- Port Hope Conference
The Port Hope Conference was a meeting of the
Conservative Party of Canada atPort Hope ,Canada in1942 to develop a newparty platform . [http://books.google.com/books?id=0pFYBSaxB_wC&pg=PA57&dq=Port+Hope+Conference&lr=&ei=diPpSKHzDIyuyASxy-jIAw&sig=ACfU3U0m3aUj8UUlwB-xQVcVRqykru486Q#PPA57,M1]History
The Conservative Party's popular support had been waning (particularly in western Canada) during difficult economic times from the 1920s to 1940s, as it was seen by many in the west as an eastern establishment party which ignored the needs of the citizens of
Western Canada . Westerners of multiple political convictions including small-"c" conservatives saw the party as being disinterested in the economically-unstable Prairie regions of the west at the time and instead holding close ties with the business elite of Ontario and Quebec.The charter
After an election defeat in 1942,a group of younger Conservatives decide to meet in Port Hope to develop a new Conservative policy they hoped would bring them out of the political "wilderness". The participants, known as the Port Hopefuls, developed a program including many Conservative dogmas such as support for free enterprise and conscription. Yet the charter also included more "radical" goals, such as full-employment,
low-cost housing ,trade union rights, as well as a whole range ofsocial security measures, including a government financed medicare system. [http://books.google.com/books?id=0pFYBSaxB_wC&pg=PA57&dq=Port+Hope+Conference&lr=&ei=diPpSKHzDIyuyASxy-jIAw&sig=ACfU3U0m3aUj8UUlwB-xQVcVRqykru486Q#PPA57,M1]Reaction and influence
Although many Conservatives rejected the charter, the charter still influenced party decisions. Delegates at the convention drafted
John Bracken as leader, who was not even a member of the party. Bracken supported the Port Hope Charter and insisted the party register this policy shift by changing its name to theProgressive Conservative Party of Canada . [http://books.google.com/books?id=0pFYBSaxB_wC&pg=PA57&dq=Port+Hope+Conference&lr=&ei=diPpSKHzDIyuyASxy-jIAw&sig=ACfU3U0m3aUj8UUlwB-xQVcVRqykru486Q#PPA57,M1]References
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