Conservative Party in the UK and in Canada

When William of Normandy mastered England in 1066 and imposed feudal institutions on his new vassals, there was no talk of people of different interests to be chosen in the assembly.

James Guy in his book People, Politics and Government states that in the history of governmental practice, political parties are very young institutions. Those that appeared in the United States in the late 1790s are some of the oldest in the world. Now, less than two hundred years later, political parties are found throughout the world. How did this happen? Most likely, people saw that to organize in groups regarding of interests and try to get their needs met may be effective and useful.

Accordingly to Mr. Guy, at this time the parties are categorized under different types: pragmatic/brokerage, nation-building, revolutionary, ideological and special interest parties. Nation-building parties draw from national ideologies to create a program of development. Both British and Canadian Conservatives are nation-building parties.

Traditional conservatism is known to stand for the monarchy, law and order, and free enterprise with a minimum of state interference in business. However, it is an old point of view. As Heath Macquarrie mentioned in his book The Conservative Party, a person who looks for deep philosophic differences between Liberals and Conservatives will be disappointed. Just as Bradley Cruxton suggested in Spotlight Canada, traditionally, the Liberal and Progressive Conservative parties vie for the political centre because this is where most of the votes are found in any election.

Accordingly to the information posted on the party's website, the UK Conservative Party the oldest in Europe. The Tories are basing the claim on the fact that the word "Conservative" was first used in 1830. In 1886 the Liberal Party split over the issue of Irish Home Rule and the Liberal Unionist Party was formed. This party worked in alliance with the Tories before finally being absorbed into the "Conservative and Unionist Party" in 1912. As contradistinction from their main opposition, the Whigs, who wanted more parliamentary control, the Conservatives of the seventeenth century supported the powers and prerogatives of the Crown.

Admitting that it is difficult to pin-point a precise date of origin of the Canadian Conservative Party, Heath Macquarrie gives us a good reason for regarding 1854 as the inaugural year for this political group. In that year the Tories assumed office and ,under direction of John A. Macdonald, began the "process which established a nation in the northern part of this continent". The Conservative Party was first called the Liberal-Conservative Party.

In the Encyclopedia Canadiana there is an interesting section on political parties which contains a diagram illustrating the listing of events of major political significance in the history of our country. There are eight such events noted from Confederation to the present day: Confederation, 1867; Hudson Bay territories joined to the Dominion, 1870; addition of Arctic Islands, 1880; the defeat of reciprocity, 1911; enfranchisement of women, 1918; the dominion Elections Act providing universal adult suffrage, 1920; the Statute of Westminster, 1931; addition of the Newfoundland, 1949. Although Heath Macquarrie states that it would be foolish to suggest that all the good things which have taken place in Canada have been carried out by one political party, he calls it "striking" that all but one of these major incidents occurred under Conservative governments.

Accordingly to Mr. Macquarrie, the Conservative Party has not only the first party in Canada but also the most successful for a long time, holding office from 1867 to 1896 with a brief interregnum of six years. Though, its popularity has not always been this high. For instance, from 1896 to 1957 the Liberals were in office for forty-six years while the conservatives held power for a total of less than fifteen years. In addition to this fact, Bradley Cruxton certifies that during "Dirty Thirties", people had become increasingly dissatisfied with the both main political parties - Conservatives and Liberals as they seemed to have no new, fresh ideas for solving the country's economic troubles. This was the time when new political parties, such as Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (future NDP), Social Credit party and Union Nationale, were formed. Yet, none of them ever became a dominating party in Parliament.

However, in 1846 a serious split between free-traders and protectionists occurred. The division was over abolishing the Corn Laws by Robert Peel and maintaining the price of food at an artificially high level. This kept the party out of power for most of the following 20 years.

The Tories were out of power during eighteenth century until William Pitt the Younger became Prime Minister in 1783 at the age of twenty-four lead the government for twenty-one years with only one interval. His support of free trade and sound finance became the basis of the modern Conservatism.