Progressive Conservative Party of Newfoundland and Labrador
The Progressive Conservative Party of Newfoundland and Labrador originated as the Responsible Government League which campaigned against joining Canadian confederation but lost the 1949 referendum. Following the defeat the League aligned itself with the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada and adopted its name.The Tories remained in the political wilderness for over two decades after confederation with its support confined to Roman Catholic communites on the Avalon penninsula outisde of St. John's which had been anti-Confederation strongholds in 1940. The party was unable to win more than seven seats until the 1970s.
By 1969, Liberal Premier Joey Smallwood had grown autocratic in power and intolerant of opposition within his party. John Crosbie and a number of young Liberals defected to the Tories and revitalised the party making it a credible force for the first time. In 1971 the party won one more seat than the Liberals in elections to the provincial legislature but Smallwood refused to resign. In the 1972 elections the Tories finally defeated Smallwood and formed a government under Frank Moores.
The Tories supported democratic reforms and reorganised government to give cabinet ministers greater responsibility over their departments. The Moores government continued Smallwood's megaprojects while pressuring the federal government to give the province more control over its natural resources.
The fight over resources, particularly offshore oil, became a major part of the Tory platform in the latter half of the twentieth century and was continued by Brian Peckford when he succeeded Moores in 1979. During the Constitutional negotiations of the 1980s the Tories supported a decentralised federation while the Liberals were in favour of a strong central government. The Tories lost power in 1989 but continued to argue for decentralization in opposition voting in favour of the Meech Lake Accord while the Liberals of Clyde Wells opposed it.
While the Conservatives have always been more supportive of the business community and free enterprise they have avoided the neo-conservative policies of Tory parties elsewhere in Canada and have tended to be Red Tories. This is a result of Newfoundland's widespread poverty and economic problems, particularly in light of the failure of the fishing industry, factors which make hard right fiscal policies unsaleable to voters.
In 2003 the Tories returned to power under Danny Williams.
See also:
For information on the 19th century Conservative Party see: Conservative Party of Newfoundland
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