Conservative Party of Canada

The Conservative Party of Canada (CPC; French: Parti conservateur du Canada, PCC), sometimes referred to as the Tories, is a federal political party in Canada. The party sits at the centre-right to right of the Canadian political spectrum, with their federal rival, the centre to centre-left Liberal Party of Canada, positioned to their left. The Conservatives are defined as a "big tent" party, practicing "brokerage politics" and welcoming a broad variety of members, including "Red Tories" and "Blue Tories". The CPC was formed by the merger of the two main right-leaning parties, the Progressive Conservative Party (PC Party) and the Canadian Alliance. The PC Party's roots go back to the original Conservative Party of Canada, which had formed numerous governments dating back to Canadian Confederation in 1867. In the 1993 federal election, the PC Party's Western Canadian support transferred to the Reform Party, which later became the Canadian Alliance. When it became clear that neither the PC Party nor the Canadian Alliance 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, raised the age of consent to 16 years of age, 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, leading the party through the 2025 election, which it again lost to the Liberals, while retaining Official Opposition status.