Canadian WI: Tories majority party

RogueBeaver · Feb 1, 2015

With a POD of 1867, make the Tories the majority party. Bonus if they're the dominant party like the Liberals were in the 20th century. Double bonus for after 1885.

AdmiralBlake · Feb 1, 2015

perhaps have the liberals win the 1930 election, so theyd be associated with the worst of the depression, the tories would win a landslide in 1934/5, be associated with the recovery, and lead Canada through the war years

the greatest trouble for the tories is making themselves a truly bilingual party

Fearless Leader · Feb 1, 2015

Similar to the above, Perhaps H. H. Stevens is able to take over the Tories in 1934/35 and continue advocating Keynesian economics to facilitate Canada's recovery. As a result he manages to maintain the Tories' majority in 1935. He proceeds to lead the nation through WWII.

After the war he resigns and has some suitable replacements while the Liberal Party fractures over the course of the war and cedes the mantle of the Official Opposition to the CCF.

IndefatigableRN · Feb 1, 2015

Fearless Leader said:
Similar to the above, Perhaps H. H. Stevens is able to take over the Tories in 1934/35 and continue advocating Keynesian economics to facilitate Canada's recovery. As a result he manages to maintain the Tories' majority in 1935. He proceeds to lead the nation through WWII.

After the war he resigns and has some suitable replacements while the Liberal Party fractures over the course of the war and cedes the mantle of the Official Opposition to the CCF.

Even just have Bennett listen to H. H. Stevens earlier in the course of the Parliament. Bennett was an old school one nation red Tory so he was amenable to some social reforms and while his "new deal" was too late to make a difference, he was clearly able of nuanced thinking.

Building on Fearless Leader's post, Bennett's new deal comes earlier, say 1932-33, and Stevens stays with the party. Bennett works with Duplessis in Quebec, and cuts into the CCF and Social Credit in the west. it's still going to be tough to win a majority though...

funnyhat · Feb 1, 2015

If the POD is 1867, can Quebec choose not to join the Confederation? Without Quebec, the Conservatives would have won a lot more elections over the years, I imagine.

Fearless Leader · Feb 1, 2015

IndefatigableRN said:
Even just have Bennett listen to H. H. Stevens earlier in the course of the Parliament. Bennett was an old school one nation red Tory so he was amenable to some social reforms and while his "new deal" was too late to make a difference, he was clearly able of nuanced thinking.

Building on Fearless Leader's post, Bennett's new deal comes earlier, say 1932-33, and Stevens stays with the party. Bennett works with Duplessis in Quebec, and cuts into the CCF and Social Credit in the west. it's still going to be tough to win a majority though...

Not really, if you look at the numbers for 1935 and count the Tories and the Reconstructionists together, the election becomes quite competitive.

IndefatigableRN · Feb 1, 2015

Fearless Leader said:
Not really, if you look at the numbers for 1935 and count the Tories and the Reconstructionists together, the election becomes quite competitive.

It looks that way, but I looked at the election results seat by seat one day when I was bored and even if you add Reconstructions votes to the Tories, they still don't get close to a majority. 1935 was pretty devastating for Tories.

Dan1988 · Feb 1, 2015

funnyhat said:
If the POD is 1867, can Quebec choose not to join the Confederation? Without Quebec, the Conservatives would have won a lot more elections over the years, I imagine.

You'd need a POD earlier than 1867 - i.e. no 1840/1841 Act of Union. In which case it would still be "Lower" Canada.