Conservative Party of Ontario
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Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario
Parti progressiste-conservateur de l'Ontario |
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|---|---|
| Active provincial party | |
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| President | Rick Dykstra |
| Leader of the Opposition | Patrick Brown |
| Opposition House Leader | Jim Wilson |
| Founded | 1854 |
| Headquarters | 400-59 Adelaide St. E Toronto, Ontario M5H 3H1 |
| Student wing | Ontario PC Campus Association |
| Youth wing | Ontario PC Youth Association |
| Membership | 2015: 76,581 |
| Ideology |
Conservatism Economic liberalism Social conservatism |
| Political position | Centre-right to Right wing |
| Colours | Blue |
| Seats in Legislature |
29 / 107
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| Website | |
| www |
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The Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario (French: Parti progressiste-conservateur de l'Ontario), often shortened to Ontario PC Party or PC, is a right-of-centre political party in Ontario, Canada. It governed the province for 80 of the 149 years since Confederation, including an uninterrupted run from 1943 to 1985. It is the Official Opposition in the current Legislative Assembly of Ontario.
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 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. Sandfield Macdonald was actually a Liberal and sat concurrently as a Liberal Party of Canada MP in the Canadian House of Commons but he was an ally of John A. Macdonald. 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 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 the party gained a reputation for being pro-labour as a result of links between the Orange Order and the labour movement.
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