Progressive Conservative Youth Federation
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Progressive Conservative Youth Federation (PCYF) was the constitutionally enshrined youth body of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. When the PC Party and the Canadian Alliance merged in 2004, a formalized youth group was rejected by delegates at the founding convention of the Conservative Party in Montréal by a vote of 51% to 49%. As a result of that vote, PCYF ceased to exist.
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[edit] History
PCYF had operated in various capacities for more than 60 years. Its genesis arose from two unique sources – campus politics and riding politics. In a time when few Canadians went to University, a young Progressive Conservative was any person under the age of 35. The president of the early Young Conservatives was often a successful person in their 30s - a Member of Parliament or senior political staffer.
Conservative campus politics can be traced back to the University of Toronto campus club in 1926. However, the national Progressive Conservative Student Federation was not created until 1946. Campus politics gained importance in the 1950s and played a key role in the rise to power of John Diefenbaker. Former Canadian Prime Minister Joe Clark got his political start as a "Youth for Diefenbaker". Today, campus clubs are a way of organizing and involving students in the party, but in the 1950s, campus politics were a venue for the political parties to control student politics.
In the 1960s, the two national youth organizations that had served the party for decades merged into one group. The federation of campus clubs (Progressive Conservative Student Federation) and the non-University, riding-based youth group (Young Progressive Conservative Association) merged to create the Progressive Conservative Youth Federation. PCYF was then sanctioned as the PC Party’s official youth wing.
Many prominent Tories got their start in the youth wing, including: Brian Mulroney, Joe Clark and Jean Charest.
[edit] Structure
The PCYF was headed by a national executive, which was elected at a General meeting held every 2-3 years. The executive consisted of:
- President
- VP Anglophone
- VP Francophone
- Finance Director
- Policy Director
- Campus Director
- Membership Director
- Communications Director
- Recruitment Director
In the early years of the organization, a youth member was described as someone under the age of 35. As a result of amendments to the PC Party constitution at the Winnipeg convention in 1996, the age range was reduced so as to only include members between the ages of 14 and 25.
[edit] Finances
The organization was primarily funded through an annual grant from the PC Party of Canada. However, the grant was not a preset amount and varied wildly based on the current fortunes of the national party.
PCYF was allowed to raise its own funds, but these efforts were often crippled by a lack of experience from those involved, competing efforts from the central party, or competition from youth raising funds for the next general meeting.
[edit] Controversy
The PCYF was a leader in sentiment to merge the PC Party of Canada with the Reform Party of Canada and its successor, the Canadian Alliance. At the Winnipeg convention in 1996, PCYF President Tasha Kheiriddin circulated the 'Tory Top Ten', a list of Reform-inspired right wing policies she wished for the PC Party to adopt.
In the 1998 PCYF elections, a Jean Charest loyalist slate and merger slate ran off against each other, resulting in a vote-split. Patrick Brown won the presidential election; however, most of his executive came from the pro-merger slate, including Adam Daifallah and Jasmine Igneski. Both Daifallah and Igneski made a well-publicized defection to the Canadian Alliance during the 1999 PC Party National Meeting in Toronto.
PCYF president Patrick Brown caused considerable controversy in 2002 when he called for the resignation of Joe Clark on national television (CBC Television's Politics with Don Newman). This move eventually led to the impeachment of Brown by the PCYF executive. The impeachment was impossible to enforce and Mr. Brown's presidency continued in a reduced, lame duck capacity.
These events seriously damaged the credibility PCYF, and may have contributed to adoption of the new Conservative Party of Canada's current minimal youth organization model, characterized by lessened public visibility, no elected officers, no association charter or organization and no official role inside the federal party.
[edit] Past Presidents
- 1945 S.E. (Ned) Stewart - Young Progressive Conservative Association
- 1947-1948 W.L. (Bill) Archer - Progressive Conservative Student Federation
- 1949-1950 Ian Campbell - Progressive Conservative Student Federation
- 1958 Peter McDermald - Progressive Conservative Student Federation
- 1963-1964 Neil Stanley Crawford - Young Progressive Conservative Association
- 1964-1966 Joe Clark - Progressive Conservative Student Federation
- 1971-1973 Len Domino
- 1977 John Aimers
- 1979-1983 Randy Dawson
- 1988 Bruce Pollock
- 1993 Marc Arsenault
- 1995-1998 Tasha Kheiriddin
- 1998-2002 Patrick Brown
- 2002-2003 Keith Marlowe (last)
| Major national, provincial, and territorial conservative parties in Canada (edit): | ||
| Forming the government: | ||
| Canada - Alberta - Prince Edward Island - Newfoundland and Labrador - Nova Scotia - Yukon | ||
| Forming the official opposition: | ||
| Manitoba - New Brunswick - Ontario - Saskatchewan Party - Action démocratique du Québec | ||
| Third parties represented in legislatures: | ||
| Alberta Alliance | ||
| Historical conservative parties: | ||
| Progressive Conservative Party of Canada - Canadian Alliance - Social Credit Party of Canada - British Columbia Conservative Party - British Columbia Social Credit Party - Social Credit Party of Alberta - Progressive Conservative Party of Saskatchewan - Conservative Party of Quebec - Northwest Territories Liberal-Conservative Party | ||
