The Port Hope Conference was a meeting of the Conservative Party of Canada

Conservative Party of Canada

The Conservative Party of Canada , is a political party in Canada which was formed by the merger of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada in 2003. It is positioned on the right of the Canadian political spectrum...

 at Port Hope

Port Hope

Port Hope mar refer to:*Port Hope, Michigan, U.S.*Port Hope, Ontario, Canada**Port Hope Aerodrome**Port Hope Conference**Port Hope Panthers**Port Hope railway station**Port Hope Transit...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 in 1942 to develop a new party platform

Party platform

A party platform, or platform sometimes also referred to as a manifesto, is a list of the actions which a political party, individual candidate, or other organization supports in order to appeal to the general public for the purpose of having said peoples' candidates voted into political office or...

.

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

Western Canada

Western Canada, also referred to as the Western provinces and commonly as the West, is a region of Canada that includes the four provinces west of the province of Ontario.- Provinces :...

. 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

Low-cost housing

Low-cost housing may refer to:*Affordable housing*Subsidized housing*Low cost housing in Pakistan...

, trade union

Trade union

A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...

 rights, as well as a whole range of social security

Social security

Social security is primarily a social insurance program providing social protection or protection against socially recognized conditions, including poverty, old age, disability, unemployment and others. Social security may refer to:...

 measures, including a government financed medicare system.

Reaction and influence

Although many Conservatives rejected the charter, the charter still influenced party decisions. Delegates at the convention drafted John Bracken

John Bracken

John Bracken, PC was an agronomist, the 11th Premier of Manitoba and leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada ....

 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 the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada

Progressive Conservative Party of Canada

The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada was a Canadian political party with a centre-right stance on economic issues and, after the 1970s, a centrist stance on social issues....

.