Ontario Progressive Conservative Party
- CA QUA02938
- Organisation
- 1943-
The Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario is a political party based in Ontario, known before 1943 as the Conservative Party.
The Progressive Conservative Party dates to the 1854 "Liberal-Conservative" coalition government for the United Province of Canada, led by Sir John A. MacDonald. In the 1867 federal election candidates ran under "Liberal-Conservative" as well as "Conservative" party banners, but by the late nineteenth century the term "conservative" gradually was supplanting that of "liberal- conservative".
In 1943 the federal Conservative Party, under the direction of leader John Bracken, changed the party name to "Progressive Conservative Party," and the Ontario provincial Conservative Party followed suit, calling themselves the "Ontario Progressive Conservative Party." However, for many years the official name of the party, as reflected in legal documents, was the Ontario Progressive Conservative Association. The party's 1989 constitution changed this, making "Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario" the official title of the party.