Uniting the Right

The right-wing in Canada is a strong political force to contend with. Today it forms a strong minority government in Ottawa, majority governments in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Quebec, Newfoundland & Labrador, and the Yukon. It took a long time for conservatives to get to this point. For a long time, the right-wing was divided, splitting the vote not only federally but also provincially. In an attempt to curb this and to stop the Liberals and NDP, organizers attempted to merge these parties. They labelled it as "Unite the Right."

Brian Mulroney was not the most popular Prime Minister for obvious reasons. It appears that the GST was the final catalyst for a mass exodus of Progressive Conservative voters to turn to another right-wing party that didn't abandon the values that build the PC Party. Canadians elected 52 Reform MPs in 1993, 51 of them were in Western Canada. It was the new voice of western discontent, replacing the now federal NDP. Since the Progressive Conservatives still existed, right-wingers had to choose whether or not to vote PC or to vote Reform. Together, while they could not have defeated the Liberal Party, they could have been a very powerful opposition, thus avoiding the Bloc Quebecois from holding another one of those dreadfully close referendums on sovereignty association.

When 1997 came by, the Reform Party and Progressive Conservatives gained little ground, and still split the right-wing vote. This was their closest opportunity to rip the clutches of government from the Liberals, by being within 1% of the vote if united as a single party. Right-wingers were becoming desperate to remove Chretien from power, and were willing to do anything to form the government. Indeed, they did take drastic action, but without much success.

Reform was dissolved, and the Canadian Alliance was created. It was intended to be the true voice of Liberal opposition, while also losing its status symbol as a "Western" party. Their attempts were futile, as the party dominated solely in the west and was nearly completely shunned eastward of Manitoba. Here, a few Alliance MPs left the caucus in protest of their leadership, and eventually Stephen Harper became leader of the Canadian Alliance.

With Stephen Harper as leader of the CA, a leadership convention was also held for the Progressive Conservatives. Future Defence Minister and right-hand man of Harper Peter MacKay was elected leader promising not to merge with the Alliance. In true conservative fashion, he went against his word and merged with the Canadian Alliance to create the Conservative Party we know and despise today.

A split in the right-wing is present in provincial politics, too. In BC in the early 2000's, conservative parties merged together to create the Unity Party against the BC Liberals radical take on conservatism. The loose coalition of the Unity Party fell apart shortly after it formed though, and was met with failure. Alberta is the only other province with serious issues in its right-wing ranks. The Wildrose Alliance is now immensely popular, beating out the Progressive Conservatives who have controlled the province for over three decades in many polls. If the vote-splitting gets bad enough, the Liberals could return to power for the first time since 1921.

A divided right-wing; a left-wingers dream.