In late 2003 the Canadian Alliance Party leaders convinced the Progressive Conservative leaders (in defiance of the Constitution of the latter) to "unite the right." The Chief Electoral Officer accepted the decision and the new, exclusively right-wing, Conservative Party was created on Sunday, December 7, 2003.

That ‘official’ merger left some 200 PC Party Members, from all across Canada, determined to continue with Sir John A’s “progressive Conservative” party (he coined the phrase in an 1854 letter). Their submission for re-registration as Progressive Conservative was summarily rejected by the Chief Electoral Officer. While retaining the PCPC as an unregistered party, yet determined to keep "PC Party" on the ballot, they submitted for Progressive Canadian Party and it was accepted.

Many members who accepted the merger were unaware this new Conservative Party was radically different from the Progressive Conservative Party. They found the new party followed a pattern of polarisation reflected in a variety of ways: rich against poor (tax cuts against social spending), the provinces against the federal government, private sector against public sector.

This kind of polarisation has resulted in political opposition becoming political conflict. Over recent months we have witnessed the excesses spawned by such politics.

Polarisation was rejected by traditional conservatives like Robert Stanfield who saw the Progressive Conservative Party as having a harmonising role to play: “both horizontally in terms of resolving conflicts between regions, and vertically in terms of resolving conflicts between Canadians in different walks of life.”

This moderating role for a political party is not appealing to our national media because the media feeds on conflict not on its resolution. On the other hand, it is the kind of a party that we need in Canada today … and it accords with John Diefenbaker's, "Progress, with Care".

The Hon. Sinclair Stevens, Leader
The Progressive Canadian Party
Newmarket, Ontario
1-888-666-3821
smstevens@epla.net