Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta

The Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta (French Association progressiste - conservatrice de l' Alberta), known until 1959 Alberta Conservative Party, is a conservative political party in the Canadian province of Alberta. The party is ideologically oriented similarly as the Conservative Party of Canada at the federal level, but the two parties are organizationally independent. Since the elections in April 2012 put the Progressive Conservatives 61 of 87 deputies in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. They govern the province without interruption since 1971.

History

The Conservative Party of Alberta was created out of the existing from 1898 to 1905 Northwest Territories Liberal - Conservative Party. In the first election to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta referred to by the later Canadian Prime Minister Richard Bedford Bennett Conservatives have won only two seats. 1913 the first breakthrough by winning 18 seats and 45 % of the vote. Due to internal differences, however, the party lost more and more influence and won a single seat in 1921, as the country- conservative electoral base had turned almost closed the United Farmers of Alberta ( UFA).

During the next fifty years, it never succeeded the Conservatives to win in more than half a dozen constituencies. They could not benefit from the collapse of the UFA government in 1935 also represented now that the Social Credit Party of Alberta 's conservative voters. 1940, 1944 and 1948 were no conservative candidate in the election. 1959 successes renamed the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta, an adaptation of the name of the federal Progressive Conservative Party.

In 1965, Peter Lougheed new chairman and reformed the relatively insignificant become party. He combined economic conservatism, a distinctive urban and modern image. This enabled the Progressive Conservatives to gain a foothold in the rapidly growing cities of Calgary and Edmonton. In the elections of 1971 were up by over 20 percent, were the strongest party and began to challenge the government.

After the Social Credit Party had dominated the provincial politics for decades, this role the Progressive Conservatives now fell to. Under Lougheeds successor of Don Getty proportion of voters took as from clear, but was still high enough to win the majority of seats. Ralph Klein contributed in contrast to his more centrist predecessors a distinct legal course ( during the same period, as the Reform Party at the federal level by success ). In 2006, Ed Stelmach the post of party chairman, followed in 2011 with Alison Redford, the first woman who moved the party back closer to the center, in order to weaken the competition of the populist right-wing Wildrose Party. For over four decades, the Progressive Conservatives form the government, as long as no other party in a Canadian province.

Election results

Party chairman

P = Prime Minister

Alberta Conservative Party

  • Richard Bedford Bennett ( 1905)
  • Albert Robertson (1905-1909)
  • Richard Bedford Bennett (1909-1910)
  • Edward Michener (1910-1917)
  • George Hoadley (1917-1920)
  • James Ramsey (1920-1921)
  • Albert Ewing ( 1921 -? )
  • Alexander McGillivray (1925-1930)
  • David Milwyn Duggan (1930-1942)
  • John Percy Page (1952, 1955)

Alberta Progressive Conservative Association

  • Cam Kirby ( 1959)
  • Ernest Watkins (1959-1962)
  • Milt Harradence (1962-1964)
  • Peter Lougheed (1965-1985) P
  • Don Getty (1985-1992) P
  • Ralph Klein (1992-2006) P
  • Ed Stelmach (2006-2011) P
  • Alison Redford ( since 2011 )
R. B. Bennett Alberta Social Credit Party List of political parties in Canada
662146
de