Elections: Part V, The Progressive Conservative Party

The Conservative Party was created sometime before confederation and it was its leader, John A. MacDonald who paved the road to Confederation (after stealing the idea from the Maritimes) and won the first election in 1867. They have made up most early governments and have such Prime Ministers as Borden, Bennett, Diefenbaker, Clark and Brian Mulroney. In 1942, the Conservative Party was renamed Progressive Conservative Party. In the '80s, they had two majority governments led by Brian Mulroney but in 1993 were reduced to two seats. In 1997 they had Jean Charest as their leader until he took the job as leader of the Quebec Liberals. Former Prime Minister Joe Clark is the present leader.

Joseph Clark was born in High River, Alberta in 1940. He was first elected to the House of Commons in 1972 and in 1976; he was elected Leader of the Progressive Conservative. He was elected Prime Minister of Canada in 1979 in a minority government and only lasted a few months. After Trudeau's return to power, Clark led the Official Opposition. He resigned as leader of the Tories but remained for their cause and became Minister of External Affairs under the Mulroney Government. He became the President of the Privy Council and Minister of Constitutional Affairs in 1991. In 1998, grassroot supporters all over Canada elected him Leader of the Progressive Conservatives.

Canada can have a great future but the Liberals are putting it in jeopardy and the PC party is offering a change you can trust. That is the message the Tories are sending to Canadians.

The most important thing is to get the financial side of politics back in order. Canada needs to catch up on missed chances by the Liberals, Clark insists and the Tories claim they can do that. Canada's income taxes are going up and the Tories believe it must be stopped and would increase amount of income, which would be tax-free for all Canadians. Tax cuts for families (single families, single-income families included) and for children are also included in the platform. The Tories would also eliminate (for 1 year) the gas surtax and will also reduce the gas taxes for a period of one year. Paying down the debt and reducing taxes on businesses so they can be more internationally competent. Like the Alliance, the PC party (now I see why its PC party and not PCP; that would be like naming your party CCRAP... sorry...) is trying to reduce the brain drain or eliminate it (by changing the course of a river or not is not the issue here. Sorry again. I'll be good-I won't take sides...anymore). Anyway, The platform of the Tories is about 1/3 Economics so I'll just get to the other issues.

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