Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba
The origins of the Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba lie at the end of the twentieth century.
Party politics were weak in Manitoba for the first years after it entered confederation in 1870. The system of government was essentially one of non-partisan democracy though leading figures such as Marc-Amable Girard were loosely identified with the Conservatives the governments were not of any particular political hue until the 1880s. In 1883 political parties began to be listed on the provincial eleciton ballot.
John Norquay is considered the founder of the Conservative Party of Manitoba but opinions vary on whether his governement was a party government or non-partisan.
The party drew up its first election platform in 1899 promising to establish a board of education for the province, the creation of agricultural and technical colleges and government ownership of railways.
Hugh John Macdonald, son of Sir John A. Macdonald, was elected Conservative Premier in the 1900 election but resigned shortly thereafter to reenter federal politics. Sir Rodmond P. Roblin succeeded Macdonald and ruled the province for fifteen years. Roblin's government was progressively oriented and negotiated the extension of the railway, bought Manitoba's Bell telephone operations in order to establish a government run telephone system, introduced corporate taxation and created a public utilities commission while running a budgetary surplus.
The Tories were brought down in 1915 by a scandal involving the construction of the province's new legislative buildings.
The Conservatives entered a long period of decline and were particularly marginalised by the rise of the farmer and labour movements after World War I. By 1920 they were the fourth largest grouping in the legislature with 6 seats compared to 21 Liberals, 15 Farmer and 10 Labour MLAs. The Conservatives gradually gained in the following twenty years but were unable to defeat the Liberal-Progressive government of John Bracken. In 1941, the Tories agreed to join Bracken in a wartime coalition government.
In 1946 the party changed its name to the Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba to reflect the change in name of the federal Progressive Conservatives . In 1950 the party left the ruling coalition of Premier Douglas L. Campbell after the party convention voted 215-7 to leave.
The 1953 election was won by the Liberals but the Progressive Conservative opposition ranks were strengthened. Duff Roblin, son of Sir Rodmon Roblin, became party leader and rebuilt the party's organization which had been weakened during the coalition period.
In 1958, Roblin's Tories ran and were elected to a minority government on a progressive platform of increased education grants, crop insurance, extension of hydro to the north, and road construction. In 1959, Roblin returned to the polls and won a majority which pursued a policy of 'social investment', active government and social reform (including reintroducing French to schools and expanding welfare services). In 1967 Roblin left provincial politics and was replaced by Walter C. Weir who led a more cautious and restrained government and led the Conservatives to defeat at the hands of the New Democratic Party in 1969.
Sterling Lyon became leader of the party in 1975 and took it in a more conservative direction anticipating the neoconservatism of Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan and Mike Harris. The Lyon Tories defeated the NDP in 1977. The Lyon government was to the right of previous Tory adminstraions and implemented a program of programe cuts and reduced taxes. Manitobans were unreceptive to the government's conservatism and defeated it in 1981 after only one term in office.
Gary Filmon became leader of the Progressive Conservatives in 1983 and formed a minority government in 1988 after defeating the NDP. Filmon's Tories remained in power for three terms winning a majority government in 1990 and again in 1995.
Filmon's government was moderately conservative. It supported the Meech Lake Accord and the Charlottetown Accord as well as free trade with the United States. The Tories also introduced an austerity program of budget cuts and increased taxes which resulted in a balanced budget in 1995 (the first time in 20 years). The Tories were hurt in the late 1990s by increased unemployment as well as the decline of the Manitoba Liberal Party which allowed the anti-Tory vote to coalesce around the NDP contributing to that party's 1999 victory.