Conservative Party of Canada
The Conservative Party of Canada was announced on October 16, 2003 as the name of a new Canadian political party, to be formed by a merger of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada and the Canadian Alliance party. The merger was agreed by the leadership of both parties; however, it must still be ratified by the membership before December 12.The merger was driven by the desire to present an effective right-wing opposition to the Liberal Party of Canada that would draw support from all parts of Canada, and would not split the right-wing vote. Existing members of the parties will have to rejoin. A vote will be held March 21 to select the leader.
Many believe this is the culmination of the Canadian "Unite the Right" movement.
The merger is by no means certain, however. David Orchard had a written agreement from Peter MacKay at the Conservative leadership convention for this very thing not to happen, [1] and is leading a Tory faction fighting the legality of the merger as proposed. They say the Party constitution has no provision for dissolution, especially regarding assets.
On November 27, critics of the merger got additional ammunition when Larry Spencer of the Canadian Alliance Party made public statements stating his desire to recriminalize homosexual behaviour in Canada to combat what he claimed was a conspiracy by the homosexual community to infilitrate social institutions to recruit children into the "homosexual lifestyle". He was quickly denounced by numerous public figures including his own party leader, Stephen Harper, who also made him resign his position as Family Issue Critic in the House of Commons with an apology. However, members of PC party stated that they are more reluctant to go through with the merger after that outburst since Spencer could simply be more outspoken than other Alliance members and that they did not want to lumped in with a party seen as a bastion for bigots.
Also from 1896 to 1942 the name of the party later called the Progressive Conservative Party.
