Something the Tories can learn from Canada’s conservatives

When contemplating the scale of the Tories’ expected drubbing in the coming general election, some commentators reach for the example of Canada’s Progressive Conservatives. The 1993 federal election saw the governing centre-right party, which had been in power since 1984, lose all but two of its seats in the House of Commons. It never recovered and became defunct within a decade. The comparison is particularly tempting given one of the factors behind the Progressive Conservatives’ demise was the emergence of a rival right-wing party called Reform.

If the fate of the Progressive Conservatives is an object lesson in how even major political parties can die when they lose their way, their successors, the Conservative Party of Canada, offer a more positive example to their British counterparts. Out of power since 2015, and riven by internal divisions, the Canadian Tories finally did something smart in 2022: they made Pierre Poilievre their leader.