the traditional positions of the two parties became reversed. It was with this background that Mulroney fought and won the1988 election on the issue of theCanada–United States Free Trade Agreement.
Mulroney also made a promise toQuebecers, claiming that he would reform theCanadian Constitution so that Quebec would be willing to endorse the revised Constitution, which it did not in 1982, unlike Canada's other provinces. To do this, Mulroney promised that he would give Quebec distinct society status within a federal Canada with greater autonomy. This helped Mulroney garner substantial support fromQuebec nationalists includingLucien Bouchard who joined the Conservatives claiming that providing Quebec with autonomy would be acceptable for Quebec to remain within Canada.
Although the Progressive Conservative Party switched toneoliberalism, the party did retain its social progressive policies unlike other parties which advocated neoliberalism. Mulroney and the government pursued an aggressive environmental agenda under the aide of then-environmental policy advisor, present-dayGreen Party leaderElizabeth May. Mulroney and members of the U.S. government sparred over action onacid rain. In the end Mulroney managed to convince U.S. presidentRonald Reagan to sign a treaty to reduce acid rain.
Mulroney's government significantly boosted Canada'sannual immigration targets, moving them up from around 84,000 to over 250,000 by the early 1990s,[4] a major policy shift focusing on economic class via thepoints system, reflecting a broader strategy to grow the population and labor force.[5]
A number of economic and governance issues contributed to the fall of the Progressive Conservative party at the federal level in the1993 federal election:
The second major factor leading to the Mulroney government's demise was that the party's base in Quebec came from Quebec nationalists, who withdrew their support after the failure of theMeech Lake andCharlottetown accords. Many Quebec Tories, including a number ofMembers of Parliament (MPs), left the party to form theBloc Québécois with like-minded Liberals.
The third major factor was the rise ofwestern alienation in the four provinces of western Canada as a result of attempts by both Tories and Liberals to woo Quebec. Western Canadians turned their support to theReform Party of Canada and later to its successor, theCanadian Alliance. Poor by-election results inBeaver River,Chambly,Laurier—Sainte-Marie,Oshawa andYork North solidified the PC decline.
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Following Mulroney's resignation, his successor as Tory leader and as prime minister wasKim Campbell, who led the party into the disastrouselection of 1993. The Progressive Conservatives went from being the majority party to holding only two seats in the House of Commons, which was not enough to maintainofficial party status despite garnering 16% of the popular vote. It was the worst defeat ever suffered for a governing party at the federal level; the 151-seat loss far exceeded the 95 seats lost by the Liberals in 1984. The party's western supporters transferred virtuallyen masse to Reform, most of its Quebec supporters split between the sovereigntistBloc Québécois and the Liberals, and most of its Ontario and Atlantic supporters bolted for the Liberals. Even though the Progressive Conservatives finished third in the popular vote (just percentage points behind Reform), their support was spread out across the entire country and was not concentrated in enough areas to translate into more seats. By contrast, the Bloc managed to capture Official Opposition status with 54 seats despite running candidates only in Quebec, while Reform finished third in the seat count despite being virtually nonexistent east of Manitoba.
Campbell herself was defeated, as was every member of the Cabinet exceptJean Charest, whom Campbell had defeated in theelection to succeed Mulroney. Campbell resigned as party leader in December, and Charest, as the only remaining member of the previous Cabinet, was quickly appointed interim leader and confirmed in the post in 1995. The party continued to hold a majority of seats in theSenate until 1997, where SenatorJohn Lynch-Staunton served asLeader of the Opposition in the Senate. Charest led the party back to official party status in the1997 election, winning 20 seats. With the exception of one seat each in Ontario and Manitoba, the rest of the seats were all in the Maritimes and Quebec. However, the PCs never won more than 20 seats again, and only two west of Quebec (not counting by-elections and switches from other parties).
The rise of the Reform Party/Canadian Alliance was doubtless damaging to the Tories. Many observers argue that for over ten years, from 1993 to2004, the "conservative" vote wassplit between the two parties, allowing Liberal candidates to win ridings that were previously considered safe for the Tories, made possible by a first-past-the-post electoral system. This assessment led to the growth of theUnited Alternative movements of the late 1990s. Others insisted that a legitimate ideological gulf existed between the more ideological Alliance and the more moderateRed Tory-influenced PC Party, pointing to surveys that indicated many Tory voters would rather select the Liberals as their second choice than the Alliance. This seemed to be particularly born out in Ontario. The Liberals won all but one seat in that province in 1993 and 1997, and all but two in 2000—an era that was dominated by the provincial Tories. This was largely because many former bellwether ridings in suburbanToronto (known as "the 905", after itsarea code) turned almost solidly Liberal for most of the 1990s at the federal level while supporting the Tories at the provincial level.[citation needed]
Charest stepped down from the leadership in 1998 to become leader of theQuebec Liberal Party. Former leader Joe Clark returned to the post in a vote in which all party members were eligible to cast ballots, instead of a traditional leadership convention. A point system allocated each riding 100 points to be distributed among the candidates by proportional representation according to votes cast by party members in the riding. This same system was used by the Conservative Party of Canada in 2004. In the2000 election Clark was able to garner the 12 seats necessary for official party status, but no more.[citation needed]
Clark realized that as long as the centre-right vote was divided, there was no chance of dislodging the Liberals, but he wanted a merger on his own terms. He got his chance in 2001, when several dissident Alliance MPs, the most prominent one being Alliance deputy leader and party matriarchDeborah Grey, left the Alliance caucus. The dissidents felt that Alliance leaderStockwell Day hadn't learned from mistakes made in the last election. While some of them rejoined the Alliance later, seven of them, led byChuck Strahl of British Columbia and including Grey, refused and formed theDemocratic Representative Caucus. The DRC quickly entered a coalition with the Progressive Conservatives, which lasted until 2002 whenStephen Harper ousted Day as Alliance leader. Harper wanted a closer union with the PCs, but Clark turned the offer down, and all but two of the DRC members rejoined the Alliance. One of the two,Inky Mark, eventually joined the PCs. Two by-election victories later in 2002 increased the PC caucus to 15 members and fourth place in the Commons. Clark, however, was unable to gain any ground in Ontario, and resigned on August 6, 2002.[citation needed]
On May 31, 2003,Peter MacKay won the party leadership after securing the endorsement of controversial fellow leadership candidateDavid Orchard, an outspoken opponent of free trade who wanted to return the party to its traditional economic nationalist roots. Orchard's endorsement of MacKay was predicated on four bullet points laid out in the Orchard-MacKay agreement, one of which expressly forbade the merger of the PC Party of Canada with the Canadian Alliance. After only a few months as party leader though, MacKay reneged on his promise and proceeded to negotiate a merger with the Alliance, which he announced had occurred on October 15, 2003. The two parties, it seemed, united to form a new party called the Conservative Party of Canada. The union was ratified on December 5 and 6 in a process conducted by each of the parties, and the new Conservative Party was formally registered on December 7. The merger prompted Clark to remark, "Some equate it to a death in the family. I regard it rather as a death of the family."[6] On March 20, 2004, former Alliance leader Harper was elected leader of the new party and appointed MacKay as his deputy.[citation needed]
Following the merger, a rump Progressive Conservative caucus remained in Parliament, consisting of individuals who declined to join the new Conservative Party. In theHouse of Commons,Joe Clark,André Bachand andJohn Herron sat as PC members. In the2004 election, Bachand and Clark did not run for re-election, and Herron ran as a Liberal, losing toRob Moore in his riding ofFundy—Royal.Scott Brison, who had joined the Liberal caucus immediately upon departing the Conservative Party, was reelected as a Liberal in the 2004 election. After being expelled from the Conservative Party caucus in June 2007, Nova Scotia MPBill Casey designated himself as an "Independent Progressive Conservative".[7]
In theSenate,William Doody,Lowell Murray andNorman Atkins also declined to join the new party, and continued to sit as Progressive Conservative senators. On March 24, 2005, prime ministerPaul Martin appointed nine new senators, two of whom,Nancy Ruth andElaine McCoy, were designated Progressive Conservatives. Ruth subsequently left to sit with the Conservative Party. The death of Senator Doody on December 27, 2005, and the mandatory retirement of Norman Atkins on June 27, 2009, and Lowell Murray on September 26, 2011, left McCoy, the youngest of the five, as the sole Progressive Conservative in the Senate and the last sitting PC in either chamber of Parliament until February 11, 2013, when she chose to change her designation to "Independent Progressive Conservative". McCoy changed her designation to "Independent" on February 17, 2016, thus bringing to an end the presence of Progressive Conservatives in Parliament.[8]
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On January 9, 2004, a group claiming to be loyal to the Progressive Conservative Party and opposed to the merger, which they characterized as an Alliance takeover, filed application with the Chief Electoral Officer to register a party called the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. The application was refused on the grounds that the name could no longer be utilized. The group resubmitted with the nameProgressive Canadian Party, and a new "PC Party" was recognized byElections Canada on March 26. It secured sufficient backing to be registered as an official party on May 29. It was led by former Progressive Conservative MPJoe Hueglin of Ontario.
The Progressive Canadian party aimed to be perceived as the successor party to the Progressive Conservatives. However, it did not enjoy broad support among former Progressive Conservatives. In particular, no prominent anti-merger Progressive Conservatives such as Joe Clark orDavid Orchard were associated with the Progressive Canadian Party, nor were any sitting MPs or senators. The most prominent members to join were two 1970s and 1980s era politicians: former cabinet ministerSinclair Stevens and former junior cabinet minister,Heward Grafftey, who polled near or belowCraig Chandler in the final PC Party leadership race. It was deregistered by Elections Canada in late 2019.
| Picture | Name | Term start | Term end | Riding as leader | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | John Bracken | December 11, 1942 | July 20, 1948 | Neepawa | 11th premier of Manitoba |
 | George Drew | October 2, 1948 | September 21, 1956 | Carleton | 14th premier of Ontario |
 | William Earl Rowe | September 21, 1956(Interim) | December 14, 1956 | Dufferin—Simcoe | Interim leader |
| John Diefenbaker | December 14, 1956 | September 9, 1967 | Prince Albert | 13th prime minister of Canada |
 | Robert Stanfield | September 9, 1967 | February 22, 1976 | Colchester—Hants,Halifax | 17th premier of Nova Scotia |
| Joe Clark | February 22, 1976 | February 19, 1983 | Rocky Mountain,Yellowhead | 16th prime minister of Canada |
| Erik Nielsen | February 19, 1983(Interim) | June 11, 1983 | Yukon | Interim leader | |
| Brian Mulroney | June 11, 1983 | June 13, 1993 | Central Nova,Manicouagan,Charlevoix | 18th prime minister of Canada |
| Kim Campbell | June 13, 1993 | December 14, 1993 | Vancouver Centre | 19th prime minister of Canada |
.png) | Jean Charest | December 14, 1993 | April 2, 1998 | Sherbrooke | 5th deputy prime minister of Canada and 29th premier of Quebec |
 | Elsie Wayne | April 2, 1998(Interim) | November 14, 1998 | Saint John | Interim leader |
.jpg) | Joe Clark | November 14, 1998 | May 31, 2003 | Kings—Hants,Calgary Centre | |
| Peter MacKay | May 31, 2003 | December 7, 2003 | Central Nova |
| Name | Took office | Left office | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
| Charles Colquhoun Ballantyne | 1942 | 1945 | Opposition leader |
| John Thomas Haig | 1945 | 1958 | Opposition leader until June 20, 1957. Government leader from 1957 to 1958 |
| Walter Morley Aseltine | 1958 | 1962 | Government leader |
| Alfred Johnson Brooks | 1962 | 1967 | Government leader until April 21, 1963 Opposition leader until 1967 |
| Jacques Flynn | 1967 | 1984 | Opposition leader, except from June 3, 1979, to March 2, 1980, when he was government leader |
| Dufferin Roblin | 1984 | 1986 | Government leader |
| Lowell Murray | 1986 | 1993 | Government leader |
| John Lynch-Staunton | 1993 | 2004 | Opposition leader |
![[icon]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aWiki_letter_w_cropped.svg) | This sectionneeds expansion. You can help byadding missing information.(December 2015) |
| Election | Leader | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | Position | Role | Government |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1945 | John Bracken | 1,448,744 | 27.62% | 64 / 245 |  27 |  2nd | Opposition | Liberal minority |
| 1949 | George A. Drew | 1,734,261 | 29.62% | 41 / 262 | 23 | 2nd | Opposition | Liberal majority |
| 1953 | 1,749,579 | 31.01% | 50 / 265 | 9 | 2nd | Opposition | Liberal majority | |
| 1957 | John Diefenbaker | 2,564,732 | 38.81% | 112 / 265 | 62 | 1st | Minority | PC minority |
| 1958 | 3,908,633 | 53.56% | 208 / 265 | 96 | 1st | Majority | PC majority | |
| 1962 | 2,865,542 | 37.22% | 116 / 265 | 92 | 1st | Minority | PC minority | |
| 1963 | 2,591,613 | 32.80% | 93 / 265 | 23 | 2nd | Opposition | Liberal minority | |
| 1965 | 2,500,113 | 32.41% | 95 / 265 | 2 | 2nd | Opposition | Liberal minority | |
| 1968 | Robert Stanfield | 2,554,397 | 31.43% | 72 / 264 | 23 | 2nd | Opposition | Liberal majority |
| 1972 | 3,388,980 | 35.02% | 107 / 264 | 35 | 2nd | Opposition | Liberal minority | |
| 1974 | 3,371,319 | 35.46% | 95 / 264 | 12 | 2nd | Opposition | Liberal majority | |
| 1979 | Joe Clark | 4,111,606 | 35.89% | 136 / 282 | 41 | 1st | Minority | PC minority |
| 1980 | 3,552,994 | 32.49% | 103 / 282 | 33 | 2nd | Opposition | Liberal majority | |
| 1984 | Brian Mulroney | 6,278,818 | 50.03% | 211 / 282 | 108 | 1st | Majority | PC majority |
| 1988 | 5,667,543 | 43.02% | 169 / 295 | 42 | 1st | Majority | PC majority | |
| 1993 | Kim Campbell | 2,178,303 | 16.04% | 2 / 295 | 167 | 5th | No status | Liberal majority |
| 1997 | Jean Charest | 2,446,705 | 18.84% | 20 / 301 | 18 | 5th | Fifth party | Liberal majority |
| 2000 | Joe Clark | 1,566,994 | 12.19% | 12 / 301 | 8 | 5th | Fifth party | Liberal majority |
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