Progressive Conservative Party

Progressive Conservative Party, one of Canada's two major political parties. It is generally more conservative on most issues than Canada's Liberal party. Called the Conservative Party from its formation in 1854, it was the nation's dominant political party for nearly a century. After changing its name in 1942, the party has won only two national elections and has governed Canada only twice, in 1957–63 under John G. Diefenbaker and for six months in 1979 under Joe Clark. His Progressive Conservative-Social Credit coalition was forced to resign after losing a vote of confidence in the House of Commons on Clark's austerity budget.