The Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario (PC; ), often shortened to the Ontario PC Party, or simply the PCs, colloquially known as the Tories, is a provincial political party in Ontario, Canada.
During its uninterrupted governance from 1943 to 1985 known as the Big Blue Machine, the Ontario PC Party adhered to the ideology of Red Toryism, favouring government intervention in the economy, increased spending on infrastructure, education, and health care while remaining progressive on social issues such as equal pay for women, anti-discrimination laws, voting rights for First Nations people and French-language services. In the 1990s, the party underwent a rightward shift to Blue Toryism after the election of Mike Harris as leader, who was premier from 1995 to 2002 and favoured a "Common Sense Revolution" platform of cutting taxes and reducing government spending while balancing the budget through small government. The PCs lost power in 2003 but came back to win a majority government in 2018 under Doug Ford. They were later re-elected again in 2022 and 2025. Ford established the Ford Nation political movement.
History Origins
The first Conservative Party in Upper Canada was made up of United Empire Loyalists and supporters of the wealthy Family Compact that ruled the colony. Once responsible government was granted in response to the 1837 Rebellions, the Tories emerged as moderate reformers who opposed the radical policies of the Reformers and then the Clear Grits.
The modern Conservative Party originated in the Liberal-Conservative coalition founded by Sir John A. Macdonald and George-Étienne Cartier in 1854. It is a variant of this coalition that formed the first government in Ontario with John Sandfield Macdonald as premier.
Until becoming the Progressive Conservatives in 1942, the party was officially known as the "Liberal-Conservative Association of Ontario", reflecting its liberal-conservative origins, but became widely known as the Conservative Party.
Confederation John Sandfield Macdonald was actually a Liberal, previously co-led the first and only Liberal ministry in the United province of Canada, and sat concurrently as a Liberal Party of Canada member of Parliament (MP) in the House of Commons of Canada. He was however an ally of John A. Macdonald (though not a relative). His government was initially a true coalition of Liberals and Conservatives under his leadership but soon the more radical Reformers bolted to the opposition and Sandfield Macdonald was left leading what was essentially a conservative coalition that included some Liberals under the Liberal-Conservative banner. After losing power in 1871, this conservative coalition began to dissolve. What was originally a party that included Catholics and Protestants became an almost exclusively English and Protestant party, more and more dependent on the Protestant Orange Order for support, and even for its leadership. The party became opposed to funding for separate (Catholic) schools, opposed to language rights for French-Canadians, and distrustful of immigrants. Paradoxically, an element of the party gained a reputation for being pro-labour as a result of links between the Orange Order and the labour movement.
Pre-war dynasty After 33 years in Opposition, the Tories returned to power under James P. Whitney, who led a progressive administration in its development of the province. The Whitney government initiated massive public works projects such as the creation of Ontario Hydro. It also enacted reactionary legislation (such as Regulation 17) against the French-Canadian population in Ontario. The Tories were in power for all but five years from 1905 to 1934. After the death of Whitney in 1914, however, they lacked vision and became complacent. The Tories lost power to the United Farmers of Ontario in the 1919 election but were able to regain office in 1923 election due to the UFO's disintegration and divisions in the Ontario Liberal Party. They were defeated by Mitch Hepburn's Liberals in 1934 due to their inability to cope with the Great Depression.
Post-war dynasty Late in the 1930s and early in the 1940s, the Conservatives re-organized and developed new policies. Rather than continue to oppose government spending and intervention, a policy which hurt the party politically in the time of the Great Depression, the Conservatives changed their policies to support government action where it would lead to economic growth.
The party changed its name to the "Progressive Conservative" party after its federal counterpart changed its name to the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada in December 1942 on the insistence of its new leader, John Bracken, whose roots were in the populist Progressive Party.
The Progressive Conservatives took advantage of Liberal infighting to win a minority government in the 1943 provincial election, reducing the Liberals to third-party status. Drew called another election in 1945, only two years into his mandate, to get a majority government. The PCs played up Cold War tensions to win a landslide majority, though it emerged several years later that the PC government had set up a secret department of the Ontario Provincial Police to spy on the opposition and the media. The PCs would dominate Ontario politics for the next four decades.
Under Drew and his successor, Leslie Frost, the PCs were a strong champion of rural issues but also invested heavily in the development of civil works throughout the province, including the construction of the 400-series highways, beginning with the 401 across Toronto. On social issues, Frost's Progressive Conservative government passed anti-discrimination laws such as the Fair Employment Practices Act of 1951, the Fair Accommodation Practices Act of 1954 and the Ontario Anti-Discrimination Commission Act of 1958, advocated equal wages for women with the Act to Ensure Fair Remuneration for Female Employees, and granted First Nations people the right to vote in 1955. Frost improved health care access to Ontarians through the passing of the Hospital Services Commission of Ontario Act of 1956 and the launching of the Ontario Hospital Insurance Plan program in 1959.Slow Road to Tolerance, Allan Levine, Canada's History, June 19, 2016Canada needs another Leslie Frost, not another Caroline Mulroney; Michael Spratt, Canadian Lawyer, June 24, 2019Leslie Miscampbell Frost - Premier of Ontario, 1949-61; Ontario Heritage Trust In 1961, John Robarts became the 17th premier of Ontario. He was one of the most popular premiers in years. Under Robarts's leadership, the party epitomized power, continuing Drew and Frost's policies on health care, education, infrastructure and social issues, introducing the Ontario Human Rights Code in 1962. He was an advocate of individual freedoms and promoted the rights of the provinces against what he saw as the centralizing initiatives of the federal government, while also promoting national unity against Quebec separatism. He hosted the 1967 "Confederation of Tomorrow" conference in Toronto in an unsuccessful attempt to achieve an agreement for a new Constitution of Canada.
Robarts opposed Canadian Medicare when it was proposed, but later endorsed it fully, and the party implemented the public health care system that continues to this day. He led the party towards a civil libertarian movement. As a strong believer in the promotion of both official languages, he opened the door to French education in Ontario schools.
Big Blue Machine
In 1971, Bill Davis became party leader and the 18th premier. Anti-Catholicism became an issue again in the 1971 election, when the Tories campaigned strenuously against a Liberal proposal to extend funding for Catholic separate schools until Grade 13. Davis reversed himself in 1985, and enacted the funding extension as one of his last acts before leaving office.
Davis governed until 1985 with a team of advisers known as the "Big Blue Machine" because of their reputed political and strategic skills. Their stamp on the party was so strong that many refer to the Tories' long rule over Ontario as the "Big Blue Machine era".
During its 43 years of domination, the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario was seen as a centrist party, with the Liberals being to its right and the New Democratic Party to its left. However, its base of support remained with socially conservative voters in rural Southern Ontario. Davis largely reconciled these differences and emerged one of the most popular politicians in Ontario's history. Other conservatives in the federal PC Party accused him of damaging the conservative image in Canada by moving to the left on some issues. Davis continued the rapid expansion of community colleges, universities, and highways across Ontario.
1980s to 1995: in Opposition
Davis retired in 1985. At a leadership convention, he was succeeded by Industry and Trade Minister Frank Miller. A Blue Tory, Miller was considerably more conservative than Davis, and shifted the Progressive Conservatives to the right. Soon after taking office, he called an election in which the PCs were reduced to a minority government, and actually finished behind the Liberals in the popular vote for the first time in 42 years.
Soon afterward, the Ontario New Democratic Party (NDP) of Bob Rae reached an agreement with David Peterson's Liberals in which the NDP would support a Liberal minority government. Miller was defeated in a no-confidence motion on June 18. Peterson was asked to form a government later in the day, ending the longest period of one-party rule in Canadian provincial history. Miller was replaced as leader by Larry Grossman at a second leadership convention.
When the Liberal-NDP Accord expired, an election was held in 1987 in which the Tories were reduced to third place in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. They only won 16 seats, their worst showing in over half a century. Grossman was personally defeated in his downtown Toronto riding and resigned immediately. Andy Brandt was the party's interim leader until a leadership election was held in 1990 in which Mike Harris defeated Dianne Cunningham.
Three months after the election of Harris, and only three years into the, typically, four-year term of the Liberal government, David Peterson called a provincial election, in which the PCs failed to improve their standing, but which resulted in the defeat of the Liberals by Rae's NDP.
Mike Harris and the "Common Sense Revolution"
In the 1995 election, Harris catapulted his party from third place to an election victory, running on a small government platform called the "Common Sense Revolution". The platform promised tax cuts (including 30% cuts to provincial personal income tax), and adopted wedge issues including deficit reduction, welfare cuts, the introduction of workfare, and the repeal of an employment equity law Harris characterized as "the quota law."
Public opinion on the Harris government was polarized. The government was criticized on issues such as health care, the environment, education, and social policies. Strikes and protests including a 1997 teacher's strike beleaguered its first term. But it won a second majority in the 1999 general election, and held generally stable support until Harris's departure as party leader in 2002.
A slide in PC support began in early 2000 according to Ipsos-Reid, when the Tories fell behind the Liberals in the public opinion polls for the first time since the 1999 election, with 36% support of those polled, compared to 42% for the Liberals and 17% for the NDP. Later in 2000, Liberal support rose to about half of those polled, while PC support remained in the low 30s. This pattern held through to the 2002 leadership campaign, when PC support rose to 37%, while the Liberals retained the support of about half of those polled.
Ernie Eves: distancing the party from Harris and 2003 defeat