How the Conservative Party of Canada Came to Add ‘Progressive’ to Its Name in 1942

How the Conservative Party of Canada Came to Add ‘Progressive’ to Its Name in 1942

Commentary Why did Canada’s national Conservative Party once have the paradoxical name of “Progressive Conservative,” as do most provincial Tory parties to this day? The short answer is: Western farmers. A longer answer is: the old Progressive Party and a political outsider named John Bracken, plus a certain serial Conservative misfortune at the ballot box. In the early 1940s the Tories were officially called the Liberal-Conservative Party, a na…