Small-c conservative

The term was especially popular in Canada during the 1990s when the Progressive Conservative Party was centre-right with the Reform Party (later, the Canadian Alliance) further to the right. Members and supporters of the Reform Party/Canadian Alliance would thus describe themselves as small-c conservatives.

Sometimes referred to as Red Toryism, a notable example is the Progressive Conservative Party of Newfoundland and Labrador's 'Anything But Conservative' (ABC) campaign, which encouraged voters to support any party other than the Conservatives to prevent Conservative candidates from being elected in the next federal election in the province.{{cite news |date=4 May 2007 |title=Williams escalates fight |url=http://www.canada.com/story_print.html?id=c69fe54b-8628-47ca-87c8-040c3891b22f&sponsor= |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120912081612/http://www.canada.com/story_print.html?id=c69fe54b-8628-47ca-87c8-040c3891b22f&sponsor= |archive-date=12 September 2012 |access-date=8 February 2012 |newspaper=National Post}} In more recent times, provincial Progressive Conservative parties have distanced themselves from the federal Conservative Party of Canada in an effort to appeal to a broader base. For example, the Yukon Party and its leader Currie Dixon publicly stated that the party "has no formal relationship with any federal party",{{Cite web |date=2023-09-14 |title=Yukon Party clarifies ‘no formal’ ties to Poilievre’s Conservatives |url=https://www.yukon-news.com/local-news/yukon-party-clarifies-no-formal-ties-to-poilievres-conservatives-7005178 |access-date=2025-04-10 |website=Yukon News |language=en}} while the leader of the Progressive Conservative Association of Nova Scotia, Tim Houston, similarly distanced his provincial party from a federal Conservative's outreach campaign, clarifying that "it’s two parties".{{Cite web |title=Nova Scotia PC leader distances provincial party from federal Conservatives’ outreach campaign - Halifax {{!}} Globalnews.ca |url=https://globalnews.ca/news/5666365/nova-scotia-pc-leader-federal-conservative-outreach-campaign/ |access-date=2025-04-10 |website=Global News |language=en-US}}

This term is also used in the United Kingdom to describe those who are conservative in the sense of resisting radical change rather than being members or supporters of the official Conservative Party. For example, the House of Lords as a body tends to resist social change and executive power and therefore—regardless of the numbers of lords who take the Conservative party whip—it is described as "small-c conservative".{{citation |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sVCCLXN1UvkC&pg=PA109 |title=Economic efficiency-democratic empowerment |author=Ingolfur Blühdorn, Uwe Jun |date=2007 |page=109|publisher=Lexington Books |isbn=978-0-7391-1211-3 }}

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A small-c conservative in Australia is generally a member of the Liberal Party who is more moderate on social policy and conservative on fiscal policy. The Liberal Party is made up of such small-c conservatives as well as the more right-wing big-C conservatives.

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• Blue Tory
• Red Tory

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Category:Conservatism

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