British Columbia Conservative Party

It was was created by Sir Richard McBride in 1903. McBride believed that the system of non-partisan government that the province had been using was unstable and inhibiting development. When the lieutenant-governor of the province dissolved the legislature and called an election, McBride announced that he would form a party to contest the election. His Conservatives won British Columbia's first election fought on the party system on October 3, 1903 with a two seat majority. McBride became Premier of the province. The Tories implemented a policy along the lines of those of the national Conservative Party, which at the time favoured government intervention to help develop industry and infrastructure.

The Conservatives under McBride, and his successor William John Bowser, held power for thirteen years until they were defeated by the Liberals in 1916.

The Tories returned to power in 1928 under Simon Fraser Tolmie, the last time the Conservatives would form a majority government in the province. The Tolmie government was unable to deal with the Great Depression, and was racked by infighting and indecision. The party was in such dissaray that, despite being the government, the Conservative provincial association decided not to run any candidates in the 1933 election.

In the election of 1941, the Conservatives managed to win 12 seats, compared to 21 for the Liberals and 14 for the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (which became the New Democratic Party in 1961). The Liberals and Conservatives formed a coalition government. The business community feared the growing strength of the social democratic CCF, and supporters of both the Liberals and the Tories argued that a united free market party was needed to keep the CCF from taking power.

The tensions between Conservative and Liberal factions mounted over time, and after ten years, the coalition disintegrated. The Conservatives refounded their party in 1951 calling themselves the Progressive Conservatives as the federal party had changed adopted the progressive prefix in 1942.

W. A. C. Bennett, a Member of the Legisative Assembly (MLA), ran for the leadership of the Tories and lost. He left the party and joined the small Social Credit League, becoming its leader. Bennett dropped the party's social credit monetary reform policy, and adopted a populist conservative platform.

The coalition government, whose raison d'etre had been to keep the CCF out of power, had introduced a Single Transferable Vote system for the 1952 election in the hope that Conservatives and Liberal supporters would list the other party as their second choice and keep the CCF out of power.

This worked to the benefit of Social Credit, who were able to take advantage of divisions between the Liberals and Conservatives, as well as the desire for change. Bennett's party was able to win a slim minority government with 19 Social Credit MLAs compared to 18 CCFers, 1 Labour, 6 Liberals, and 4 Tories.

It was clear to those who wanted to keep the CCF out of power that only the Social Credit Party would be able to accomplish that task. In the 1953 election, Liberal and Tory supporters transferred their support to Bennett's party, sweeping it to power with 28 out of 48 seats. Having a majority government the Social Credit government changed the electoral system back to first past the post in order to cement their base. Social Credit became, in effect, the new centre-right coalition party, and both the Liberals and the Tories became marginalised.

The Progressive Conservatives elected only four MLAs in 1952, one in 1953, and were completely shut out of the legislature between 1956 and 1972 as conservative minded voters moved to Social Credit. The Tories managed to elect two MLAs in the 1972 election, and one in the 1975 election, but have been not elected a single representative since then.

In 1991, the party changed its name to the BC Conservative Party, but was unable to take advantage of the collapse of Social Credit that year.

It later joined with four other conservative parties to form the British Columbia Unity Party, but that coalition soon fell apart, and the BC Conservative Party was re-established as a separate entity. It remains a fringe party.

Election Results

• List of British Columbia premiers
• List of Canadian political parties

• BC Conservative Party