Talk:Liberal-Conservative Party

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Is there actually any evidence or citation for the claim that "Liberal-Conservatives" were red tories and ordinariy "Conservatives" were more right wing?AndyL 19:53, 11 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Claim of 'Liberal-Conservative' as party's name from 1922-1938

I find this claim highly dubious, lacking verification, and also self-contradictory within the article itself:

• The Liberal-Conservative Party (French: le Parti libéral-conservateur) was the formal name of the Conservative Party of Canada until 1873, and again from 1922 to 1938, although some Conservative candidates continued to run under the label as late as the 1911 election and others ran as simple Conservatives before 1873.

I don't understand how the party formally used the name for 16 years, yet no one ran as one since 11 years before. I checked the Library of Parliament as well - there are zero Liberal-Conservative candidates running following 1911 excepting for George Rolland in 1957, as mentioned.

The source given for this claim is from Arthur Meighen's biography, here is the first relevant passage below:

Knowing that some in his party would blame him for the defeat, he had called a meeting of mps, senators, and defeated candidates just prior to the session. This meeting unanimously endorsed his leadership and officially reclaimed the traditional party name of Macdonald and Sir George-Étienne Cartier*: Liberal-Conservative. Thus fortified, Meighen undertook to undermine the new government and its sometime Progressive allies, while reviving his own party’s fortunes.

And the second:

The convention confirmed the change of the party’s name, from Liberal-Conservative to National Conservative. On the leadership vote, Manion won on the second ballot, but neither Meighen nor Bennett was present to congratulate him.

However, this is literally the only source I can find for this claim. It's not been present anywhere else, and certainly not recorded on the Library of Parliament's historical election results pages for the 1925, 1926, 1930, or 1935 elections.

Also I did some digging around, and while I won't claim it as the best source, I found a 1935 election pamphlet for the Richard Bennett government signing themselves as "Conservative" - not "Liberal-Conservative." I can find numerous other similar references as well, not showing the party was labelled "Liberal-Conservative" instead of plainly "Conservative."

I wouldn't be bothered by the claim too much, except it's problematic within the scope of the page, and someone has decided to change the federal election pages to reflect this claim. I think we maybe need to dig into it a little more, find a second source that verifies this name change as true or go with the recorded labels from the official government sources instead.

Jebussez (talk) 06:29, 8 March 2019 (UTC)

Try (1) P.B. Waite In Search of R.B. Bennett- 2012 -Page 22 https://books.google.com/books?isbn=0773539085 "The Unionist caucus selected Arthur Meighen as his successor and renamed itself the National Liberal and Conservative Party. Meighen disliked the name and wanted to revert to Liberal-Conservative." (2) The Canadian Annual Review of Public Affairs 1923 - Page 223. also (2)

https://books.google.com/books?id=JYAVAAAAYAAJ In 1922: "a strong movement for reverting to the old designation of Liberal-Conservative was accepted after discussion" Rjensen (talk) 12:52, 8 March 2019 (UTC)

Excellent sources Wikipedians, thank you. Jebussez (talk) 23:46, 8 March 2019 (UTC)

References